Hamlet- A Tragic Hero?

Lu1993

How would you go about it?

mgsg27

The Tragic Hero in a play is a character who is essentially noble but external forces (Claudius) combined with his own internal flaw (procrastination) bring about his tragic downfall and death. Hamlet is a noble, intelluctual prince. The audience admires him. But fate conspires against him and his own character is not strong enough to do what is necessary (kill Claudius quickly). His downfall begins and he moves from a position of centrality(the Prince-centre of the court) and isolates himself because he distrusts everyone else. Near the end of the play he gains self knowledge and matures but his downfall and death is inevitable.
I had this question and wasn't fully certain how to deal with it but I just threw in these kind of points here and there.

GoldRush4821

Intro - what defines a tragic hero? Essentially noble, deeply flawed and pays through suffering and death for the mistakes in his character.

From here you could go about it in many ways. What I plan to do is something like this:

Point 1 - How do we know Hamlet is noble(or potentially noble)? Loads of quotes from Ophelia, Horatio, Fortinbras and Claudius himself. You could possibly flesh this out to two good paragraphs. By the end, you've proved he is potentially noble.

Point 2 - Deeply flawed. So many things you could look at here. His cruelty towards women, his unscrupulous behaviour in relation to the deaths of Polonius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and probably most importantly of all for this question, his procrastination in the killing of Claudius which has such a profound effect on the denouement of the play. Again, this can be fleshed out to two or more paragraphs.

Point 3 - Describe the suffering Hamlet endures as a result of his flawed character i.e Act 5 Scene 2 and his death at the hands of Laertes. Here, you can tie in how Hamlet's indecision and procrastination in killing Claudius directly contributes to his own downfall. I would go into good detail describing the final scene and the admirable way in which Hamlet deals with Claudius, how he exacts his revenge in full view of the court while Claudius resorts to underhanded means such as poisoning the tip of Laertes' foil.

Conclusion - I'd keep it short, stating that Hamlet is the ultimate/quintessential tragic hero. He satisfies the above criteria (as in the introduction) and while he possesses many undesirable character traits, the audience ultimately comes to respect Hamlet for the dignified way in which he avenges his father. His patriotic concern for the good of Denmark at the end is a good point to close on, as he declares that Fortinbras is to succeed him.

Overall, that should give you an idea of what you should be writing. At the same time, I know my answer won't be perfect so any feedback will be appreciated because it has a good chance of coming up on the actual LC.