Hamlet, the Tragic Hero

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When Claudius learns of Polonius’s death, he begins devising his plan to get rid of Hamlet once and for all. Claudius’s end result for Hamlet if for him to die of beheading upon arriving in England. The moment Hamlet learns of this plan, he falsifies new orders saying that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were to be killed instead of himself. Now, the fates of two more of Hamlet’s enemies are sealed. Meanwhile Ophelia, whom is acting as a mere pawn in all of this, is overcome with the feeling of sadness due to her father’s death, and has drowned. Even though it is not clearly stated, the reader can make a pretty good guess to the fact that she has committed suicide. She now makes the fourth of Hamlet’s foes to die. Later, Claudius learns that instead of coming to England Hamlet is now returning to Denmark. Claudius draws up a new plan for taking Hamlet’s life that consists of Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, will fight him in a fencing match. Hamlet will then either die by the un-blunted tip of Laertes’s sword, or by the poisoned wine he will be offered following the fencing match. Upon Hamlet’s return, he accepts the challenge but during the match however he and Laertes both end up getting stabbed by the sharpened fencing sword. At the same time during all of this madness, Hamlet’s mother drinks from the poisoned cup of wine meant for Hamlet. Just before Hamlet’s mother dies, she proclaims that she has been poisoned where Laertes then says that both he and Hamlet are soon to die from the stabbing of the sword, and that Claudius is the one who set up the entire debacle of a situation. From here Hamlet then stabs Claudius and kills him while all of his sins are announced to the crowd viewing the match. Once Laertes and Hamlet die, Fortenbras enters from battle and gets word of the events that had taken place. After hearing the entire story, he makes sure that Hamlet is awarded with full honors in his death. This scene, which took place in Act 5, Scene 2, represents the climax of the play and seals the fates of all remaining characters, Hamlet included, acting as the tragic hero. Hamlet, although a complex and one of a kind character, clearly represented a tragic hero. As is the play’s protagonist, he evokes sympathy from the reader starting at the opening scene. Hamlet’s tragic flaw was that of two parts: One, he was adamant about avenging his father’s death and his mother’s incestuous marriage; Two, this desire caused him to become so consumed in his inner conflicts, and emotions that he allowed the actions of other characters to control his fate. To add, Hamlet’s suffering seemed very authentic; it became stronger as it bonded with his growing determination to find his revenge upon Claudius. In conclusion, as the reader watches Hamlet’s tragic downfall unravel to its end, one cannot help but wish that Hamlet could have lived on, concurred all of his adversaries, and become the ruling King of Denmark.

Works Cited

"Hamlet." Hamlet. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 July 2016.http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/hamlet1.html

"Sites about Hamlet." Ipl2 Literary Criticism. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 July 2016.http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/bin/litcrit.out.pl?ti=ham-102

Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ninth ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W Norton, 2013. Print.