Hamlet's Tragic Flaw Research Paper

Ellie Isermann

Mr. Yanek

English 3A

27 January 2023

Hamlet's Tragic Flaw Hamlet's tragic flaw of overthinking causes him to go insane, acting on situations without any thought. Taylor Coleridge interprets this concept well by saying, “Hamlet’s delay, and ultimately his downfall, is caused by too much thinking: his thoughts, and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions—in other words, Hamlet is much more preoccupied with the world within than the world without..” His flaw is that he loses touch with the world around him because he is so caught up in his own thoughts of revenge. In the story, the task Hamlet's father gives him is too powerful for his mind, causing him to go mentally insane.The thought of murdering

In his mothers room, Hamlet stabs Polonius right through the curtain not knowing it was Polonius. If Hamlet would have taken a second to think about the timeline of events he could have avoided this mess. Hamlet's overall intentions are to kill Claudius, and he thought that was who was behind the curtain. This does not make sense because Hamlet just saw Claudius praying in a different room. However, Hamlet stabs his knife right through the curtain with no thought and murders Polonius. This relates to Coleridge’s interpretation when he said, “Hamlet is much more preoccupied with the world within than the world without.” Hamlet is so focused on his thoughts and how he is going to get revenge, he becomes unconscious with the real world. Killing Polonius is an example of how preoccupied his mind really was, he just killed the girl he loves’

After Hamlet unintentionally kills Ophelia's father, she goes mentally insane, but Hamlet was so caught up in his own thoughts he did not notice. Ophelia shows many signs that she is not mentally stable, for example she is unresponsive to everyone and is singing songs to herself. For example, one song she sings seems to be directed towards her father when it says, “his beard white as snow”, but then the song seems to be directed towards Hamlet when it says, “promising his love”. It is hard to tell who Ophelia is referencing because she isn’t making sense, but Hamlet did not even notice her strange behavior. In the start of the movie Hamlet treats Ophelia with great love and consideration. After the death of his father he loses track of anything else going on in the real world, even the girl he loved. This shows how deep in thought and distracted Hamlet's mind is. Coleridge interpretation states, “his thoughts, and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions.” In Hamlet's mind, the only important task is getting revenge on Claudius. If Hamlet would have taken a minute to notice the world around him he would have seen Ophelia's strange behavior, and how hard she is taking her fathers death. However, he is focused and taken over by the task of revenge; he lost sight of the world around