Hamlet Anti Hero Essay

Humans are rational beasts, bestowed with a superior intelligence. Yet even with this unique ability, humans are flawed. They experience complex and persuasive emotions that interfere with their reasoning skills. Protagonists in comic books, plays, movies, and other fictional works can be perfected and turned into what are known as “heroes.” Heroes can be described as idealistic, courageous, moral, decisive, fair, and selfless; they are “the good guys” that are against evil. Hamlet, the protagonist in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, does not fit into the above description of a hero, and should be labeled as an “anti-hero.”

By a specific definition, an antihero is the "hero" of the play or novel, but this protagonist has negative attributes apart from the classic hero figure. Such negative aspects may include a violent nature or a tendency to use coarse language. An anti-hero can be described as pragmatic, inconsiderate, greedy, rebellious, cowardly, insubordinate, reluctant, and morally suspect. Hamlet himself acknowledges that he has these flaws. The play begins with Hamlet’s learning of his father’s murder at the hands of Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. Although the murder of Hamlet’s father and the marriage of his mother, Gertrude, to Claudius are obviously quite devastating, Hamlet’s reaction to the

Some may consider Hamlet a hero. But the audience can see Hamlet for who he really is. He is a man, obviously not a mature man, of the same flesh and blood that everyone else is made up of, yet one who would rather take the easy way out and die instead of dealing with the obstacles in his life: “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, / . . . / When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin” (3.1.77-83)? A true hero