Fatal Flaw
In Hamlet, Shakespeare makes his protagonist more intriguing than in his other plays by making it more difficult for the audience to decide what Hamlet’s flaw might be. Hamlet introduces the idea in Act1, Scene 4, when he speaks of the "vicious mole of nature," "the stamp of one defect" that can bring a person "otherwise as pure as grace" to "his own scandal" (24-38).
The ghost of the dead King Hamlet appears immediately and informs Prince Hamlet that his father was murdered by the king’s brother, Claudius, now king and married to the queen, Hamlet’s mother. Of course Hamlet’s resentment of the marriage of Claudius to Gertrude is one of the first things we learn about the prince, but the major thrust of the play focuses more on why Hamlet "fails" to exact the revenge demanded by the ghost. Hamlet asks this question multiple times, giving possible reasons that range from "bestial oblivion" to over-intellectualizing, from cowardice to lack of honor ("O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!").
This element of the play is emphasized by the actions of other characters. Hamlet’s strategy for finding the truth (his pretended madness) causes other characters simultaneously to delve in their own analyses—attempts to explain Hamlet’s behavior. Ophelia, Polonius, Claudius, and Gertrude each offer interpretations that range from love ("mad for thy love?") to grief for his father’s death and resentment of his uncle’s and mother’s "o’erhasty marriage."
Is Shakespeare giving us a philosophical or a psychological argument in Hamlet and its tragic hero?
Does Hamlet fail to act in time because the world is arguably beyond our effective comprehension?
Or because he has a particular psychological problem, such as an Oedipus Complex?
Or because his character is too weak for the task--he is a coward, a ditherer, or a dullard and dolt?
A study of Hamlet’s tragic flaw certainly does not exhaust the attractions of this play. Other characters die—are their deaths justified? King Hamlet has called upon his son for revenge, but the biblical imagery within the play surely reminds us that revenge is the province of the divine and raises the question, is the Ghost’s very request somehow wrong? (Hamlet initially questions the prudence of heeding the ghost’s demand.) Why do Gertrude and Ophelia so willingly give in to the authority of the males? Should Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die for helping the king and queen? Does Polonius deserve to die when hiding behind the arras?
The ghost of the dead King Hamlet appears immediately and informs Prince Hamlet that his father was murdered by the king’s brother, Claudius, now king and married to the queen, Hamlet’s mother. Of course Hamlet’s resentment of the marriage of Claudius to Gertrude is one of the first things we learn about the prince, but the major thrust of the play focuses more on why Hamlet "fails" to exact the revenge demanded by the ghost. Hamlet asks this question multiple times, giving possible reasons that range from "bestial oblivion" to over-intellectualizing, from cowardice to lack of honor ("O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!").
This element of the play is emphasized by the actions of other characters. Hamlet’s strategy for finding the truth (his pretended madness) causes other characters simultaneously to delve in their own analyses—attempts to explain Hamlet’s behavior. Ophelia, Polonius, Claudius, and Gertrude each offer interpretations that range from love ("mad for thy love?") to grief for his father’s death and resentment of his uncle’s and mother’s "o’erhasty marriage."
Is Shakespeare giving us a philosophical or a psychological argument in Hamlet and its tragic hero?
Does Hamlet fail to act in time because the world is arguably beyond our effective comprehension?
Or because he has a particular psychological problem, such as an Oedipus Complex?
Or because his character is too weak for the task--he is a coward, a ditherer, or a dullard and dolt?
A study of Hamlet’s tragic flaw certainly does not exhaust the attractions of this play. Other characters die—are their deaths justified? King Hamlet has called upon his son for revenge, but the biblical imagery within the play surely reminds us that revenge is the province of the divine and raises the question, is the Ghost’s very request somehow wrong? (Hamlet initially questions the prudence of heeding the ghost’s demand.) Why do Gertrude and Ophelia so willingly give in to the authority of the males? Should Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die for helping the king and queen? Does Polonius deserve to die when hiding behind the arras?