Hamlet | Key Characters & Character Analysis

Hamlet Character Studies

The reasons for Hamlet's delay have led to various critical interpretations of his character. One critical perspective treats the prince as atragic hero having three prominent characteristics: awillpower that surpasses average human beings, an extraordinarily intense power of feeling, and an unusually high level of intelligence. Each of these traits can be found in Hamlet, but the ambiguity surrounding his tragic flaw, or the defect in his character that leads to his downfall, remains the subject of critical debate. One argument is that the prince's fatal error which causes him to delay killing Claudius is his preoccupation with moral beauty and, with its loss in Denmark, his desire to die. Hamlet's obsession with death and suicide thus demonstrates that even before he encounters the Ghost, he has lost the will to involve himself in worldly affairs. This notion corresponds to another important reading of the prince as avictim of excessive...
(read more)