To many people William Shakespeare's Hamlet is the most vivid and descriptive
tragedy that he has ever written. In all classic tragedies the hero suffers, and
usually dies at the end. Othello stabs himself, Romeo and Juliet commit suicide,
Brutis falls on his sword, and like them, Hamlet dies by getting cut with a
poison tipped sword. But that is not the only element that is needed to consider
a play a tragedy. Many times a hero does not even need to die. There are more
ingredients needed to label a play a tragedy than just a hero and a sad ending.
If every action is controlled by a hero's destiny, then the hero's death can not
be avoided, and in a tragedy most deaths are foreshadowed by some kind of an
event and some how many of these deaths can be prevented. Hamlet's death could
have been avoided numerous times. Also Hamlet had many opportunities to kill
Claudius, but did not take advantage of them. The reason Hamlet wanted to wait
to kill Claudius is because Hamlet wanted to prove to everyone that Claudius
killed his father for one reason only, to take over the kingdom. If Hamlet had
killed Claudius with out proving to the people what Claudius had done, Hamlet
would have been just as immoral as Claudius. There are no rules in story writing
that say a hero has to be a good person, but Hamlet was a proud and noble person
and he wanted to make his father proud. A tragic hero does not always have to
die in the end of the play. While in most Shakespearean tragedies, the hero does
die, in many other plays the hero may live but suffer "Moral
Destruction" for the rest of his life. In Oedipus Rex, the proud yet
morally blind king plucks out his eyes, and has to spend his remaining days as a
wandering, sightless beggar, guided at every painful step by his daughter,
Antigone. A misconception about tragedies is that nothing good comes out of
them, but it is actually the opposite. In Romeo and Juliet both of them die to
prove their love for each other, but, in the end, they ended the feud between
the Capulets and the Montegues families. In Hamlet, although Hamlet dies, it is
almost for the best. How could he have any pleasure during the rest of his life,
with his parents and Ophelia dead? Although Hamlet dies, he is able to kill
Claudius and get rid of the evil ruling the throne. Hamlet is also successful in
proving to the entire kingdom that Claudius is an evil man for killing his
father. The tragic hero must possess many good traits, as well as one flaw,
which eventually will lead to his downfall. A tragic hero must be brave and
noble. In Othello, Othello had one fatal flaw, he was too great. Othello was too
brave, too noble, and especially too proud to allow himself to be led back to
Venice in chains. A tragic hero must not back down from his position. But Hamlet
like all other tragic hero's had a flaw. He could not get around to doing
anything, because he could not move past his father's death. He was a full grown
adult, yet he still attended school in England. Hamlet could not get around to
killing Claudius. He kept pretending he was insane even after he was sure that
Claudius killed his father. Hamlet is the perfect example of the tragic hero. He
had all good traits needed to be a tragic hero. He was brave and daring. One
example of these trait is when he went to England, he took a big risk. If his
plan had not worked, he would have been executed. He was also a very loyal
person. His loyalty to his father and the people in his village, was the reason
he was so angry at Claudius and his mother. Another trait that he was important
in his fight against evil was his intelligence. He was able to think up the idea
of faking insanity, in order to get more information about Claudius. Hamlet was
to most, the greatest tragic hero that Shakespeare ever produced. Hamlet showed
great poise in the time that surrounded his father's death. He was able to prove
that Claudius was indeed an immoral man for killing his father. Hamlet showed
the common traits that go along with a hero. He was brave, intelligent, witty,
and loyal. He fought for what was right and in the end he won. Though Hamlet may
have lost his life, he did indeed win the battle. He gave pride back to the
people in his village and pride back to the crown, which was once worn proudly
by his dead father.