Element 6 - Death of tragic hero Flaw of the character Murder Recognition of the flaw too late In Act V of Hamlet, there are many aspects and key points that represent element 6, the tragic pattern. The first aspects highlighted in the act coincide with each other, death of a tragic hero and murder.. Hamlet, the main character, is faced with the troubling decision of whether he should or should not kill his uncle. However Hamlet is unaware that his uncle has already plotted a murder of his own. Laertes and Claudius formulate a plan to take Hamlet out once and for all. This plan, however, takes a turn for the worse and ends in the death of four characters. When Hamlet comes to make amends with Laertes, Laertes doubts his plan and regrets …show more content…
Hamlet has many flaws and his failure to realize/acknowledge his faults which in the end result in his death. Since the beginning of the play Hamlet has been putting on a facade of madness. Hamlet created almost like an obsession with the idea of revenge but in the moment can never follow through. His inaction and inability to follow through become an internal conflict for Hamlet. His conscience is in constant battle with what he believes he must do. Hamlet’s cowardness and unsureness are what in the end cause the downfall of characters near to him. Hamlet is so entrapped in the idea of “madness” that he fails to see what he is shutting out. He killed Polonius Ophelia’s father and told the love of his life that he did not love her. This led to the insanity expressed by Ophelia and to her death. “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum. What will you do for her?” (Act V, Scene 1, lines 252-254) This quote was said by Hamlet when he figured out who the grave was being dug for. By this time it was too late and Ophelia was gone. Hamlet’s obsession got the best of him and took down everyone in his path. He killed Polonius, stabbed Laertes with a poisonous sword, did not drink the poison intended for him which his mother drank and died, stabbed Claudius and then was killed himself. As you can see
Even after having accepted Claudius being his fathers murderer, the prince (he) did not take action till the very end of the play. In fact, the ghost was forced to appear again, to remind Hamlet to act upon his revenge. Though, Hamlet’s biggest flaw was his indecisiveness, which eventually led him to his death due to his inability to take a quick action gave Claudius time to plot against him. Hamlet took action by poisoning his uncle only after Laertes had told him that the sword fight was all Claudius’s plan to manipulate Laertes into killing Hamlet for him. Laertes wanted justice for his father and all his actions were resolute due to his motivation.
What everyone else did not know though is that Laertes has poisoned the tip of his sword so if he so much as scratches Hamlet he will die, and just in case Claudius had poisoned a cup just for Hamlet. Hamlet decides not to drink the cup of wine, so his mother does, it all goes south from there. Hamlet’s mother is slowly dying after drinking the poison and Hamlet has been sliced by the poisoned blade of Laertes. Once hamlet discovers his mother has been poisoned by Claudius and him himself has been too, he goes out with a bang killing both Laertes and Claudius, successfully avenging his father’s
Throughout the play Hamlet continues to act insane and even dies with the act continuing. Even after Hamlet gathers all the evidence that proves Claudius is the murder, Hamlet continues to behave in a strange way. When he mistakenly murders Polonius he does not react as a sane person would. This act enrages Laertes, who then wants to avenge his father’s death. Driven to madness by the murder of his father, Laertes, with the help of Claudius conspires to kill Hamlet.
‘Oh, please let’s get out.’” and Jay is left feeling hurt and betrayed, when in fact all that should have mattered to Jay is that Daisy loves him now (142). Obsession is present in Ophelia and Hamlet’s in a different way than in Jay and Daisy’s. Hamlet’s obsession with revenge ultimately leads to the death of Ophelia. By allowing Ophelia to believe that Hamlet is insane and killing Ophelia’s father, Polonius, without thinking, Hamlet’s obsession with revenge causes not only the downfall of Ophelia and Hamlet’s relationship, but also causes the emotional downfall of Ophelia, which leads to her untimely death.
Ellie Isermann Mr. Yanek English 3A 27 January 2023 Hamlet's Tragic Flaw Hamlet's tragic flaw of overthinking causes him to go insane, acting on situations without any thought. Taylor Coleridge interprets this concept well by saying, “Hamlet’s delay, and ultimately his downfall, is caused by too much thinking: his thoughts, and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions—in other words, Hamlet is much more preoccupied with the world within than the world without..” His flaw is that he loses touch with the world around him because he is so caught up in his own thoughts of revenge.
“I loved you not” (3.1.119) and “get thee to a nunnery” (3.1.138-139) causing her madness. Hamlet learns of Ophelia's betrayal, by luring him so Claudius could spy on him. Betrayal and mistrust anger Hamlet and drive him to commit violent actions. These events lead Ophelia to commit suicide. People avoid relationships to avoid pain.
It also leads to a downfall of almost every character in the play. This act of murder causes Hamlet to die, and everyone else around him, including his mother and uncle. The entire play, readers continuously a theme of revenge due to this one action. Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle for killing his father. In Act 5, the tension rests when Hamlet and Claudius are both eliminated.
It was hard for Hamlet to act crazy because he was still grieving over his father 's death and his mother not showing that she cares. Hamlet also lost Ophelia which makes his situation even worse than it was because he has no one in his. No family, no girlfriend, no one. Hamlet feels betrayed by his mother and feels like he can 't trust anyone. Shakespeare gives Hamlet these struggles in the play to amplify the mental and psychological events that make the reader feel bad about what all happened to Hamlet.
Hamlet is a thinker not a doer, by him thinking too much on how he is going to kill Claudius, many other loved ones end up dead. Hamlet is born emotional and would be a great actor in a play but in life it’s a downfall for him, when Hamlet and Gertrude were talking about what Hamlet is doing, Hamlet’s emotions rose to a high which caused him to violently stab the figure behind the curtain which ended the life of Polonius. When grappling with Laertes, Hamlet’s rage and emotions rise and begin to attack him after being cut in the back. After the death of his father and his mother marrying his uncle, Hamlet’s emotions affect everything and everyone around
Hamlet 's flaw was his inability to act. It appears throughout the play that Hamlet stops to think quite a bit before he carries out anything. This leads to nothing being accomplished. Towards the beginning of the play, Hamlet was asked by the Ghost, who claimed to be his father 's spirit, to murder the one who murdered him. "
3.3.72-73), Hamlet says, as he is debating whether or not to kill the king as he prays and thinks to himself if he kills him now then the king will just go to heaven because he is praying. Because of him overthinking the murder of Claudius and not taking action at the time he was able to, he had created a domino effect of events. Hamlet finally followed through with his plan after a long time of thinking, but he had killed Polonius. Polonius’ murder led to Ophelia committing suicide and Laertes getting involved and wanting to venge on Hamlet for killing his
Hamlet takes the sword and stabs Laertes, eventually killing him. This is even better for Claudius, now not even Laertes can tell anyone it was Claudius' idea to kill Hamlet, Claudius' luck ends here. Hamlet then stabs Claudius and makes him drink the leftover poisoned wine. Hamlet has finally accomplished his revenge for his father. Claudius was killed by his own Machiavellian ways.
Hamlet is William Shakespeare 's renowned tale of mystery, intrigue, and murder, centered on a young misguided prince who can only trust himself. Some may say that the actions of Prince Hamlet throughout the play are weak and fearful, displaying a tendency to procrastinate and showing an apathetic nature towards his family and peers. Others spin a tale of a noble young scholar, driven mad by the cold-blooded murder of his father by his uncle. In truth, I believe Hamlet is neither of these things. Hamlet is a sort of amalgamation of the two, a bundle of contradictions thrown together into one conflicting but very human mess of a character.
Being indecisive as a king is not good. His tragic flaw of overthinking and indecisiveness is preventing him from realizing his full potential. But Hamlet’s flaw at this point of the play is caused by the severity of killing a person. Which greatly affects this back and forth on taking his
Through the entirety of the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, the characters were overcome with the need for revenge as the outcome of many deaths. Therefore, no one was happy through “Hamlet” and it resulted in a tragedy. The character Hamlet played a big role in turning towards revenge and never would classify himself as being happy. Hamlet displays positive and negative behavior throughout the play. Hamlet exhibits strengths and weaknesses as well, although his weaknesses of over-thinking, bitterness, and his inability to accept the death of his father overshadow his strengths.