Hamlet's Tragic Flaw

When reading Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Hamlet, one may wonder, what is the hero’s fatal flaw that has led to his downfall? Seeking an answer, one will go through many articles where authors diagnose the main character with some sort of malady; be it madness, indecisiveness, or as a juvenile delinquent. But these authors’ judgments are unfounded. Through analyzing Hamlet’s upbringing, resulting moral dilemma, and subsequent action, one is able to understand that the Shakespearean tragedy occurs due to Hamlet curbing his personal desires in pursuit of the public welfare.

Throughout the play, one perceives Hamlet as a well-educated young man with a strong religious belief, which is reinforced through his late father’s ghost’s appearance.

In his article on the stigma of Hamlet, Russel Lowell places the character in the category of men for whom “thought with its easy perfection, capable of everything because it can accomplish everything with ideal means, is vastly more attractive and satisfactory than deed.” But Hamlet is not undisposed to action and can do something based on an impulse within, for he kills Claudius while getting rid of the obstacle that has prevented Hamlet from taking revenge. Afraid of being deemed as a sinful revenger, Hamlet bides his time, until he has the opportunity to denounce Claudius’s incest before Denmark. This chance represents itself when Hamlet is coerced into foiling Laertes in front of a crowd. When the crowd cries for Claudius’s death, after Laertes proclaims before dying that, “The king, the king’s to blame”, Hamlet seizes the occasion killing Claudius as an act of public vengeance. Hamlet kills his uncle with a clear conscience, knowing that he will not suffer a sinful revenger’s castigation since he has killed Claudius with the approval of the “better wisdoms” of the court. Thus Hamlet overthrows the rule of sinful, self-centered revenge, through the use of his intelligence which had been undoubtedly developed through his childhood education. Hamlet’s intelligence contributes to his downfall as a tragic hero; for if he had not been so wise he would have opted for public revenge without ascertaining that he would not undergo a sinner’s penalty in the