Freedom Of Rights
Shakespeare's Hamlet is at the outset a typical revenge play. However, it is possible to see Prince Hamlet as a more complex character as he can be seen as various combinations of a tragic hero, a weak revenger, and a political misfit. In order to fully understand the world in which Hamlet finds himself, it is necessary to examine all three of these roles and either dismiss them or justify Hamlet's behavior as a revenger.
As a tragic hero, Hamlet displays many typical qualities of a traditional hero in an Elizabethan revenge tragedy. Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark and therefore belongs to the social elite. Hamlet can be described as being too noble to take revenge. As a very well educated scholar of Wittenberg University in Sweden, he has to think extensively before taking revenge (Bradley 48). He feels the need to take revenge, yet he is reluctant to do so rashly without considerable thought: "thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (III, i, 91). We see that this happens in the first few moments of the play when Hamlet doubts the ghost is his father, and he needs further prompting and reassurance throughout the play: "So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear” (I, v, 7). Hamlet constantly rationalizes and stops himself from acting with any degree of passion (Bradley 50). This could be seen either as a weakness or as a personal strength. Hamlet can be (and frequently is) described as a man with a tragic flaw. He has a tendency to contemplate his actions, which is not a positive quality. Instead, this decision brings about his downfall (Muir 24). Hamlet appears to Berry Ralph to be too much of an intellectual to play the role as a typical revenger: "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion" (II, ii, 550-552). Hamlet also seems to be a victim of bad luck. The accidental killings of Polonius in his mother’s bedroom, as well as the interception of Hamlet’s ship by pirates and...
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