Is Hamlet a Tragic Hero?
An Aristotelian tragic hero must possess specific characteristics:
1) Error of judgment
2) A reversal of fortune brought about because of the hero's error in judgment
3) The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions 4) Excessive Pride
5) The character's fate must be greater than deserved.
Hamlet is a tragic hero because he dies trying to avenge his father’s death, but he is not entirely a tragic hero due to his antagonist not being the source of his death. Instead of being victim to Claudius, Hamlet dies through Laertes’ blade.
1) Error of judgment
2) A reversal of fortune brought about because of the hero's error in judgment
3) The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions 4) Excessive Pride
5) The character's fate must be greater than deserved.
Hamlet is a tragic hero because he dies trying to avenge his father’s death, but he is not entirely a tragic hero due to his antagonist not being the source of his death. Instead of being victim to Claudius, Hamlet dies through Laertes’ blade.
Connection to Other Acts
As Act 5 concludes the play, all events in the previous Acts are resolved, in a somewhat violent manner, in this Act. For example, the tension between Ophelia and Hamlet that is developed in Acts 3 and then her eventual suicide in Act 4 is resolved in Act 5 Scene 1, where her funeral occurs. At the funeral, the fact that she gets a Christian burial despite the fact that she committed suicide is brought into great scrutiny by Shakespeare during the Gravediggers’ dialogue. Hamlet’s maniac bought that brought Polonius’ death had unintended consequence of bringing Ophelia to insanity, in which she drowns herself. In Christian belief, a soul that is separated from the body purposely, meaning they killed themselves, cannot be buried near a church. It is because of this the grave digger goes on the describe what defines a suicide, which could only serve to add Hamlet’s guilt over Ophelia’s death, as when he says “I loved her more than a thousand brothers”