Hamlet

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Hamlet

Each major character of Shakespeare’s Hamlet has a major flaw, which destroys him or her. The King, Queen, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Polonius all have these flaws but Horatio does not. He is Shakespeare’s ideal man.

Claudius’ fatal flaw is ambitiousness. Claudius kills his brother King Hamlet and then takes the throne by marrying King Hamlet’s wife:

“Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen…have we (as ‘twere with a defeated joy, with an auspicious and a dropping eye, with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, in equal scale weighing delight and dole) taken to wife”(I.ii.10-14).

Claudius admits to killing the King in a confessional prayer:

“O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven; it hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, a brother’s murder…O, what form of prayer can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder? That cannot be, since I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder: My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned and retain th’ offense?’ ”(III.iii.40-43, 55-60).

Another ambition of Claudius is he wants to have Hamlet murdered in England:

“I like him not, nor stands it safe with us to let his madness range. Therefore prepare you. I your commission will forthwith dispatch. And he to England shall along with you…hazard so near ‘s as doth hourly grow out of his brows” (III.iii.1-7).

The fate of the King is fatal. His deceitfulness kills him when he challenges Laertes and Hamlet to duel, he poisons the tip of Laertes sword and in a cup of wine he puts a poisonous pearl: Hamlet: The point envenomed too! Then, venom, to thy work.

King: O, yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt. Hamlet: Here, thou incestuous, *murd’rous,* damnéd Dane, d...

... middle of paper ...

...s some danger (III.iv.26-30, 38-40).

Shakespeare’s ideal person is Horatio. In the beginning of the play, Horatio, when he sees the ghost decides to tell Hamlet: “So have I heard and do in part believe it…Break we our watch up, and by my advice let us impart what we have seen tonight unto young Hamlet…”(I.i.180-185). Horatio is ruled by reason and Hamlet recognizes and comments on this: “Give me that man that is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart, as I do thee”(III.ii.76-79).. Horatio does not have a fatal flaw and does not die.

Shakespeare gives his main characters flaws that destroy their lives. The King, Queen, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Polonius all have flaws and die in the end, but Horatio, Shakespeare’s ideal character, does not have a fatal flaw and lives.

Bibliography:

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

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