At the end of “Hamlet“, by William Shakespeare, Prince Hamlet asks his best friend, Horatio, to tell his story to the “yet unknowing world’fl Hamlet dies shortly after making this request. When the ambassador from England and Fortinbras, prince of Norway, arrive at the Elsinore castle to announce the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they see everyone lying dead on the castle floor. Being that Horatio is the only person who survived the bloodbath, they ask him what happened Horatio asks them to order their men to display the bodies on a high platform so that he can tell the world their stories, specifically Hamlet’s Horatio would say that Hamlet’s death was brought about due to his character and role as the tragic hero, along with the unfortunate deaths of Polonius, Ophelia, and Gertrude and the murderous plan that backfired on Laertes and Claudius.
According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must have a noble ranking, face a reversal of intention and recognition, have a tragic flaw, and face a situation of tragic irony and katharsis that arouse the emotions of pity and fear in the audience, Hamlet’s nobility can be found in his social and character class. He was born as the son of King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude of Denmark Hamlet is loved and extremely popular among the people of Denmark, Claudius knows that he has to make his death appear accidental so the blame does not fall on him because “He’s loved of the distracted multitude,” (IV; iii; 4) Hamlet faces reversals of intention throughout the course of the play and as a result slowly degrades over time. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his dead father, who asks him to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder,” by killing Claudius.
This request causes Hamlet to put on a mad act in his attempt to cover his motives, which eventually turns into real madness and despair that worsens as the play progresses. Additionally, when Hamlet is faced with the opportunity to kill Claudius and avenge his father, he talks himself out of it because he thinks that Claudius is praying and confessing his sins. Hamlet says, “And then I am revenged to take him in the purging of his soul when he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No.”, Hamlet is unaware that this would have been the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius because he is unable to ask for forgiveness because he does not want to give up the luxuries he received for killing late king. Because Hamlet was unable to take action at this moment, he is one step behind Claudius and is at the mercy of his plans, rather than his own Hamlet’s inactivity and contemplation throughout the play result in a change from ignorance to knowledge.
After seeing Foninbras and his men fighting for land in Poland, Hamlet recognizes his faults and has a dramatic realization, Hamlet says, “How stand I then, that have a father killed, a mother stained, excitements of my reason and my blood, and let all sleepiwhile, to my shame, I see the imminent death of twenty thousand men, that for a fantasy and trick of fame go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, which is not tomb enough and continent to hide the slain? Oh, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!”. He cannot believe that all of those men are risking their lives for something as simple as land, especially since he cannot bring himself to risk his life to avenge his father. With this knowledge, Hamlet comes to the conclusion that his thoughts need to be violent now if he wants to make any progress on getting his revenge, Hamlet’s tragic flaws are his contemplation and inability to take action.
Throughout the play, Hamlet spends the majority of his time thinking about the conflicts and situations he is in His philosophical nature can be seen in his various soliloquies. Hamlet‘s deep contemplation result in his procrastination, even when he wants to take action He says, “Yet I, a dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak like John»a- dreams, unpregnant of my cause, and can say nothing—no, not for a king, upon whose property and most dear life a damned defeat was made. At this moment, Hamlet knows that he is thinking, rather than taking action and getting revenge. Hamlet faces dramatic irony as the play progresses. Through his reversals of intention and recognition, he learns how to live a virtuous and just life. He contemplates life and recognizes his faults. His attempts to right his wrongs and change his fate are unsuccessful and end up killing everyone, Katharsis occurs during the final scene of Hamlet during the sword fight.
The emotions of pity and fear are aroused in the audience as Hamlet and Laertes battle and as everyone in the play dies The audience is soon relieved of these emotions knowing that Fortinbras will take the throne and restore order in Denmark Because of his role as a tragic hero, Hamlet’s fate was to diet The “accidental judgments” that caused the death of Polonius led to the death of Hamlet. Polonius was listening in on a conversation between Gertrude and Hamlet from behind a curtain. When he thought that Gertrude was in trouble, he called for help and drew Hamlet’s attention to himself Thinking that Polonius was Claudius, he immediately takes out his sword to stab and kill him, Upon finding out who he really killed, Hamlet says, “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better. Take Lhy fortune. Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger,” (Ill; iv; 32-34). Hamlet’s rash action in killing Polonius shows his inability to combine his thoughts to take action.
When Hamlet thinks about the actions he wants to take, he is unable to act When he does choose to act, he does so blindly and without thinking. It appears that Hamlet believes his revenge is more likely to come from an accident than from an act that he thought through and planned, Hamlet’s death was also a result of the “unnatural act” of Ophelia’s death. Ophelia was driven mad after finding out that the man she had once loved, Hamlet, had murdered the only man she would love forever, her father. She made wreaths out of various leaves and flowers and climbed a willow tree next to a brook to hang them from the tree’s branches. She and the flowers fell into the water and she eventually drowned. Her death is thought to be a suicide because of the emotional state that she was in. The fragile beauty of the flowers is a symbol for Ophelia’s fragile beauty and her doomed innocence.
The man digging her grave says, “Here lies the water. Goodl Here stands the man. Good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he nill he, he goes. Mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself, Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life. The gravedigger is saying that Ophelia was innocent of her own death and did not actually kill herself because the water came to her and drowned her. Claudius and Laertes die because of their “purposes mistook fall’n on the investors’ heads‘K Gertrude and Hamlet are also victims of their plan. Claudius and Laertes come up with what they think is a fool-proof plan to kill Hamlet, They set up a fencing duel between Laertes and Hamlet and have Laertes’ sword covered in poison so that when he stabs him, he will die.
Additionally, Claudius makes a poisonous beverage for Hamlet to drink during the match in case if Laertes cannot stab him. In the middle of the match, Gertrude drinks the poison even though Claudius warns her not to, Laertes successfully stabs Hamlet with the poisonous sword, but winds up swapping swords with him shortly after, allowing Hamlet to wound him with the poisonous sword. Laertes says, ”It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain. No medicine in the world can do thee good, In thee there is not half an hour of life. The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, unabated and envenomed. The foul practice hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie, never to rise again.
Thy mother’s poisoned. I can no more. The king, the king’s to blame. After finding out that this was all Claudius‘ plan, Hamlet stabs him with the sword and forces him to drink the rest of the poisonous drink. Hamlet’s accidental murder of Polonius is what ultimately kills him, since it is Laertes’ anger from that murder that creates the grand plan to kill Hamlet. His death is neither shameful nor heroic because he gets revenge for his father‘s murder, but only after being stabbed and seeing Laertes and his mother die. His inability to take action and need to contemplate every situation throughout the play also lead to his death Finally, being that he was given the role of the tragic hero in this play, death was inevitable.
