Hamlet Tragic Flaw

In William Shakespeare’s notable tragedy, Hamlet, Hamlet is faced with a tragic flaw. A tragic flaw is the failing of the tragic hero, and in this case Hamlet is faced with multiple flaws that end up in his demise. Hamlets tragic flaw is a combination of hesitation, fate, and hubris. Hamlet is certainly faced with much hesitation in his decisions and this indecisiveness ruined him. A perfect example of his indecision is in the famous soliloquy “To be or not to be.” Hamlet spends too much time thinking through whether or not he should avenge his fathers death, that he misses multiple opportunities to do so. As a result of this, Hamlet begins to act impulsively at inopportune times (when he accidentally stabs Polonius from behind the curtain,

Hamlet, in a sense, is fated to his own destruction. When Hamlet says “O wicked spite that ever I was born to set it right,” he is acknowledging that he is fated to the act and the consequences of that act. When Hamlet is preparing for the duel with Laertes, he tells Horatio of what he discovered lying in bed the night before. He says “there’s a divinity that shapes our ends”(5.2.10). Horatio tells Hamlet that he should not fight because he believes Hamlet will lose and suspects it is a trap, which Hamlet had already suspected it was a trap. He knows that he is to face death and he accepts his fate by accepting the duel. Before the duel Hamlet has a few remarks and it shows his acceptance with fate. He says “ There is 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 know, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be. (5.2 189-193) This is Hamlet’s acceptance with fate. He has struggled throughout the play with confronting his destiny, and he is finally ready because he has finally come to believe that fate exists and that one must always be ready to confront their fate. He has grown from a hesitant “coward” to a man who has come to terms with death. This is also Hamlet’s only philosophical answer instead of question throughout the play. “Let be,” shows us how far Hamlet has

Hubris is the excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods. Hamlet had the golden opportunity to kill Claudius in the chapel not long after he proved Claudius guilty. He was able to act and had the chance to kill him, however this was not the case. His hubris stepped in and he wanted to ensure that the soul of Claudius be sent straight to hell. It was in this moment that Hamlet doomed himself. Taking the life of another, any human can do, but taking the soul of another was in God’s territory and when Hamlet decides that he will act as God, he leads himself to his own destruction.