Thursday, March 21, 2013

Explore hubris, hamarita, and how these apply to Hamlet's death and the fall of Denmark.

Hamartia is a fatal fault in hero's  character which leads to his tragic end. In case of Hamlet ,his tragic death is the result of a fatal fault in his own character. In the play we see that Hamlet gets many chances to kill Claudius but he thinks a lot about whether to kill him or not.And everytime his noble and philosophic nature stops him from killing Claudius and because of which finallyhe had to fight but then everything is planned by Claudius which results in Hamlet's death and death of all other major characters.These fatal faults in Hamlet's character are : he thinks too much (his over thinking tendency ),His honesty ,and goodness.All these results in Hamlet's death and finally the fall of Denmark.Hubris is the presence of excessive pride and arrogance in the character.One of the major reason   his death is his arrogance and his pride in his father.Hamlet's indecisiveness is the result of hubris.Throughout the play he is not able to overcome the death of his father which brings him into the state of deprression.His great pride in his father prevents him from attending and accepting the re-marriage of his mother.He pride in his parents leads him to mental conflictsand depression when he sees his mother marrying his uncle.His pride is hurt when he finds thatsoon after the death of his father,his mother marrying his uncle.He feels that blood of such woman is there in his veins and this makes him feel very low.Because of this he develops a kind of hatred towards women and thus never proposes Ophelia (who truly loves him ) for marriage.His arrogant treatment of Ophelia makes her feel betrayed and she commits sucide.Thus losses innocent Ophelia and his love as a result of his arrogance.His arrogance also prevents from getting people in his favor though he is a Prince. When Hamlet kills Polonius by mistake,there is no guilt in him for this act.It is because of his arrogance that Laertes turns out as his opponent.All these things finally leads to his death ,leaving no Prince for Denmark and thus results in the downfall of Denmark.

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