According to Aristotle a tragic flaw is when the hero has a flaw in his/her judgment or personality that causes them to commit acts that will lead them to disaster (Froula). In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare the titular character of Hamlet has a number of tragic flaws. His biggest flaw is the fact that he thinks that he is cleverer than he actually is. Hamlet’s second tragic flaw is his indecisiveness and failure to act. Even though he has been told by the ghost of his dead father that "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown" (Act I Scene V). This revealed to Hamlet that his uncle killed his father, and caused him to swear revenge against Claudius. By swearing to avenge his father’s death Hamlet was then honor bound to carry out his oath, "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge." (Act I Scene V). The problem is Hamlet is a procrastinator, who tends to overthink his actions and therefore ends up not acting. This is crucial in his downfall as it later gives Claudius the opportunity to plan Hamlet’s own death.
Hamlet shows his failure to act when he has the chance to kill Claudius when he is in his bedroom praying. He walks up behind him undetected and has the perfect opportunity to kill him and avenge his father’s death. However, he does not because he claims that he does not want Claudius’ soul to go to heaven instead. This is because Old Hamlet had not been given time to repent of his sins. Hamlet’s issue could partly reflect that idea that he is caught between two worlds, that of the warrior and the scholar. Hamlet’s father was a warrior king, who had fought his way to power and kept his throne through warfare. Hamlet on the other hand has no fighting experience rather he is a scholar. This could explain why even though Hamlet is quick to speak like a warrior he is slow to act like one. Even Hamlet’s last act of killing Claudius is not achieved because of anything that he had planned. Rather it was the result of him having acting impulsively after Gertrude drank the poisoned and subsequently died.
Hamlet many times throughout the play acts with passion instead of reason. one example of this is when he kills Polonius. He is in Gertrude’s bedroom demanding that she no longer shares Claudius’ bed or allow him to touch her because he views their marriage as incestuous. He then hears someone behind the curtain and believing that it is Claudius he begins stabbing at the person. Only to discover that is was not Claudius, but Polonius. He then disassociates himself from the situation by pretending that it was a rat he killed. This shows that Hamlet teeters between inaction and reacting too swiftly. This lack of balance combined with the hubris that Hamlet displays throughout the play, ultimately work together to cause his downfall.
The more important flaw of Hamlet’s is that of hubris. Hamlet believes himself to be cleverer then he actually is. In the play he pretends to be mad in order to get Claudius to reveal his himself a murderer. This occurs with the “to be or not, to be” speech. He is giving a soliloquy on dying knowing that he has an audience. This is done so that Claudius will let his guard down and Hamlet will be able to get the truth. Hamlet’s issue is that he does not realize that he is a horrible actor and that Claudius can see right through him. The problem is that even though he is a bad actor, no one is quite sure when he is pretending. In the scene where he tells Ophelia “get thee to a nunnery” (Act 3 scene 2). Nevertheless, the end result of Hamlet’s rejection and her father’s death is Ophelia taking her own life. This combined with a number of other things poisons his perspective causing him to become cynical and bitter. This leads him to actually become made in the play. Then when he actually does go mad in the play Hamlet has no idea that he has. Therefore, he still believes that he is in control of the situation. This allows Claudius the opportunity to plan Hamlet’s death.
In conclusion while Hamlet did suffer from the inability to act, it was not his inability to act the caused his death. Rather it was his tendency to go from inaction to overreaction. Had Hamlet reacted with reason when he noticed someone behind Gertrude’s curtains then Polonius would not have been killed, Ophelia then would not have died and Laertes would not have sought revenge against Hamlet. This would have meant that Claudius would have had no one to kill Hamlet for him and Hamlet may have succeeded in getting his revenge.
Nonetheless the flaw was not solely with Hamlet, but rather with his personality. Hamlet by nature is intellectual and philosophical. These traits do not lend themselves well to someone who is being asked to seek vengeance for someone’s death. Instead he agrees to take on the responsibility for a job that he is not qualified for. However, the tendency to be philosophical and intellectual causes Hamlet to be full of hubris. It is his hubris that allows him to confront Gertrude and demand that she no longer has relations with her husband, it is his hubris that has him sign the papers ordering Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s death. Finally, it is his hubris that stands in the way of him killing Claudius while he is praying. His hubris here is so strong that he wants to play God and send Claudius’ soul to hell
Works Cited
Froula, Josef. Shakespeare's Hamlet: A Suitable Tragic Hero According to the Standards Set Forth in Aristotle's "Poetics". 2001. Print.
Ryan, Kiernan. Shakespearean Tragedy: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. Place of Publication Not Identified: Bloomsbury Arden, 2016. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's, 2002. Print. Bradley, A C. Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare: Essential Plays, the Sonnets. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. Print.
Smith, Peter J. "The Flaw in the Flaw: Shakespeare’s Tragic Method and a Problem of Criticism." Social Shakespeare (1995): 40-61. Web. 1 June 2016.
