In the transitional period between the middle ages and the Renaissance, literature was much appreciated. Following a famous trend of novels where many protagonists have been shown to be tragic heroes, Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, analyzed these books and came up with the well known “tragic hero formula”. The tragic hero in Aristotelian terms is a character of noble birth who is faced with hamatia and circumstances, which then lead to the character being faced with knowledge, which eventually leads to the hero’s tragic fall. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a perfect example of an Aristotelian tragedy. Throughout the play Hamlet experiences certain circumstances which combine with his tragic flaws to lead to his downfall. Hamlet also possesses a tragic flaw, and this flaw is the Hamatia that in combination with the events helps slowly kill Hamlet and make him a tragic hero. Later on, throughout the play, Hamlet comes to an understanding that is caused by his fall and eventually leads to his demise. Seeing how these are the three things that are the main components of the tragic hero formula, Hamlet really is a case study of an Aristotelian tragedy.
As one of the first and arguably the most important elements of the tragic hero formula the destructive circumstances that the protagonist appears in is one of the main factors that define Hamlet as a tragic hero. When a young man such as Hamlet is faced with a series of horrible events and a surrounding that is completely destructive, he tends to look at things from a rather negative perspective. As the novel just begins, one could easily see that Hamlet is not faced with a good situation: his father is killed, his uncle marries his widowed mother, the love of his life is poisoned against him, and his childhood friends betray him. Seeing how Hamlet is not an average peasant and a prince to Denmark, it is also apparent that he is faced with a number of problems regarding his country like the madness going on, the fight for the throne, the conflict with Fortinbras and many other problems, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I, iv, 90).
The Essay on Hamlet Tragic Hero 2
Hamlet: A Tragic Hero Hamlet, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, once again gave me an opportunity to understand and gain more knowledge on how Shakespeare regarded most of his main characters as tragic heroes themselves. Since the play Hamlet was totally full of tragedy, it certainly was portrayed by once again a tragic hero named Hamlet. Upon watching Tanghalang Pilipino's Hamlet at the ...
As much as Hamlet is educated, brave, loving, and strong, there is no way that under all of this pressure and problems Hamlet could keep up with his circumstances. His surroundings and everyone that he knows, apart from a few selected individuals, betray him in some way, causing Hamlet to become simply devastated. This is one of the reasons he becomes monomaniacal about his revenge, not only at Claudius but also at humanity as a whole. Sometimes Hamlet does not even understand whether it is better to live and encounter all of these issues, or to die and end it all:
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? … (III, I, 64-68).
Basically Hamlet understands that his world is full of betrayal and backstabbing, where even his closest friends and relatives couldn’t be trusted. Hamlet is a character who is strongly affected throughout the entire play by his surroundings and settings. His circumstances are one of the main factors that allow Hamlet to fall as a tragic hero and it is also one of the first elements of the tragic hero formula.
However, circumstances are not the only thing that initiates a fall in the view of Aristotle. To start a tragic hero’s fall, there must be a mix of circumstances with hamartia. Hamatia is the tragic flaw that the hero possesses which allows him to give in to the circumstances and begin his long downfall. The tragic flaw that Hamlet has is arguably the smartest thing Shakespeare has ever invented in his literature. While many believe that Hamlet has no true tragic flaw, Shakespeare manages to give Hamlet one that isn’t really a flaw, but instead is a trait that is not the right trait to have for the given situation, eventually becoming a tragic flaw. The problem with Hamlet is that he is too smart, innovative, and much ahead of his time. As the saying goes “When In Rome (Do As The Romans Do)”, what this implies is that a mind too clever and too much ahead if it’s time is not necessarily a good thing, and to become accepted in society one must conform. With addition to everything that had happened, these traits had turned out to be destructive to Hamlet’s life. Hamlet is clearly brave: he goes after the ghost and because Hamlet wants to know so much he finds out the truth about his fathers death. Hamlet loves Ophelia so much that he turns mad because of her and because of all the characteristics Hamlet possesses. He is gradually destroyed and killed towards the end. All of these traits throughout the play evolve into a certain monomaniacal disorder which turns Hamlet mad. During the play Hamlet pretends that he is mad so that people won’t understand his secret agenda to kill Claudius, but by the end of the play Hamlet truly understands that his tragic flaw has led him to begin mad in truth, “Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.” (V, ii, 252-253).
The Essay on Is Hamlet A Tragic Hero
Is Hamlet considered a tragic hero? Hamlet is the perfect example of the tragic hero. Hamlet has all the good traits needed to be a tragic hero. He is brave and daring. One example of this is that when he went to England, he was taking a big risk. If his plan didn't work, he would have been executed. He also is also loyal. His loyalty to his father, was the reason he was so angry with Claudius and ...
On the whole, Hamlet is one of the only good characters of the play, but as the book progresses, due to his tragic flaws, he becomes mad and died, and this proves, once more, how Hamlet is a typical Aristotelian tragedy.
As these two elements are combined, the fall of the hero has begun, and the next thing in line on the formula of the tragic hero is the knowledge and the understanding that the hero has came to. Hamlet is a very well educated individual that learns quickly and understands concepts, which many people living in that time period could not understand. Close to the end of the play Hamlet understands all of the corruption and degradation that he has gone through and becomes so overwhelmed with it that he embraces it as the only way. After seeing that he was sent off to his death, he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to theirs, after understanding all of the madness that has went on, especially in Ophelia’s case, he proclaims madness to himself. Eventually he understands what has happened and what has led him to this tragic fall. Hamlet comes to a clear understanding about himself and about society as a cause of his hamartia and Circumstances. This realization is basically that society is all corrupt and wrong, and Hamlet is contributing to this corruption, Hamlet can’t live with himself after figuring out something like this and starts having thoughts of suicide and questions about life. Some minor understandings that Hamlet makes are also very destructive to him, bringing him closer to death as he starts mistrusting all of humanity. He also comes up with ideas about people, “Like a villain with a smiling cheek a goodly apple rotten at the heart.” (), it is also clearly shown that he does not believe in people on a personal level, “Men delights not me: no, nor woman neither.” (II, ii, 49).
The Essay on Oedipus the King as a Tragic Hero
In its simplest definition, a tragic hero is the main protagonist in a tragedy who commits an error or a mistake that subsequently leads to his or her downfall. Although historically, there have been a lot of plays with tragic heroes, possibly the most notable among them is Oedipus the King. In the play Oedipus the King, the protagonist exemplifies traits that a tragic hero possesses as shown in ...
As Hamlet loses all faith in everything he had once valued, his life comes to an end even before he dies, and his fall is now completed as Hamlet is at the bottom of the world praying for his life to end
…and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to… (III, i, 69-71).
One would see that it is obvious how the understandings Hamlet had lead him to the final stages of his fall, and are directly connected to one of the elements in Aristotle’s tragic hero formula.
To further understand Hamlet, it is apparent that much greater depth must be reached, but on the surface it is obvious that Hamlet was faced with a combination of circumstances and hamatia, followed by a tragic understanding and then the hero’s fall. We can see how Hamlet is truly a tragic hero as he fits the definition of Aristotle’s tragic hero and is brought to a fall by the end of the play. Whether or not Hamlet was truly mad, weather or not Hamlet really had a flaw or was it society around him that has projected this flaw on him, whether or not he was good or evil, all these topics are open for interpretation. One thing is for certain and that is that the interpretation of Aristotle on his tragic hero idea is exactly the vision that Shakespeare used when creating Hamlet and therefore Hamlet is a tragic hero from all perspectives.
The Essay on Hamlet: Hero Or Hoax
Hamlet: Hero or Hoax In his play, "Hamlet", William Shakespeare shows us the life of a young man lost in turmoil. All of his turmoil and angst is very much related to his own state of indecision and passivity. His problems, and most of those in the play, are partially summed up in the line when Hamlet is questioned by Gertrude about his melancholy appearance, he replies, "Seems, madam? Nay it is. ...
