Did Hamlet's Personality Lead To His Fate?

Did Hamlet’s Personality Lead to His Fate?
The tragedy “Hamlet”, by William Shakespeare tells the story of how a son, Hamlet, handles his father’s murder by his own brother. This story ends with Hamlet and the current king, Claudius, attempting to kill each other and both succeeding. In this essay I will explore how Hamlet’s death was due to several tragic flaws in his personality. Based on his immature, unstable/suicidal, and obsessive qualities, I argue that Hamlet is to blame for his own fate.
Hamlet’s immaturity is evident from the beginning of the play and first becomes visible in his love for Ophelia. It is evident that Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, but he is unable to trust her with what he knows and why he is going mad. A mature adult

These qualities are evident from the very beginning of the play when Hamlet says, “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed, His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!” (Shakespeare, 1.2) This passage essentially shows Hamlet wishing for himself to die because of his father’s death and mother’s remarriage. It is expected that a person would be devastated after what Hamlet has gone through but wishing for death shows his instability and suicidal nature. His suicidal thoughts are further enhanced in scene 3.1 when he gives his famous soliloquy. This soliloquy begins with the line “To be, or not to be: that is the question” (Shakespeare, 3.1) and continues to explore suicide and if life is worth living. When Hamlet says this, he is talking to himself and the fact that he is having these thoughts all on his own shows how incredibly unstable he is as a person. Hamlet’s instability not only stems from his suicidal thoughts but also is seen in his quest for revenge. When Hamlet is talking to his mother and becomes aware that someone is listening to their conversation from behind the curtains, he stabs the person without determining who it is. He thought the person was Claudius and by stabbing him he would complete his revenge, but it turns out it was Polonius. Polonius is essentially innocent but is killed

This quality first manifests when the ghost tells Hamlet of how his father was killed and Hamlet begins to plan revenge on Claudius. The first obsessive moment we see is in scene 3.2 when Hamlet writes an entire play that essentially shows how Claudius killed his father. The purpose of this play was to show Claudius that someone knows and to see how he reacts to the play. The fact that Hamlet went through the trouble of writing an entire play just to see the reaction of one man is entirely obsessive. From this point on the obsessiveness is only magnified as Hamlet tries to find a way to kill Claudius. Following the play Hamlet walks in on Claudius praying and could complete his revenge, but he decides not to. Hamlet says, “A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send, To heaven.” (Shakespeare, 3.3) This quote is essentially saying that he can’t kill Claudius now because he is praying and will thus be sent to heaven. This shows how much Hamlet has obsessed over this revenge and how perfect it must be. When Claudius observes the obsessive behavior, he fears what Hamlet might do and it leads to him deciding that Hamlet must be