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Hamlet As A Tragic Hero

The document discusses Hamlet as a tragic hero. It outlines that Hamlet is a complex character whose tragic flaw is his inaction and procrastination in avenging his father's death. This hesitation stems from Hamlet's deep introspection and overanalysis. While Hamlet intends to take revenge, his philosophical ruminating leaves him paralyzed with doubt. These traits ultimately contribute to Hamlet's tragic downfall and the deaths of other characters. The document also notes that external circumstances beyond Hamlet's control, like the interventions of fate, further establish him as a tragic figure according to Aristotle's definition.

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Faisal Jahangeer
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267 views

Hamlet As A Tragic Hero

The document discusses Hamlet as a tragic hero. It outlines that Hamlet is a complex character whose tragic flaw is his inaction and procrastination in avenging his father's death. This hesitation stems from Hamlet's deep introspection and overanalysis. While Hamlet intends to take revenge, his philosophical ruminating leaves him paralyzed with doubt. These traits ultimately contribute to Hamlet's tragic downfall and the deaths of other characters. The document also notes that external circumstances beyond Hamlet's control, like the interventions of fate, further establish him as a tragic figure according to Aristotle's definition.

Uploaded by

Faisal Jahangeer
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hamlet as a tragic hero

BS English
Semester 07
Pro faisal
Jahangeer
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• The main character – Hamlet – may be the most


complex and controversial character any
playwright has ever placed onstage.
• Shakespeare’s task was to impose a new, tragic
meaning on the traditional Scandinavian story of
Amleth, which came down through oral tradition-
by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in his
Latin Historia Danica, and inhibiting quintessence
from Kyd’s dramatization by Senecan revenge play
in The Spanish Tragedy.
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• The best definition of tragic hero is given by


Aristotle in his Poetics, since he has brought the
concept of tragic hero to the light. Aristotle
contested in his Poetics that the tragic hero has to
be a man

• Who is eminently good and just, yet whose


misfortune is brought about not by vice or
depravity, but by some error or frailty. (Aristotle, 45)
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• Hamlet is the tragedy of moral sensitivity in a


wicked world, the tragedy of the idealist come
suddenly face to face with reality, the tragedy of
imagination betraying its owner.
• Hamlet’s innocent world is shattered by the
marriage of his adored mother Queen Gertrude to
his uncle Claudius who had succeeded his god-like
father to the throne, which rightly belongs to
Hamlet himself.
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• Hamlet’s tragic flaw lies in his persistent inaction


and his procrastination to act against father’s
murder, and his mother’s marriage to his usurper
uncle. This hesitation is illustrated early in Act II,
Scene III:
• Why, what an ass am! This is most brave,
• That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,
• Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
• Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words.
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• Hamlet’s intentions are perhaps beyond the zenith of


ambiguity. Despite being ordered, to avenge the death of his
father, Hamlet is horrified by the brutal damnation and
ramification. Hamlet is trapped and crippled by self doubt of
his own intellectual misgivings, which was perhaps the most
complex tragic flaw.
• 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,
• Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
• And by opposing end them; to die: to sleep- (Shakespeare,
314-315)
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• Hamlet’s madness is partly real hysteria,


partly on attempt to offence off curiosity
about his real estate of mind, and intention.
• It serves only to increase suspicision.
• In Ophelia he sees only tainted womanhood-
tainted because of his mother’s sin.
• His virtually intellectual motions, renders his
revenge utterly dormant.
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• But Hamlet is even at this point, before he has


heard the ghost, not appeased but disturbed by the
appearances, for he sees beyond them (cf. his first
soliloquy, some lines further down). It is due irony
to say that in his assumed madness he is “ So much
from th’ understanding of himself” ( Shakespeare,
267) but the conflict between Hamlet’s vision and
common sense does got resolved when it is brought
to a climax; the “mad” Hamlet’s killing the “wise”
Polonius proclaims the falsity of the latter.
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• He lacks an unflinching, unflappable passion of revenge,


which dwells him into procrastination, rendering him unable
to avenge the death of his beloved father. His virtuousness
stands as an argument to his subsided revengeful nature. He
avoids killing Claudius, just because, he was in a holy place.
• Now might I do it. But now’ a is a- praying,
• And now I’ll do it[Draws sword.]- And so’a goes to heaven,
• And so am I revenged! That would be scanned:
• A villain kills my father, and for that,
• I, his sole son, do this same villain send
• To heaven. ( Shakespeare, 362)
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• The murder of Gonzago, the mouse traps, his soliloquies are


nothing, but his own hamartia- his perplexed state of mind,
his intense power of words and language that ultimately
bring about his requisite tragic ending. Eventually his own
words and philosophical internal banter is his end since
being a highly verbose and introspective man, is both his
greatest gift as well as his tragic flaw. Hamlet said, “I will
speak daggers to her but use none” (Shakespeare, 355) ,
which was later avouched by Queen Gertrude :
• O speak to me no more!
• These words like daggers enter in my ears.
• No more, sweet Hamlet. ( Shakespeare, 373)
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• Though, Hamlet adamant and reluctant becomes


the reason of death of numerous characters-
Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, and Ophelia.
Lord Polonius poignantly depicts the virtual and real
conflict of Hamlet’s life-
• How pregnant sometimes his replies are- a
happiness that often madness hits on, which reason
and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered
of. ( Shakespeare, 283)
Pro faisal PHD ENGLISH

Jahangeer Hamlet as a tragic hero LITERATURE


(SCHOLAR)

• After the above discussion, it can be said that the character is not the
only factor that is responsible for the tragedy of Hamlet, external
circumstances are also responsible for making Hamlet a tragic hero.
Shakespeare creates a heeling that there is a mysterious power in
this universe, which is responsible for every small -happening. The
appearance of the Ghost and its revelation is a manifestation of Fate.
Many of the things that take place in Hamlet's life are by chance, but
none of these are improbable. He kills Polonius by chance. The ship
in which he travels is attacked by pirates, and his return to Denmark
is nothing but chance. Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine, by
accident, and dies. So fate in the shape of chance shapes the future
of all characters including Hamlet. But the sense of fate is never so
overwhelming as to cast character in shade; after all, it is Hamlet
himself who is responsible for his tragedy.

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