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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
Hamlets' tragic flaw isn't his inability to act. In my opinion, his flaw is that he acts out of selfish motives on
three separate and pivotal occasions. Look at the actions that move the story ahead.
There are 3 actions that have dire consequences for Hamlet and others. They are:
1. He decides not to kill Claudius while he is praying because he
doesn't want Claudius' soul to go to heaven. He wants Claudius not only to die but his
soul to burn in hell. This cruelty makes him wait for another occasion, which, of course,
never comes until the end of the play when Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes,
Gertrude, and Hamlet are dead or dieing. To say that he hesitates to act is
completely false because ...
2. Hamlet instantly kills Polonius is his mother's closet because he thinks
that it is Claudius. He also thinks that Claudius is acting in an evil or sinful
fashion (spying) and his soul is primed to go to hell. But, clearly, Hamlet has
no problem taking action - he kills Polonius in a moment without thinking about whether
this is who he thinks it is. He not only acts but acts rashly, in the heat of the moment - WITHOUT THINKING!
3. In the final scene Hamlet makes a key mistake out of his own arrogance and pride.
Just when Laertes is about to forgive him -
("... and yet it is almost against my conscience ...")
Hamlet makes a smartass remark -
"Come, for the third, Laertes. You but dally;
I pray you pass with your best violence;
I am afeared you make a wanton of me."
This mocking comment angers Laertes and he attacks Hamlet, fatally wounding him.
Leartes was on the verge of turning against Clauidus and revealing his own treachury.
Had Hamlet not made his remark, Laertes and Hamlet might both have lived and Hamlet may have become King.
An Elizabethan audience, knowing that Hamlet has sinned in killing Polonius and must therefore die.
One could say that in Shakespeare's day the one act that surely leads to Hamlet's death is the killing
of Polonius. Once that murder has occurred, it is pre-ordained that Hamlet must die.
Posted by Terry The Bard Fan on April 05, 1997 at 22:40:03
In Reply to "HAMLET'S TRAGIC FLAW? PLEASE HELP!" posted by Rosencrantz (or is it Guildenstern) on April 01, 1997 at 01:34:42
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help