The tragedy of Hamlet

Hamlet

One could argue that Claudius is just a flawed human being with his tragic flaw being ambition or greed for power. However, Claudius does not really fit the idea of the tragic hero because, as he is presented to the reader, he is not a good man of high status. Instead, the audience only sees him as the murderer of his brother and the thief of his brother's wife, Gertrude. This play could only be called "The Tragedy of Claudius, King of Denmark" if Claudius was presented to the audience in a very different way. As it is the audience can only assume he is purely evil based on what he has done both before the play started and during the play as he marries Gertrude and plots the murder of Hamlet twice.

Horatio is Hamlet's only true friend in the play. He is a loyal and true character who also is brave enough to help Hamlet see the truth. It is Horatio who tells Hamlet about the ghost of his father. Only a true friend could have that discussion. Horatio also supports Hamlet throughout the play giving him moral support that he needs as Hamlet attempts to take revenge on Claudius. Shakespeare allows Horatio to form a personality and seem like a real person which makes him a round character. Like Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are former schoolmates of Hamlet. While Horatio comes voluntarily to help Hamlet in his difficult months following his father's death, Hamlet quickly figures out that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been sent for by Claudius to spy on him. In Act two, scene 2, Hamlet forces them to confess this. Spying on Hamlet and reporting to the King are the only functions that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern perform so they are flat characters. Since they are developed very little and only seen as sneaky, the audience does not mind when they are killed through Hamlet's arrangement. Plus, the audience is sympathetic to Hamlet's problem and realizes that getting rid of these two characters will help Hamlet.

3. People to people conflicts: Hamlet and Claudius, Hamlet and Gertrude, Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet and Polonius, Hamlet and Laertes. People to Society conflicts: Hamlet and society, Ophelia and society. People to themselves conflicts: Hamlet and himself, Ophelia and herself, Gertrude and herself. The most important conflict is Hamlet and himself. Hamlet knows what he must do to take revenge for his father's death. He must kill his uncle. However, Hamlet struggles about when and how to take action and he wastes a lot of time trying to decide what to do. He spends a lot of time thinking about how he is wasting time and is frustrated with himself for not taking action. His famous speeches often talk about his anger at himself for not killing Claudius, but he still does not take action until forced into it by the King's plot against him at the end of the play.

4. The crisis of the play comes in Act V during the fencing competition with Laertes. Claudius and Laertes have worked together to plan Hamlet's death by setting up this challenge. In the challenge, Laertes will put poison on the end of his weapon so that when he slashes Hamlet it will kill him. To guarantee Hamlet's death, Claudius poisons the wine that is set out for Hamlet to drink during the competition. Unfortunately, Gertrude decides to toast Hamlet's success and drinks some of the poisoned wine. Hamlet receives a slash with the poisoned tip. When he realizes that his mother is dying, he figures out that this has been a trap. Hamlet stabs Laertes and Claudius with the poisoned blade and forces Claudius to drink from the poisoned cup. In the end all of the main characters - Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius and Hamlet are dead. Earlier, Ophelia and Polonius died. Horatio is the only character left to speak to Fortinbras as he enters on the bloody scene. Fortinbras is then made the new king.

5. Claudius sets in motion all of the sorrows that come about in the play. It is his killing of his brother and marriage to his sister-in-law and other rash behavior that create much of the problems in the play. Claudius' actions put the whole plot in motion. He also contributes greatly to the final scene by plotting with Laertes. Hamlet could have been more honest with his mother and more upfront with his actions which would have prevented the deaths in the end scene. So even though Claudius starts the problems, Hamlet helps keep them going throughout the play.

6. Men are basically people who want to be good and do good. However, something very small can distract people and make them do evil things. For instance, Claudius may have just been a little jealous of his brother's power, but then this flaw kept growing and getting worse until it drove him to commit evil acts. Hamlet also wants to be good and correct the evils that have been done, but through his inability to act, he adds to the evil actions of the play. Other characters also are led astray and commit evil acts like Laertes and Gertrude. In the end, they both realized that they had done wrong. It is their ability to recognize evil that actually makes them basically good characters. They know right from wrong.