Is Hamlet A Tragic Hero A Weak Revenger Or A Poli
Shakespeare's Hamlet is at the outset a typical revenge play. However, it is possible to see Prince Hamlet as a more complex character as he can be seen as various combinations of a weak revenger, a tragic hero and a political misfit. In order to fully understand the world in which Hamlet finds himself, it is necessary to examine all three of these roles and either dismiss them or justify Hamlet's behaviour as a revenger.
As a tragic hero, Hamlet displays many typical qualities of a traditional hero in a Elizabethan revenge tragedy.
Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark and therefore belongs to a social elite. Hamlet can be described as being too noble to take revenge. As a very well educated scholar of Wittenberg University in Sweden he has to think extensively before taking revenge. He feels the need to question revenge yet he is reluctant to do so rashly without considerable thought "thus conscience does make cowards of us all". We see that this happens in the first few moments of the play when Hamlet doubts the ghost is his father and he needs further prompting and reassurance throughout the play "So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear". Hamlet constantly rationalises and stops himself from acting with any degree of passion. This could be seen either as a weakness or as a personal strength. Hamlet can and is frequently described, as a man with a tragic flaw, this being that his tendency to contemplate his actions is not a positive quality but that instead this brings about his downfall. Hamlet appears to many critics to be too much of an intellectual to play the role as a typical revenger "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion". Hamlet also seems to be a victim of bad luck. The accidental killing of Polonius in this mother's bedroom as well as the interception of Hamlet's ship by pirates and his subsequent return to Denmark are two...
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