William Shakespeare and His Plays
William Shakespeare was a great author during his time. He was one of the pioneers of playwriting since he came up with incredible plays, which were completely unique from anything the world had seen before. One of the primary focuses in most of Shakespeare's plays was the human spirit. He tried to explore how the human spirit behaved when it was challenged and explored the limits of language use when he used his own invented words in plays.
Hamlet: A Memorable Play
One of Shakespeare's most famous plays is Hamlet. This play contains a lot of memorable aspects and some of the most legendary characters in the literary world. The play narrates the story of Prince Hamlet whose dad is killed by his own brother, Claudius. Furthermore, Claudius ends up remarrying Hamlet's mothers, Gertrude. Hamlet becomes an essential character in the play since he is faced with many choices to make and this deepens the plot of the play. From the play, it becomes clear that the narrative is about the mysterious life of Hamlet and his experiences with his unstable emotions and the struggle to figure out his own life with the conflicted feelings he experiences from external factors. From an analysis of the play, it becomes apparent that the position 'in tragedy, all the main characters are tragic' is true since all the main characters in the play except for Hamlet possess tragic characteristics, which in the end lead to their downfall.
Claudius's Tragic Nature
The notion that all characters have a tragic nature that leads to their downfall is true in Claudius's case. According to play, Claudius faces a myriad of tragic characteristics which lead him to kill his brother, marry his wife and even plots to kill his own nephew, Hamlet. From the play, Shakespeare portrays Claudius as a selfish, hypocritical and inconsiderate individual that lacks any remorse or conscience. However, although he possesses these negative characteristics and manages to acquire the power he seeks and the woman he craves, they lead to his destruction (Shakespeare). Hamlet plans severally to kill his uncle to execute the revenge he wanted for his father's death but fails since he convinces himself not to do it. Nonetheless, in the end, Hamlet finally succeeds in ending his uncle's life, and this signifies the destruction of Claudius as a result of his of his tragic nature.
Gertrude's Tragic Fate
Similarly, Gertrude also portrays a tragic character which ultimately leads to her destruction. In the play, we see Gertrude lose her husband the Kind of Denmark to sudden and unexplainable death. However, after her husband's death, Gertrude simply moves on by marrying Claudius rather than staying true to her husband's memory. Furthermore, according to Maria Aristodemou's article dubbed "To Be or Not to Be a (Dead) Father," the ghost accuses Gertrude of cheating and committing adultery. It becomes clear that Gertrude is guilty of cheating on his husband the King but no one, in particular, is mentioned, but there is an allusion to the fact that Gertrude possesses some tragic behaviors. Gertrude, therefore, ends up succumbing due to her tragic behaviors after she drinks the poison meant for her son Hamlet from her new husband, Claudius. Given this, it is evident that Gertrude encounters her destruction as a result of choosing to marry her husband's brother immediately after his death.
Polonius's Downfall
Consequently, Polonius self-absorbed and controlling character leads to his downfall. First, Polonius desires to be close to King Claudius, and this prompts him to use his daughter, Ophelia, to capture Hamlet. Moreover, he was not happy with the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet. He disregards his daughter's feelings about Hamlet, and in the play, Polonius tells her, "You'll tender me a fool," to mean that if she falls in love with Hamlet, he would appear stupid before the king and other people (Shakespeare). He had the ability to control his daughter, and he fails to consider how Ophelia felt about his character. In fact, he desires to have an excellent status in the society, and if Ophelia disobeys his advice, he cautions her by demeaning her and not showing any emotional remorse. In the end, his negative character contributes to his death because of his selfishness and self-absorbed character. When they collaborate with the king to spy on Hamlet, he is slain by the latter, and this leads to his downfall. Therefore, Polonius selfish character contributes to his tragedy because he focuses on creating his image that catering for his daughter.
Ophelia's Tragic Life
Finally, Ophelia's submissive character weakened her ability to fight for her rights, hence the reason for her tragedy. In the play, the character is obedient and innocent because she always followed her father's, Polonius, commands. For instance, Ophelia is in love with Hamlet, but her father commands her to stop seeing the latter, and she gladly obeys. She does this without considering her emotions because she wants to uphold her father's reputation. Furthermore, when Polonius uses her as bait to spy on Hamlet, she gladly accepts, even though it hurt her to cheat to someone she dearly loves (Shakespeare). Consequently, she fails to defend herself when Hamlet accuses her of pretending to be a moral woman when he learns that Polonius was using his daughter to spy on him. However, Ophelia's situation changes when his father dies. She becomes mad and appears before the king and queen to explain her predicament. Later in the play, Gertrude highlights that Ophelia drowns and she never tries to save herself. Clearly, Ophelia lives a controlled life, and this denies her happiness; and from Gertrude's explanation, she never hesitates to drown.
The Tragic Endings
The characters, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, and Ophelia's character led to their tragic endings. They all had negative characters that hinder them from thinking objectively to evade their deaths. Moreover, they all play a part in plotting against Hamlet, and all their plans were unsuccessful. For instance, Claudius dies when he consumes poison meant for Hamlet and Polonius was slain by the latter when he was spying on him. Hamlet succeeds in avenging his father's despite these individuals plotting against him. Ophelia's death was unique among the four characters because she loves Hamlet and feels bad spying on him. Besides, she loves Hamlet, but she follows her father's commands since Polonius concern is to uphold his reputation to the king. In the end, she dies because of her father's death and possibly regrets for living under her father's commands and being unable to indulge in her dreams and desires. In this view, the 'in tragedy, all the main characters are tragic' is affirmable since the four characters' features restrain them from being objective in their reasoning, hence their deaths.
Works Cited
Aristodemou, Maria. "To be or not to be a (dead) father." Journal of International Dispute Settlement, vol. 9, no. 1 (2017): Pp. 103-122.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. New Folger's ed. New York: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1992.
