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

The Importance of Fear in Hamlet
1064 Words | 3 Pages
Displaying an 'antic disposition', Hamlet first attempts to side step his trepidation by feigning madness. After meeting with his fathers proposed ghost, Hamlet attempts to distance himself from the thought or evidence of death. Hamlet notifies his friends, Marcellus and Horatio, of his plan to distract the kingdom from his real intentions. Although Hamlet proposes this as a way to fool those in Denmark, in the last lines of his meeting with Horatio and Marcellus, he curses that this revenge be placed upon him. This is the first indication of Hamlets reluctance to perform murder. Hamlet then returns to Claudius and Gertrude, at the castle, and acts out his madness for them and for the visitor, Polonius. Upon speaking to Polonius, Polonius picks up upon Hamlets 'madness', yet decides that this unnatural nature is because if Ophelia's behavior toward Hamlet. Indication of Hamlets fear is presented when Polonius asks leave of the prince. Hamlet then states that Polonius can take anything from him, anything but his life. Hamlet repeats thrice this idea of taking anything 'except [his] life.' Not only does this indicate how compulsive Hamlets fake insanity is becoming, but how afraid he is of dying. During the 'To be or not to be' soliloquy, Hamlet contemplates his view of death. As he go...
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Hamlet Analysis
1629 Words | 4 Pages
Ay, sure, this is most brave, / That I, the son of the dear murdered, / Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words / And fall a-cursing like very drab, / A scullion! Fie upon’t, foh! -About my brain” (2.2.585-590). Here Hamlet himself reveals that he has been thinking too much about needs to be done instead of acting on what should be done. In fact, Hamlet goes on to insult himself because of how appalled he is with his own actions of thinking, and speaking instead of just doing what needs to be done, and killing Claudius. It seems that Hamlet is also trying to convince himself that he needs to just do it however that fails once he starts questioning, and insulting himself because by allowing himself to question his behavior he has already gone back into his same way of thinking. Hamlet tries to break his nature here by pondering why he hasn’t done anything and cursing himself for not acting yet Hamlet fails his attempts as soon as he starts them because with this pondering if his own behavior Hamlet has already gone back into his thinking ways and was questioning why he was so much of a thinker. By trying to overcome his nature using his normal method Hamlet reveals that his true nature is to be a thinker because not even when he tries to convince himself to act another way can he break his analysis of the possibilities.
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Cormac Mccarthy's The Road
1543 Words | 4 Pages
From the beginning the play, Hamlet is upset about the marriage of his mother to his father’s brother, remarking that Queen Gertrude “married – O most wicked speed: to post / With such dexterity to incestious sheets, / It is not, nor it cannot come to good” (Shakespeare 1.2.156-158). But, it is not until the ghost of Hamlet’s father tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his own brother that Hamlet plans to enact revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet is shown to be content with the idea that his actions will most likely end in his death. In some of the drama’s most famous lines, Hamlet
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Hamlet's Tragic Flaw Quotes
830 Words | 2 Pages
Aristotle’s Five Rules for Tragedy state that the main character should possess a tragic flaw, something in his character which causes his downfall. In William Shakespeare’s tragic play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the main character’s tragic flaw is procrastination. There are five quotes in the play that support the argument that Hamlet’s tragic flaw is procrastination.
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Hamlet's Tragic Flaws
593 Words | 2 Pages
According to Dr. Shaw of the California Polytechnical Institute, Shakespeare wrote classical tragedies, as described by Aristotle, that included “a protagonist of high estate… who falls from prosperity to misery through a series of reversals and discoveries as a result of a tragic flaw”. This was true of the protagonist Hamlet. One of his tragic flaws is, he is an immense dawdler. Hamlet also wants to be king more than anything ever and would do anything in his power to become king. He is absolutely miserable considering his father died and his mother rushes off and married his uncle, Claudius and he seized the throne.
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Hamlet's Hesitation as his Tragic Flaw in Hamlet by Shakespeare
786 Words | 2 Pages
'Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder,' says the ghost of Hamlet. The fact that his own uncle could kill his father leaves Hamlet dumbfounded and confused. Although Hamlet knows something is wrong in Denmark, he begins to question everything that the ghost has told him. When something is needed to be done, Hamlet is to busy thinking about his problems. An example of this is when Hamlet has his knife over the head of Claudius, and is prepared to murder him. He talks himself out of it. Instead, Hamlet writes a play in which the actors play out the same story that the ghost told Hamlet. This is when his tragic flaw, his hesitance to act, actually comes into play. His plan is to study Claudius's reaction to the play to determine his guilt. However, after Hamlet decides his uncle is guilty, he still does nothing. This would have been a great time to confront Claudius, but Hamlet seems more interested in taking credit for what he did instead of seeking revenge. By putting on that play Hamlet has plenty enough evidence to show Claudius was guilty, therefore he should have carried out his revenge as soon as possible, but again, his thoughts take over. This should have been the final piece of action for Hamlet to avenge his father?s death. Hamlet should have then stabbed Claudius the moment he knew he was guilty. This would...
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Hamlet Tragic Flaw
901 Words | 2 Pages
Undeniably, all humans possess an attribute that has the ability to make them prosperous if used to an advantage, but in many cases this attribute is a defect, otherwise known as a flaw. Whether one possess a singular flaw, or multiple, they are considered to be a tragic figure. In the play Hamlet the protagonist, Hamlet, possesses many tragic traits leading to his downfall. Hamlet is an artist who pauses, contemplated and constantly overthinks. His rationality creates an inability to take action in many aspects of his life. Hamlet also possesses an imperious and arrogant personality, another tragic trait that some may consider to also be a factor contributing to his inability. Nonetheless, despite Hamlet recognizing his flaws at the end of
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Social and Psychological Influences on Hamlet
772 Words | 2 Pages
Once Hamlet has learned of his father’s death, he is faced with a difficult question: should he succumb to the social influence of avenging his father’s death? The Ghost tells Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5.31) upon which Hamlet swears to “remember” (1.5.118). Hamlet’s immediate response to this command of avenging his father’s death is reluctance. Hamlet displays his reluctance by deciding to test the validity of what the Ghost has told him by setting up a “play something like the murder of (his) father’s” (2.2.624) for Claudius. Hamlet will then “observe his looks” (2.2.625) and “if he do blench” (2.2.626) Hamlet will know that he must avenge his father’s death. In the course of Hamlet avenging his father’s death, he is very hesitant, “thinking too precisely on the event” (4.4.43). “Now might I do it…and he goes to heaven…No” (3.3.77-79) and Hamlet decides to kill Claudius while “he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed” (3.3.94-95). As seen here, Hamlet’s contradicting thought that Claudius “goes to heaven” (3.3.79) influences him to change his plans for revenge. Hamlet eventually realizes that he must avenge his father’s death and states “from this time forth my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth” (4.4.69). From this, Hamlet has succumbed to the social influence and has vowed to avenge his father’s death.
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Hamlet, the Existentialist
1068 Words | 3 Pages
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was forced upon him.Death is something he struggles with as an abstract idea and as relative to himself. He is able to reconcile with the idea of death and reality eventually.
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Hamlet's Fatal Flaw
783 Words | 2 Pages
Hamlet's fatal flaw is his inability to act. Unlike his father, Hamlet lets his intelligence rather than his heroism govern him. When he has a chance to kill Claudius, and take vengeance for his father's murder, he hesitates, reckoning that if he kills the man while he is at prayer, Claudius would have asked for pardon from the Lord and been forgiven of his sins, therefore allowing him to enter Heaven. Hamlet decides to wait for a better opening. His flaw of being hesitant in the end leads to his own death, and also the deaths of Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, and Claudius.
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Hamlet as a Tragic Figure
866 Words | 2 Pages
for a person of lowly rank that loses his or her fortune or rank than
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Free Hamlet Essays: Hamlet's Inability to Take Action
593 Words | 2 Pages
As illustrated through his speeches and soliloquies Hamlet has the mind of a true thinker. Reinacting the death of his father in front of Claudius was in itself a wonderful idea. Although he may have conceived shcemes such as this, his mind was holding him back at the same time. His need to analyze and prove everythin certain drew his time of action farther and farther away. Hamlet continuously doubted himself and whether or not the action that he wanted to take was justifiable. The visit that Hamlet recieves from his dead father makes the reader think that it is Hamlet's time to go and seek revenge. This is notthe case. Hamlet does seem eager to try and take the life of Claudius in the name of his father, but before he can do so he has a notion, what if that was not my father, but an evil apparition sending me on the wrong path? This shows that even with substantial evidence of Claudius' deeds, Hamlet's mind is not content.
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Condemned: Hamlet’s Moral Dilemma
1663 Words | 4 Pages
Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.
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Inconsistency in The Character of Hamlet
1079 Words | 3 Pages
Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action, and is only hurried into extremities on the spur of the occasion, when he has no time to reflect, as in the scene where he kills Polonius, and again, where he alters the letters which Rosencraus and Guildenstern are taking with them to England, purporting his death. At other times, when he is most bound to act, he remains puzzled, undecided, and skeptical, until the occasion is lost, and he finds some pretence to relapse into indolence and thoughtfulness again. For this reason he refuses to kill the King when he is at his prayers, and by a refinement in malice, which is in truth only an excuse for his own want of resolution, defers his revenge to a more fatal opportunity, when he will be engaged in some act "that has no relish of salvation in it."
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Hamlet as the Tragic Hero
828 Words | 2 Pages
Hamlet’s tragic flaw was shown to him in a dream by the ghost of his father. His father tells him that he was murdered by his uncle, Claudius. In this scene, the tragic flaw was transferred and manifested itself in Hamlet’s actions. His obsession with revenge and death is all he can think about. He needs to act quickly and decisively but finds himself procrastinating about what to do. In Act III, Hamlet holds the knife over the head of his uncle, Claudius, but cannot strike the fatal blow. Instead, he writes a play about the same scenario to study the reaction of Claudius as to a clue of his guilt. After he decides Claudius is guilty of murdering his father, he still relents from taking his revenge. He says, “Haste me to know ‘t, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thought of love May sweep to my revenge.
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Hamlet's Tragic Flaw

The Importance of Fear in Hamlet

Hamlet Analysis

Cormac Mccarthy's The Road