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Hamlet is a play written by William Shakespeare that very closely follows the dramatic conventions of revenge in Elizabethantheater. All revenge tragedies originally stemmed from the Greeks, who wrote and performed the first plays. William Shakespeare, Hamlet the is the classic example of a tragedy. In all tragedies the hero suffers, and usually dies at the end. Hamlet dies by getting cut with a poison tipped sword. But that is not all that is needed to consider a play a tragedy, and sometimes a hero doesnt even need to die.
Not every play in which a Hero dies is considered a tragedy. There are more thing needed to label a play one. Probably the most important thing is an amount of free will. In every tragedy, the characters must displays some. If every action is controlled by a heros destiny, then the heros death cant be avoided, and in a tragedy the sad part is that it could. Hamlets death could have been avoided many times.
Hamlet had many opportunities to kill Claudius, but did not take advantage of them. He also had the option of making his claim public, but instead he chose not too. A tragic hero doesnt need to be good. For example, MacBeth was evil, yet he was a tragic hero, because he had free will. He also had only one flaw, and that was pride. He had many good traits such as bravery, but his one bad trait made him evil.
Also a tragic hero doesnt have to die. In Oedipus Rex, the proud yet morally blind king plucks out his eyes, and has to spend his remaining days as a wandering, sightless beggar, guided at every painful step by his daughter, Antigone. A misconception about tragedies is that nothing good comes out of them, but it is actually the opposite... In Hamlet, although Hamlet dies, it is almost for the best. How could he have any pleasure during the rest of his life, with his parents and Ophelia dead. Also, although Hamlet dies, he is able to kill Claudius and get rid of the evil ruling the throne.
Every tragic play must have a tragic hero. The tragic hero must possess many good traits, as well as one flaw, which eventually leads to his downfall. A tragic hero must be brave and noble... A tragic hero must not back down from his position. He also has to have free will, in order to stand up for what he believes in.
Finally, the audience must have some sympathy for the tragic hero. Hamlet is the perfect example of the tragic hero. Hamlet has all the good traits needed to be a tragic hero. He is brave and daring. His loyalty to his father, was the reason he was so angry at Claudius and his Mother. He couldnt get around to doing anything, When the ghost came this and said Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder (page 1090, scene IV, line 25) because he couldnt move on.
He was a full grown adult, yet he still attended school in England, because he couldnt move on. The audience was able to feel sympathy for Hamlet too. He had just lost his father, and his mother remarried so quickly that according to him they could have used the leftover food from the funeral in the wedding reception. Also, the audience could feel that Hamlet loved his parents and this sudden change was hurting him.
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Research essay sample on Tragic Hero Hamlet Dies
