Hamlet As A Tragic Hero

By many accounts of Williams Shakespeare’s Hamlet the main character, Hamlet, is considered to be the classic tragic hero, but in fact Hamlet is not a hero at all. There are many accounts of heroes in earlier writings such as The Odyssey and Beowulf. These heroes had confidence, careful thought, and thought clearly in their times of trial. Hamlet was not any of these things. His inability to think clearly through his anger leads to indecisiveness which inevitably puts him in a situation that costs him his own life. Hamlet is a victim to himself in this play. Throughout the entire play Hamlet is very confused, indecisive, and blinded by his mission for vengeance. It also seems that while he is angry about the murder of his father he

It is clear many times during the play that Hamlet is confused as to how to proceed in certain situations. These are actions of person that does not have the clear thought of a mature man. Research on this topic would produce a physical age of about 20-30 years of age. Again it is not the physical age that matters, it is his mental age that is in question. This can be proven in the way he handles the entire situation from the get go. Most normal thinking people would have made it public that there was something amiss with their new king. This would have been the nationalistic thing to do, but probably would have had no different outcome as to Hamlet’s death. What he does instead after hearing from the ghost of his murdered father is to go about scheming and lying to cover it up. Again this is not the actions of a hero. These are the actions of someone that is not mentally mature. In Act I Scene 5 Hamlet gives a soliloquy to prove his youthful mind in where he vows to, “Wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all form, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there: And thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain.” (Shakespeare 676) This can be viewed as someone that promises they are going to erase all the things they have learned and focus solely on the mission of avenging the death of his father. Are these the actions of a hero? A hero in many cases used the knowledge they have gained to face the challenge they are faced with, but Hamlet does the absolute opposite. He goes on by writing, “So, Uncle, there you are. Now to my word; It is ‘Adieu, adieu! Remember me.” (Shakespeare 676) This is a promise that Hamlet is writing down referring to his Uncle. He is basically saying, you are finished Uncle. His reaction to this is surprisingly ignorant since