Hamlet as a Tragic Hero

Aristotle studied literary theory in his book, Poetics, and in this study he defined and provided ideas about the concept of tragedy. Tragedy for Aristotle is defined as, "an imitation of life in the form of a serious story that is complete in itself; in other words, the story must be realistic and narrow in focus." He characterized a "good tragedy" if it brings about a feeling of "fear and/or pity" in it viewers. Aristotle also conceived his own concept of the "hero of tragedy" or tragic hero. He enumerated several ideas on the different characteristics that identify tragic heroes. These characteristics will be discussed later in the body of the paper. An example of a tragic story is William Shakespeare's tragic play, Hamlet. Hamlet, the primary character in the story, is considered a "tragic hero" because he possesses the qualities that Aristotle identifies as the characteristics of a tragic hero. The following discussion below will discuss in detail the different qualities Hamlet has that identify him as a tragic hero.

The first characteristic Aristotle identified as a quality of a tragic hero is that the he must be of "noble stature" and possesses nobility in character. However, though the tragic hero has many desirable qualities, he must have a "weakness" in character, and this weakness is called a "tragic flaw" or hamartia (although it is preferred that this term be called a "tragic error"). This is one quality that Hamlet has. He is the heir to the throne of Old Hamlet, King of Denmark. But his status in the society does not make him immune to the weaknesses that are inherent in every individual. Although he is of noble stature, Hamlet do not recognize himself as worthy of his title and position, saying that he is "[n]o more like my father / Than I to Hercules" (I, ii, 152-3). In this statement, Hamlet shows his lack of self-confidence to recognize himself as a person worthy to be Denmark's king someday. Another flaw in character that he has is his indecisiveness, which resulted to inaction when he found out that Claudius was the murderer of his father. Although he already confirmed Claudius' guilt, he had second thoughts on whether to seek revenge for his father or not. This indecisiveness is evident when he delivered his famous line "[t]o be, or not to be" (III, I, 58) where he contemplated what to do after hearing of Claudius' treachery.

Another quality that identifies Hamlet as a tragic hero is his downfall when he tried to find ways to force Claudius to admit his guilt in the crime he committed. Hamlet expressed great anger upon learning the reason of his father's death ("A villain kills my father, and for that / I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.../And that his soul may be as damned and black / As hell whereto it goes" (III, iii, 76-8,89,94-5)), but his pretension of acting like a madman to confirm whether his uncle is the true killer or not brought his downfall: "O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!/The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword, / Th'expectancy and rose of the fair state" (III, I, 149-51).