However, a tragic hero is a character who experiences conflict and suffers greatly as result of his/her choices. Despaired through the death of his father and his mother’s marriage to his uncle Hamlet then begins to possess feelings of grief, anger and frustration. With these flaws weighing on his conscience it contributes to the making of a tragic hero. This is due to the forced objective of avenging his father’s murder and his mother’s incestuous marriage, Hamlet’s lack of being able to dictate his own choices and his cowardly sense of committing suicide to avoid the suffering. Hamlets anger, which stems from his mother marrying Claudius, bears him serious thoughts of suicide.
The prince’s inability to act and tendency toward melancholy refection is a “tragic flaw” that leads inevitably to his demise. Shakespeare makes it known to the reader that Hamlet has not come to terms with the death of his father at the very beginning of the play. Hamlet is characterized as a melancholy, brooding man, full of angst and disgust for the situation he has been placed in because of his mothers choice to marry his father’s brother shortly after Hamlet Sr.’s death. This marriage has now made Hamlet Sr.’s brother, Claudius, king and it is very obvious that Hamlet is suspicious of Claudius’ motives and character in general. Hamlet does not see a point to living.
Once he finds out this is true he blinds himself and banned his self from civilization forever. He is the most tragic hero because fate was a main part of the tragedy. Oedipus rose to be king then fell to become a blind person who committed incest. Hamlet main goal was to avenge his father. Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears to Hamlet telling him what happened and to avenge him.
Andrew Bittmann English 102-b05 Weathers Unmainly Grief Claudius could hardly be considered to be a model of upright behavior, given that he seduces Gertrude while the grief over her husband’s death is still fresh. While he is obviously advancing his own motives, his speech to Hamlet about “Unmanly Grief” is oddly compelling. Claudius takes the view that all men die, all men lose their fathers. They enter a period of appropriate grief and then move on. Because hamlet is not conforming to this norm, Claudius suggests that Hamlet’s grief is not only unhealthy, but unmanly.
Though saddened by his father’s untimely death, Prince Hamlet also expresses clear disgust for his mother, Gertrude, for marrying his uncle, Claudius, only a few months after his own father’s death. He is appalled that his mother would have such haste and “most wicked speed to post/ with such dexterity to incestuous sheets” (I.ii.161-162) with Claudius, for whom Hamlet is not particularly fond of. Hamlet scorns his mother, and in a general sense all women, when he says, “Frailty, thy name is woman!”(I.ii.150) He believes that even “a beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourned longer” (I.ii.154-155). Despite his suicidal tendencies, Hamlet insists that he must remain silent on the matter and hold his tongue. The third soliloquy takes place in Act II, Scene II, after the departure of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
This conflict within Hamlet is further expounded by the possibility that his father was murdered by his uncle, King Cladius. In an attempt to cope with the moral weakness of his mother, Prince Hamlet dispels any sympathetic feelings toward women causing him to ruin his relationship with Ophelia and leaving him lonely. In order to accurately interpret Shakespeare’s usage of a female’s role throughout his play it is imperative to consider the greater source of his ideas-his historical background. The historical period of the Elizabethan era influenced Shakespeare’s negative portrayal of women and thus, he uses the women in his play as tools in unraveling Prince Hamlet. In Hamlet, it can be noted that the patriarchal setup of society mirrors that of England during the Elizabethan era.
The death of one’s father and a ghostly visitation thereafter are events that would challenge the sanity of anyone. The circumstances of King Hamlet’s death render it especially traumatic. The late King seemed to be an idol to his son; Hamlet looked up to him and aspired to have the same qualities. Hamlet doesn't like King Claudius and sees him as a swindling usurper who has stolen not only the dead King’s throne, but Hamlet’s as well(2.4). Hamlet shows Gertrude that she has lowered her standards by marrying Claudius, When he refers to old Hamlet as, “A combination and a form indeed / Where every god did seem to set his seal” (3.4.55-61).
1.2.184-185. Hamlet is extremely displeased as he must now call his uncle, stepfather/King due to their ill conceived union...’you have deeply offended your father’ [she means Claudius] 3.4.9. Hamlet felt anger and resentment towards his mother who has not only betrayed him but also his father's memory in marrying a man inferior to his father. A man who he believed could not walk near his father’s footsteps ‘...To give the world a model man. This was your husband....what follows.
The full conflict of which he feels and keeps concealed within himself is not explained. Some insight into Hamlet’s true feelings are revealed however, through his soliloquies and asides. Although Hamlet mourns his father’s death, we see that the source of his depression lies in his mother’s hasty marriage. This has turned his world into “... an unweeded garden/ That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature/ Possess it, merely” (I.ii.135-137). While he accumulates more and more evidence of Claudius’ obvious guilt, he constantly returns to the theme of his mother’s remarriage, a source of pain equally as unbearable as the circumstances of his father’s death.
Hamlet’s Pangs of Despised Love Throughout Hamlet, Shakespeare uses love to describe the characters’ diverse emotions and explain their behavior. For Hamlet, love exists as a vehicle for Hamlet uncover and preserve secrets, and manipulate other characters for his own goals. He expresses feelings of romantic love for Ophelia using conventional descriptions, but most importantly as the justification for violence and vengeance for his father’s death. For Hamlet, while the word and emotion appears in a variety of situations, love is ultimately associated with betrayal and revenge. Hamlet’s first interaction with his father’s ghost reveals this fundamental association between love and revenge.