William Shakespeare’s Hamlet takes place in a Catholic world during medieval times. It tells the story of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, and his struggle to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet is a very complex character. He is not the typical protagonist that one would expect to see in a tragedy about revenge. Unlike most other characters, Hamlet exhibits the inability to make decisions and act on them. He feels the need to be certain about everything. Hamlet is a tragic hero with a tragic flaw.
Hamlet is not the typical tragedy centered on revenge; it is much deeper than a tragic hero trying to avenge a loved one’s death. Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, marries his mother, Gertrude, soon after his father’s death. Hamlet is upset and very disturbed by this because he believes the marriage happened entirely too soon following the death of his father and that it is incestuous. He feels that neither his mother nor his uncle is grieving like they should be. He explains that he is truly mourning inside, but his mother and Claudius are only pretending (Shakespeare I.2). The ghost of Hamlet’s father appears before Hamlet one night and informs him that his father was murdered by his uncle. This comes in great shock to Hamlet. “[H]e comes immediately to a determination not to proceed further before he has assured himself of the certainty of the matter, and can see clearly what his own course ought to be” (Ulrici 3). He plans to have his father’s death reenacted in the form of a play with Claudius in the audience to see if Claudius reacts. He believes that if Claudius reacts, he can be sure that he did it. The play carries on as planned and Claudius reacts, assuring Hamlet that he did in fact murder his father. Hamlet then plans t...
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...ccurate to say that he is always incapable of taking action.
In the tragedy of Hamlet, the protagonist is faced with the task of avenging his father’s death. Hamlet cannot be simply characterized through one action; he is a complex, round character. Hamlet exhibits the inability to make decisions and act on them. He feels the need to be certain about everything. Hamlet is a tragic hero with the tragic flaw of indecision.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. London: Methuen, 1982. Print.
Ulrici, Hermann. "Criticisms of Shakspeare's Dramas: 'Hamlet'." Trans. J. W. Morrison. Shakspeare's Dramatic Art: And His Relation to Calderon and Goethe. Hermann Ulrici. Ed. J. W. Morrison. Chapman, Brothers, 1846. 213-233. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 22 May 2013.
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It is the idea of revenge that sends a cool shiver down the spines of justly men when they begin to question as to why someone would stoop to such a level. But yet it is still more than an idea for revenge has been carried out in various forms along all the eras of history side-by-side of that of novels and tragedies. Even so, revenge is still a dark scheme; an evil plague of the mind per se. It is such a plague that will turn even the greatest persons of the brightest, optimistically capable of minds into lowly, as well as lonely, individuals. Thus, revenge will, and can, only end in despair and agony of the mind. Therefore, provided that all that has been said is true, revenge would appear quite unseemly to the observant onlooker. However, taking an in-depth insight into revenge you can uncover quite a compelling feature, which is best summed up into one word. Pride. Pride is the one clear motivational proprietor needed to push a protagonist into the downward spiral of personal vendetta. Without pride, revenge is no more than a mindless massacre of flesh and bone ending in the obliteration of any hope for reconciliation.
In the play Hamlet, Hamlet is described as daring, brave, loyal, and intelligent. However, he is always consumed by his own thoughts, this being his tragic flaw. There are numerous times Hamlet does not act when he should, like his inability to act on his father's murder, his mother's marriage, and his uncle's assuming of the throne.
Hamlet is a bitter tragedy of revenge and deceit. Unbeknownst to Hamlet, his father, the king of Denmark, is murdered by his own brother, Claudius — who then marries the queen and assumes the throne. Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost, who compels him to enact revenge upon his uncle — but spare his mother. Hamlet finally decides to stage a play in which there is a poisoning scene, meant to stir his uncle into panic. Hamlet’s plan is successful, but he, in a fit of rage, accidentally...
“If you seek revenge, dig two graves.” This ancient Chinese proverb explains the mood in Hamlet, a play, written by Shakespeare. The theme of revenge is seen throughout the play as each character extracts one form or another of revenge from a person who has wronged them. In the play the characters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all desire revenge for a lost father; however, their motivations for murder differ. Hamlet is unlike the other two characters in the way that he uses reason and logic before he acts and decides to kill his uncle, Claudius, because he is aware of the consequences.
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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 one 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 Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
Will Hamlet avenge his father’s death? Who killed King Hamlet? Is Hamlet really mad? These are the things that keeps the reader intrigued throughout Hamlet. Throughout Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, is shown to be the tragic hero of the play. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction. A Greek philosopher, by the name of Aristotle, said that any tragic hero must have a tragic flaw. Hamlet is a perfect example of a tragic hero because of the many tragic flaws he has. Hamlet also experiences suffering in the play and he also learns lessons. The tragic hero is an important character; without one, there wouldn’t be a tragic play.
Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.
One of the most popular characters in Shakespearean literature, Hamlet endures difficult situations within the castle he lives in. The fatal death of his father, and urge for revenge leads Hamlet into making unreasonable decisions. In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet’s sanity diminishes as the story progresses, impacting the people around him as well as the timing and outcome of his revenge against Claudius.
Hamlet’s wit and play of words deceits everyone. He seems to be philosophical and existential being with a certain interest to the meaning of life. Many may see him as the tragic hero fighting against a superior force. This image of a tragic hero seems to be just a façade. Although there can be many reason why he may be seem as a tragic hero he is corrupted by those around him making him evil.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society, coupled with his innate tendency to over-think his actions, leads to an unfocused mission of vengeance that brings about not only his own death, but also the unnecessary deaths of nearly all of the other main characters in the revenge tragedy.
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