Comparison of Characters and The Definition of a Hero

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Heroes are rarely seen in today's world. Too many people are worried about money or power to be concerned with others around them. But then that leads to the definition of a hero. It is possibly a person who does moral good in the world, or perhaps someone who stands up for those who do not have the power to do so themselves. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, but people must remember that they are still human. They do make mistakes and they can be selfish. Such is the case in both Hamlet and Tempest. Both main characters have been slighted in some way and both eventually get their revenge. They are similar and different in the ways that they go about this business. Thus, Hamlet and Prospero shall be discussed in detail to each other and how they performed as the "hero" of the play. To begin with comparisons, of which there are many, one must start with the most obvious similarity, that being that Hamlet and Prospero have both been slighted in some way. In Hamlet's case, his father has been murdered by his uncle. Hamlet’s own father tells him, “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown.”(Hamlet, Act one, Scene Five, Lines 44-45). In Prospero's case, his dukedom was taken from him by his brother Antonio with the help of Alonso. Another similarity is the way that both of them think logically before doing a rash act. They do not simply jump into a situation with swords blazing; rather they look towards calculated and logical means of exacting their revenge. Hamlet uses a play in order to confirm his father's murder and Sydney Lanier explains, "Here in Hamlet the motive of the anti-masque is quite clear: it is to entrap the King's conscience into a clear betrayal of his guilt in murdering his brother and us... ... middle of paper ... ...world hope that they don't have to be incredibly gifted just to be a hero. Hamlet and Prospero show that things go wrong and you have to try to set them right. Morality is unfortunately diminishing in our time and stories like these help to bring forward those long lost emotions. Man never truly loses those emotions, he simply must be reminded of them. Works Cited Birenbaum, Harvey. “To Be or Not to Be” The Archetypal Form of Hamlet. N.p.: Penn State, 1981. Print. Bradley, Andrew Cecil. Shakespearean Tragedy; Lectures on Hamlet, Othello. N.p.: Macmillan, 1922. Print. Lanier, Sydney. Shakspere and His Forerunners. N.p.: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1901. Print. Newell, W. W. Sources of Shakespeare’s Tempest. N.p.: American Folklore Society, 1903. Print. Shelden, Michael. The Imagery of Constraint in Hamlet. N.p.: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1977. Print.

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