Hamlet - Hero or Villain

In the world of Williams Shakespeare, there have been plenty of stories and plays of love tragedies. Among these love tragedies is the story of Hamlet. Hamlet revolves around love and madness. In the play, madness did overpower love, especially between Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship. In the play, there have been many questions about whether Hamlet did love Ophelia. There’s evidence arguing Hamlet never loved Ophelia by the way he acts towards her throughout the play, but by the way he acts around Ophelia when he was alone with her, he really did love her. When Hamlet finds out that Polonius and Claudius are using Ophelia to spy on him, Hamlet uses bitter and harsh language towards Ophelia, but he goes overboard. For Hamlet, Ophelia’s

Hamlet has many noble and brave characteristics, this is one of the reasons he is a tragic hero. Hamlet’s promise to avenge his father’s death makes him noble because loyalty is part of chivalry, one of the main aspects of being noble. Also, Hamlet is very brave. When he found out that he was going to be executed, he had to make a choice to save himself or kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to avenge his father, because the risk he took could cause him to be actually executed. When the pirates attacked the ship, he escaped to carry out his promise that he made to his father’s ghost.

In an exchange with Ophelia, Hamlet told her to not be a harlot and go be a nun instead. Naturally, this threw Ophelia off and was convinced Hamlet went mad. Hamlet appeared to hate her, and the emotional abuse took a toll on her. It proved itself when her father died. She became mad herself, and committed suicide. At Ophelia's funeral, Hamlet says to Laertes, "I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers/ Could not with all their quantity of love/ Make up my sum. What will thou do for her?" (V.i.236-238). Hamlet's tone took a one-eighty. When Hamlet found out the funeral he was about to witness was Ophelia's, he jumped into her grave and professed his love to her. He went into a spiel about how he'd do anything for her. In reality he did love her, yet he didn't show it. He displayed his love only after the damage was done. Hamlet had some karma coming his way for the way he treated Ophelia, which was then served by Rosencrantz and

Hamlet, the titled character of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare’s most prominent play, is arguably the most complex, relatable, and deep character created by Shakespeare. His actions and thoughts throughout the play show the audience how fully developed and unpredictable he is with his mixed personalities. What Hamlet goes through in the play defines the adventures encountered by a tragic hero. In this timeless tragedy, despite Hamlet’s great nobility and knowledge, he has a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to his ironic death.

In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, is seen as a fair maiden who wants her love with Hamlet to be eternal. Due to the many warnings from her father Polonius and her brother Laertes, she succumbs to her father’s wishes and plays the role of a good daughter, thus betraying Hamlet. Previously in the play where Hamlet gives his soliloquy on life and death, Ophelia has been ordered to break off her relationship with Hamlet while Polonius eavesdrops to prove that Hamlet has truly gone mad. As a result of Hamlet’s supposed madness and Ophelia’s docile character during the confrontation, both of their fragile hearts shatter and Ophelia begins her dark descent into madness, leading to her eventual death.

      In many plays there is always one person that is the tragic hero. They always possess some type of tragic flaw that in turn leads to their tragic deaths. In the Shakespearean play Hamlet the main character Hamlet is considered to be a tragic hero. By carefully analyzing the Shakespearean play Hamlet one can debate whether the main character Hamlet is a tragic hero. Although it is debatable whether or not Hamlet is a tragic

Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is never clearly explained through the duration of the story. At Ophelia’s funeral, he blatantly says “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?”(VI.i.285-287) Some may be led to believe that this is true and spoken from his heart; and others look at the way that Hamlet treated her, and how he is the reason for her madness,

Portrayed as a woman who is so consumed with her love for Hamlet that she is willing to sacrifice her life for him, Ophelia is mangled between listening to her heart versus the conflicting opinion of Hamlet from her father and brother. In Shakespeare’s extensive play of Hamlet, Ophelia’s character is predicted in a different, more negative manner than that of the male roles in the story, where she soon has no chance of redemption and is subject to the decisions that the dominant men in her life designate. Her understanding of love is overly complicated due to her lack of knowledge and experience in the subject. Through Ophelia’s obsessive desire to comply, Shakespeare displays Ophelia’s insanity that resulted from her quandary and lead

Ophelia is considered one of the most difficult roles to play in Hamlet due to the character’s strong possession of obscurity. She was torn between the dilemma of whether to listen to her father and brother that Hamlet would leave her or whether to trust her heart and instinct and devote herself to Hamlet. Ophelia’s family believed her to be the eternal virgin and the vessel of morality who had the purpose to become a dutiful wife and devoted mother – they strongly believed Hamlet would only take her virginity and destroy all her opportunity and life potential. To Hamlet, Ophelia was a sexual object had no worth or potential of becoming his wife. In her heart she was convinced he loved her, although Hamlet was adamant he never did.

The villain and the hero in any plot are basically the same person. The only difference is that the hero settles for less and is content with what he has and the villain always desires more and is discontent with his life. Many people are discontent whether it be from not having enough money, not strong enough relationships, or imperfect lifestyles. Hamlet is discontent with his life and always asking and scheming for more. The constant stream of wanting more eventually dries up and Hamlet is left with nothing but bitter death and destruction. William Shakespeare Hamlet to represent the discontentment and how never settling for anything and always searching for more instead of being content leads to self destruction.

In many senses, Hamlet is the true tragic hero. He does not only begin with some noble motivations, but in the end, his situation is so desperate that the only plausible final action would be his death. Hamlet does not live to see the outcomes of his actions which importantly, is because he endures a tragic flaw. There are a number of flaws he possesses in himself.

Moreover, since the only role model Hamlet had was his vengeful father, Hamlet’s chance as a hero diminished immediately. In this play, the hero role is nonexistent to begin with because every situation and character fails or dies. Ideally, to be the hero Hamlet would seek revenge on Claudius for his father, and not die or suffer. Hamlet is a weak hero, he does not have mental or physical health, he is unstable, and overall not someone that can embody a hero. He was not even a hero to himself, he drove himself insane and ended up dead. I believe this played out the way it did because Hamlet’s father figure was a violent one. If Hamlet’s father revisited him in a way that created peace, not violence, only then Hamlet could have hope to become

Hamlet is widely regarded as the archetypal Shakespearean tragic hero, but does that title truly befit him? A Shakespearean tragic hero is generally defined as being a good person of high stature who elicits pity or fear from the audience. He must possess a quality which would ordinarily be a virtue, but which under the circumstances of the play serves as a fatal flaw. He suffers both outwardly through ostracization and inwardly by means of a tormented conscience. Finally, a tragic hero always meets his inevitable death in the end. Although Hamlet is of noble birth and dies in the end, he does not elicit pity or fear, does not possess a hamartia that would ordinarily be a virtue, and is not ostracized and therefore does not struggle externally.

During Ophelia’s burial, Hamlet says, “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum.” (4.1.252-254). This event shows he indeed had sincere feelings for Ophelia. He has the emotions and actions of a normal guy, a normal guy who once more deals with the weight of grief.

In the play “Hamlet”, Shakespeare dramatises the revenge found within Prince Hamlet when he is greeted upon by his father’s ghost who calls for him to avenge his death. Throughout the play you come to find that Hamlet’s uncle is the one that killed his father, in order to steal the fair maiden and the throne . With these occurrences happening in Hamlet’s life he is known as a tragic hero. It takes three things to be considered a Tragic Hero: Being from Noble Blood, has a tragic flaw, and experiences a downfall. Hamlet begins with noble intentions whenever he introduced to a new conflict, throughout the play his never ending peril and conflicts reign over him until his death. Sadly, Hamlet died before he could see any of the outcomes from his actions. In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” the leading character, Hamlet faces three turning points that caused him to ultimately be named a Tragic hero: the death of his father, the impeccable use of his words, and his ability to fake his madness to get a confession from his uncle, which ultimately ended with his demise.