What Makes Hamlet's Tragic Flaw

Laura Mercado
Lori Logue
English 1010
19 October 2014
Hamlet’s Tragic Flaw
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is a play that was written by one of the world’s most influential writers, William Shakespeare, roughly between 1599 and 1602. Till this very day, this play continues to be one of the best known plays in society. This is due to the fact that simply this play was well written. William Shakespeare did a phenomenal job with the plot making it so that anybody that encounters the book is kept on their toes throughout the whole play. The play takes place in the late medieval period in Denmark, and is centered around its main character Hamlet. Hamlet, is the Prince of Denmark, and also the son of the deceased King. While Hamlet is having

Hamlet was very impulsive with his decisions. He choose to act rashly and impulsively without taking the time to check out situations thoroughly which unfortunately led to devastating consequences. Throughout the story, Hamlet struggled with the ability to control his strong emotions which led to his impulsive behavior. In Hamlet there were two big, significant occasions in which Hamlet’s hasty actions were done without forethought, and led to a great deal of trouble in the

The guards, both Barnardo and Francisco, had seen a ghost so they decided to bring Horatio to their watch with them. The ghost appeared and Horatio tried to make some sort of conversation with the ghost, but the ghost replied with nothing, and that’s when they decided to inform Prince Hamlet of their strange encounter. As soon as Hamlet was notified of the situation he decided to go see the ghost for himself. Upon seeing the ghost it summoned Hamlet to follow it. The night guards and Horatio being more reasonable than Hamlet at the time, tried to hold him back from going. They warned him not once, but multiple times of the dangers that could occur, such as the ghost bringing harm to Hamlet or even causing him to go insane. Hamlet being fearless, simply replied with “Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee. And for my soul, what can it do to that, being a thing immortal as itself”? (1.4 71-74) With this Hamlet is saying that he almost sets no value to his own life, and he doesn’t think this ghost could cause any harm to his soul. With saying that, Horatio and the guards reluctantly let Hamlet leave with the ghost. Once they were alone the ghost revealed to him that he himself was Hamlets father, and was murdered by his brother Claudius whom which was now king. This `encounter of the ghost is what really stirred up things. If Hamlet would have