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Hamlet Essay

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Submitted By sccrisos
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Stephanie Crisostomo
December 16, 2010
ENC1102
Final Exam Part IV

Hamlet is considered a classic example of a tragedy. The primary reason it is considered a tragedy is because he dies in the end and is unable to see the full outcome of his actions. However, the reason for his death was his tragic flaw of error in judgment.
According to Aristotle a tragic hero must have certain characteristics that make him a tragic hero. For example the definition of a tragic hero is, “A character of noble stature and has greatness. They must occupy a high status position but must also embody nobility and virtue as part of his innate character.” (Litonline) This is exactly the type of person that hamlet portrays to be.
Another characteristic of a tragic hero that Hamlet has is his downfall that is his own fault. This is a result of his free choice, which in fact was triggered by some error of judgment or some character flaw that contributed to his lack of perfection. Although Hamlet is depicted as being predominantly great, it is clearly evident at the end that he is not perfect.
Although his fall is considered tragic because it resulted in death, his fall is not pure loss. Since there was some increase in awareness, gain in self-knowledge, and discovery on his part, his reason for doing what he did was not a waste of time because it had meaning that other people were able to learn from his errors.
Although Hamlet arouses solemn emotion because of his death, tragedy is not meant to leave its audience in a state of depression. Aristotle argues that one function of tragedy is to arouse the unhealthy emotions of pity and fear (Litonline). This is definitely seen in Hamlet because he is seen as a strong person who people might fear but in the end all you can feel after his death is pity because he ended his life for the revenge of another life.
In order to further prove

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