Hamlet's Tragic Flaw

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In the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet, the young prince of Denmark, faces the difficulty of mourning his father’s death while his mother suddenly remarries the previous king’s brother, Claudius. While finding impenetrability in accepting his mother’s abrupt marriage, Hamlet is advised by his father’s ghost that Hamlet’s uncle murdered his father in order to gain the kingdom and crown. In order to avenge his father’s murder and seek revenge on his uncle, Hamlet seeks to prove his uncle’s crime, but while doing so, he constantly over thinks the outcomes of his plans. Due to his act on thought rather than action in the Shakespearean play Hamlet, Hamlet’s tragic flaw of contemplation ultimately contributes to his demise.
Throughout the play, Hamlet …show more content…

When despairing over his mother’s sudden marriage, Hamlet says “But break, my heart, -for I must hold my tongue” (1.2.161), and decides to remain silent rather than to leave his mother due to her corrupted actions and betrayal. Instead of confronting the problem, Hamlet decides to ignore his feeling of disloyalty from his mother and seeks revenge on Claudius instead. Hamlet also ponders with the idea of “To be, or not to be? That is the question—/Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” (3.1.63-65).Hamlet questions the thoughts of life and death, but he decides to reject killing himself and instead reconciles to his thoughts once again. Rather than to immediately seek revenge for his father after he decides to continue living, Hamlet continues to follow his belief that “enterprises of great pith and moment,/With this regard their currents turn awry” (3.1.93-94). In this quote, Hamlet explains his ideal that ideas that get carried out quickly become misdirected. At the beginning of the soliloquy it seems as if Hamlet is going to take action, but, he convinces himself at the end to continue to strategically plan his motives. His constant planning results in his own death due to his inability to face his own

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