Hamlet's tragic flaw is his indecisiveness to act on his thoughts. Hamlet tends to over-think and weigh the consequences of his actions rather than just act on them, this is shown through Hamlet's soliloquys. Hamlet is always questioning himself so he will make the best decision. No matter how admirable this is it slows him down from killing Claudius. Hamlet even says himself, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (III.i.54).
“So excellent a king.” (Act 1, Scene 11, Line 149) this proves how much he wanted to be like him. Hamlet’s mother marriage with King Claudius, makes Hamlet upset because King Claudius was his father’s brother. “ Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebona in a vial.” ( Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 61-62) Hamlet finds out that Claudius killed his father to take the throne when he talked with his father’s ghost. This gave reason to Hamlet to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet makes his first move against King Claudius by telling the actors to play a tragic play by which he can see King Claudius’s reaction.
The ghost asks Hamlet to avenge his “most foul murder.” However, he warns Hamlet not to let revenge consume his mind. Ironically, Hamlet states “I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records, all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there, and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmixed with baser matter”(Shakespeare I.V.106-111). In order for Hamlet to avenge his father, first he needs the proper evidence. Hamlet decides to create a play about a man who kills his brother, hoping that when Claudius sees it, he has a reaction showing his guilt. It is when Hamlet gets proof of Claudius’ guilt that he allows his emotions to dictate his actions.
On the hand, there lies Claudius. The reader has just learned that he was willing to kill his own brother to become king. Murder is a horrible thing, but killing your own brother for your own selfish needs is far beyond horrible. When learning this, in combination with feel bad for Hamlet, the reader is left hating Claudius for what he has done. Additionally, this is a very important scene in the play.
Revenge must begin with a motive. In the play Hamlet, Fortinbras and Hamlet both seek revenge for the death of their fathers. Hamlet desires revenge because he is ordered to do so. Also he develops a hated for the new marriage of his mother and Claudius. Old Hamlet informs his son that he was murdered by his brother.
The personality traits of insanity and intellectuality also contribute greatly to the death of Hamlet. Hamlet’s tragic flaw is his procrastination. Without a doubt, Hamlet portrays procrastination and indecisiveness multiple times in the play. The ghost of Hamlet’s father visits him in the beginning of the play informing Hamlet that he was murdered by his own brother, Claudius: “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears the crown”(I.v.44,45). Furthermore, Shakespeare exhibits how Hamlet chose to devise a plan of acting mad, rather than avenging his father’s death immediately, progressing to his demise.
As he says “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer...” Hamlet contemplates suicide, due to a lack of trust in himself. Hamlet does not trust that he can take revenge on Claudius and move on. Shakespeare displays Hamlet’s lack of trust through characterization. Hamlet is displayed as a macabre, pessimistic and suicidal character. .“A damn'd defeat was made.
Nevertheless one murder didn't comfort him, he thinks he needs to secure his position. So he goes off and hires hit men to kill who he thinks is his enemy, the one who can take his power, Banqo. Soon enough he finds himself ordering the slaughter of a traitors family, which is when remorse never enters his thoughts. Macbeth’s greed and ambitions are the sheer motivators of his killings and that is evident throughout the journey of the play. As Shakespeare once wrote , “Fair is foul and foul is fair” (Act I, Sc.I, Line
133-134). Hamlet wishes that his body would melt away so he would not have to see Claudius and Getrude together again, and pretend as though all is well. Hamlet explains to us that he does want to die, but he says he can not because, “the Everlasting had not fix'd/His canon against self slaughter!” (I.ii. 134-135). If God had not ruled suicide a mortal sin, Hamlet would have commited suicide at once for what he was going through.
And the last similarity, though not in exact description, is Amleth/Hamlet killing his uncle, the king. Now that you know the similarities, let’s move on to the differences. The first difference between the two stories is that in Hamlet, Hamlet sees the ghost of his dead father, and tells Hamlet that his uncle, who is now king, was the one who killed him. He also orders him to seek the revenge of his murder and to kill his uncle. Hamlet obviously agrees to this and sets out to follow the ghost’s demands.