Hamlet views Essay

The essential component to any Elizabethan tragedy is a protagonist with a fatal flaw. In Elizabethan tragedy this is called hamartia. This Latin term translates directly into the word â€Å"flaw† but is usually used to describe an excess of a personality trait – virtue or vice. The protagonist’s fatal flaw pushes the the plot and action of the tragedy forward. It is this tragic flaw, which leads to the eventual downfall of the character, his circumstances, and the denouement of the drama. In examining the bulk of the literature’s protagonists, no other character embodies the essential role of the flawed protagonist like Hamlet. Hamlet’s fatal flaw is his idealism. Only once Hamlet overcomes his idealism is he able to seek his revenge. The climax of the play occurs with Hamlet’s realization that the world is not as it seems and that he must shrug off his idealistic values and avenge his father’s murder Act 3, scene 4. It is within Act 4, that Hamlet carries out his revenge. The issues of love, hate, jealous, incest, power struggle, revenge, and most importantly maturation of the protagonist. These themes are all present in Hamlet, and were theater elements there were not just enjoyed by Elizabethan audiences but also expected. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, act 4 scene 4, are pivotal within the play. The scene centers around Hamlet’s speech (lines x-x). Hamlet is left alone on stage and reviews the events that occurred to this point in the play and what he must now do. Hamlet begins â€Å"How all occasions do inform against me, / And spur my dull revenge! † He clearly knows that he must, now, take his revenge. He asks himself, and the audience, â€Å"What is a man† and continues that a man should be â€Å"a beast, no more† and exhibit â€Å"god-like reason†. Hamlet holds on to his idealism much of the play but in the end, being born and raised as an Elizabethan, he knows he must not be â€Å" one part wisdom / And ever three parts coward. â€Å" It is honor that is most important to him. He continues â€Å"When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then, / That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, / Excitements of my reason and my blood, / And let all sleep? † Hamlet understands that to be a man he must seek carry out his revenge and he does. Act 3 centers around Hamlet speaking like a jealous lover chastising his girlfriend for sleeping with a different man and making their bed â€Å"enseamed†. The Queen is extremely upset and actually asks Hamlet to help her figure out what to do. At this point when Hamlet should have told her to confess, he urges her to stop her relationship with Claudius, â€Å"Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed† (Act III, sc iv). It is in the moment that Hamlet allows his emotion to dominate over his intellect that Claudius was killed. He is consumed by the thoughts of his father’s demise and is haunted by the knowledge that his father’s soul will not be able to rest until his death is avenged. Hamlet willfully concludes, â€Å"My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth† (Act IV sc iv). It is then that Hamlet finally had the ability to suppress his idealistic nature, and do what is right. The murder is not a well planned scheme and occurs in the heat of the moment. Hamlet, after the murder of Claudius never once wavers in his decision. He has done what is right and believes that â€Å"There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow† (Act V sc ii). Hamlet is able to do anything but take vengeance upon the man who did away with his father and has taken his father’s place with his mother. The pain which should have caused him to take immediate revenge was replaced by pity for himself. It is Hamlet’s idealistic nature that creates the ultimate theme and driving force behind all the rising action, falling action, and resolution of this tragedy as well as the death of his mother. The way in which Hamlet views his mother, father, and Claudius is finally revealed in Act IV. Once Hamlet is able to be honest about his feelings, he is able to finally seek revenge for his father’s murder. This scene is pivotal to denouement of the play and essential to Hamlet’s transformation from a boy to man who embodies the important qualities which were cherished and expect by an Elizabethan audiences. In Shakespearean tragedies, the protagonist must die and on the way to his death many people die with him. It is the ultimate act of revenge which appeals to the Elizabethan audience and has made Hamlet a timeless classic.