Fatal Flaws In Hamlet
Edward Armstrong
Mr. Gallagher
Fatal Flaw Throughout Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet uses his emotions to manipulate people. He fools Ophelia into believing he is madly in love with her, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into thinking that he is depressed and Polonius into thinking that he is insane. While his controlled array of emotions makes Hamlet appear emotionally stable, they are instead simply an outward display of Hamlet’s tremendous acting ability. In reality, Hamlet is emotionally volatile and uncontrollable. He is unable to find equilibrium and is forced to extremes. Hamlet is either active or passive, moral or amoral. Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles to become proactive, and seems to be willing to sacrifice …show more content…
At the beginning of the play, Hamlet was thoughtful, moral, and passive. A new, barely recognizable Hamlet emerges at the end. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet has numerous page-long soliloquies, and as the play progresses these become less frequent. The decline in speeches made by Hamlet marks the loss of his thoughtful, contemplative side. As Hamlet becomes more thoughtless, he commits immoral, and dangerous deeds. This very lack of thought causes Hamlet’s demise. Hamlet’s lack of foresight is displayed in an incident in which he is confronted with a dangerous situation. Instead of appealing to Horatio’s reasoning, Hamlet enters a situation that he admits seems like a trap. He defends his decision to fall for the king’s trap with the following logic: “Not a whit. We defy augury. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come— the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be”(318). While his actions are proactive, they are also stubborn. Through his disregard of feeling in favor of fatalism, Hamlet has made the ultimate sacrifice - his brain and reasoning - to kill the
Mr. Gallagher
Fatal Flaw Throughout Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet uses his emotions to manipulate people. He fools Ophelia into believing he is madly in love with her, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into thinking that he is depressed and Polonius into thinking that he is insane. While his controlled array of emotions makes Hamlet appear emotionally stable, they are instead simply an outward display of Hamlet’s tremendous acting ability. In reality, Hamlet is emotionally volatile and uncontrollable. He is unable to find equilibrium and is forced to extremes. Hamlet is either active or passive, moral or amoral. Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles to become proactive, and seems to be willing to sacrifice …show more content…
At the beginning of the play, Hamlet was thoughtful, moral, and passive. A new, barely recognizable Hamlet emerges at the end. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet has numerous page-long soliloquies, and as the play progresses these become less frequent. The decline in speeches made by Hamlet marks the loss of his thoughtful, contemplative side. As Hamlet becomes more thoughtless, he commits immoral, and dangerous deeds. This very lack of thought causes Hamlet’s demise. Hamlet’s lack of foresight is displayed in an incident in which he is confronted with a dangerous situation. Instead of appealing to Horatio’s reasoning, Hamlet enters a situation that he admits seems like a trap. He defends his decision to fall for the king’s trap with the following logic: “Not a whit. We defy augury. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come— the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be”(318). While his actions are proactive, they are also stubborn. Through his disregard of feeling in favor of fatalism, Hamlet has made the ultimate sacrifice - his brain and reasoning - to kill the