hamlet and macbeth comparison Essays - Characters In Macbeth

Hamlet and Macbeth both have a fatal flaw that leads to the death of them both. Hamlet's death could have been avoided many times. Hamlet had many opportunities to kill Claudius, but didn?t take advantage of them. He could have told the whole public what Claudius had done, but chose not to. A tragic hero doesn't need to be good. Macbeth was evil, yet he was a tragic hero. He also had only one flaw, and that was pride. He had many good traits such as bravery, but his one bad trait made him evil. Hamlet is many things: scholar, speaker, actor, prince. His greatness shows in all of activities. For some reason, Hamlet is not able to avenge his father's death without first wasting a bunch of time. There is one major flaw in Hamlet's character which causes him to postpone the murder of Claudius. I believe that this flaw is Hamlet's idealism. While this is certainly a good trait, in this case, because of Hamlet's environment and the circumstances which happen to him, his idealism causes great conflicts within him. He has a really hard time realizing all of the evil that surrounds him in a very corrupt world. He should be a pretty bitter man because of the world he lives in, but he seems to still have hope for the best. He is sometimes able to suppress his anger towards life in "prison", sometimes not. This anger, along with his need for revenge, places a great amount of stress on Hamlet. Eventually, this stress became so great that it forced him to act. He couldn't get around to d oing anything, because he couldn't move on. He was a full grown adult, yet he still attended school in England, because he couldn't move on. Also, it took him a long time to stop grieving about his father, because he didn't want to move past that part of his life. After he finally did, Hamlet couldn't get around to killing Claudius. He kept pretending he was insane even after he was sure that Claudius killed his father. The three points which contribute greatly to Macbeth's destruction are the prophecy which was told to him by the witches, how Lady Macbeth manipulated Macbeth, and finally Macbeth's ambition which drove his desire to be king. If it had not been for the witches telling him that he was to be Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King of Scotland, Macbeth would still be his regular self. Hearing the prophecies made Macbeth curious about how he could be King of Scotland. As the play progresses, Macbeth relies on the witches prophecies more and more. Lady Macbeth plays an important role in this play because she provided a scheme which caused Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan. After Macbeth had killed King Duncan, he later regrets on his wrong doing. At the point in the play the audience can totally see the change in Macbeth's character. Macbeth's first murder was a bad experience for him, but after the first murder, killing seemed to be the only solution to maintain his being King of Sco tland. Macbeth's ambition alone had not been strong enough to kill King Duncan without Lady Macbeth's influence. Macbeth's ambition influenced the actions of his new character. This new character of Macbeth contained greed, violence, and power hunger. Macbeth shows this when he kills King Duncan. Aristotle quotes, "A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." Hamlet and Macbeth are such characters who portray as tragic heroes through their nobility, tragic flaws, and errors in judgment. In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet is deeply hurt by his father?s death and his mother, Queen Gertrude?s remarriage to his uncle, Claudius. The ghost of Hamlet?s father appears to him and tells him that Claudius is the one who poisoned him. Hamlet swears to take revenge of his father?s murder. He kills Polonius, the court chamberlain. Polonius? son, Laertes returns to Denmark to avenge his father?s death. Polonius? daughter, Ophelia loves Prince Hamlet, but his attitude and behaviour makes her insane and she dies by drowning. A fight takes place and ends with the death of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet.