Hamlet, a Tragic Hero

by William Shakespeare

The tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s most popular and greatest tragedy, presents his
genius as a playwright and includes many numbers of themes and literary techniques. Prince
Hamlet is a model example of a Shakespearean tragic hero. Hamlet is universal because each
individual or historical period tends to see it as the story of all humanity. It has also stood as
the most famous revenge tragedy in western civilization because it provides us with the most
explicit exploration of heroic revenge – the revenge of Hamlet, a tragic hero who claims his
father’s legacy.
Revenge is tragic because it divides the protagonist against himself giving him
incompatible roles: the philosopher against the practical man of action. For the philosopher
revenge is not part of the moral code but as a son of a murdered father he has to consider the
task of vengeance. I see Hamlet as a tragic hero. Such a figure is typically defined as “a
literary character who makes a judgment error” that inevitably leads to his own destruction.
Often an otherwise admirable character becomes involved with questions of revenge.
William Shakespeare portrays him as a cultivated and sophisticated product of modern
Christian Europe, an educated Renaissance spirit. At the same time, he is a tragic figure of the
Renaissance because his complicated mind, that a philosopher reacts to the contradictions of
his age. Due to them, he is usually seen as self-divided. He is also self-divided between two
worlds: that of pagan heroism that asks for vengeance and the new Christian world that asks
for forgiveness.
What makes Hamlet stand out in his world is his mind and soul but most of all his
consciousness. Also he has an original response to the contradictory ethical demands within
his mind and consciousness. His soul, also becomes a kind of crossroads, a battleground of
modern values leaving Hamlet unable to accomplish what the concret situation demands of
him. He fails in his vengeance because he is forced to go beyond the limits of humanity, and
thus is tragic. Hamlet, is a prince by birth, highly educated, an artistic spirit with the
knowledge of the theatre. Ophelia characterizes him best as: “the courtier’s, soldier’s,
scholar’s eye, tongue, sword”. He can’t be a simple man whose task is to pursuit vengeance.
That is why he ends up in a tragic situation in which his own principles make contradictory
demands upon him and paralyse him.
 He has many noble and brave characteristics and this is one of the reasons he is a
tragic hero. Hamlet’s promise to avenge his father’s death makes him noble because his
loyalty. His inability to act is often seen as one and certainly he saw that in himself. I think it
surfaces when observing his uncle in prayer over the death of this brothers, Hamlet’s father,
Hamlet decides that he will not execute justice and instead pursues vengeance. It’s not enough
for Hamlet that his uncle pays for the murder with his life but instead he wants his uncle to be
damned for eternity. A tragic hero must have free will or his fate would be decided for him.
He has moments of passion and fury but he maintains a detachment that prevents him
from performing real deeds. His intellect constantly retains him from performing violent acts
or acts that he feels impelled to perform. He is slowly driven mad by his inability to act on
this instruction. Hamlet also becomes hateful, despising his uncle, frustrated with his
traitorous friends. He never loses his reflective.
In conclusion, Hamlet remains an enigma in many ways because he breathes with the
multiple dimensions of a living human being and everyone understands him in a personal
way.