The question of whether or not Hamlet is a hero, is as perplexing as Hamlet himself. Hamlet, though possesses some incredibly heroic
qualities; he is the chiefest bloom of the realm and the princely paragon of
the state, yet the difficulty of this question is apparent when an audience
considers that Hamlet can be seen as both hero and coward often in the same
scene. The same character that lacks courage to carry out the revenge, also strives hard
to be sure of his father’s murderer’s guilt and ensures that the revenge
itself should be appropriate. His actions and often inactions do not allow a
single interpretation of his character, often leaving the audience unsure of
which Hamlet they are watching.
It would seem that Hamlet’s most cowardly behavior is in his treatment of Ophelia. He loves her yet is willing to manipulate her, as Gertrude, Claudius and her own father Polonius do. When he is free from the pressures of the royal family, and before the death of his father, Hamlet is able to tell Ophelia:
“Doubt thou the
stars are fire/Doubt that the sun doth move /Doubt truth to be a liar/But never
doubt I love.”
Hamlet is here a straightforward romantic hero and the audience is enthralled by his direct, unashamedly romantic words.
By the start of act three, his desire to avenge his father’s murder has made him suspicious some correctly. When he discovers that Ophelia has been collecting information for Polonius and Gertrude, he lashes out at calling her two-faced: “God has given you one face and you make yourselves another”. Hamlet’s heroism in being willing to destroy his love for Ophelia in pursuit of the truth could be said to be noble; but the audience struggles to align the brutality of his words to innocent Ophelia: “If thou dost marry I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry/Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny/Get thee to a nunnery.”
Hamlet is famed for his procrastination: his inability to act and this could indicate cowardice on his part, a reluctance to do what is right. Certainly this appears to be true when he himself witnesses Claudius’ confession of his guilt:
“O, my
offence is rank it smells to heaven/It hath primal eldest curse upon it/A
brother’s murder.”
With this confirmation Hamlet would seem free to enact the revenge as enjoined by his father’s ghost, yet he fails to act. The audience’s hopes for resolution are dashed to the ground.
Hamlet justifies his position by claiming that to kill Claudius after he has confessed his sins would release his soul to heaven; Hamlet does not do so, that he may suffer more at a later date. This single scene shows the difficulty of this question: on one hand Hamlet is cowardly by failing to carry out what he has resolved to do, yet on the other hand he can be seen in a more heroic way, in that he wishes his father’s revenge should be complete and perfect. The audience is ironically frustrated by his inertia and his Jekyll and Hyde heroism.
The most important speech in the play “To be or not to be” soliloquy is a meditation on whether Hamlet should commit suicide or not and on the virtues of life of thought and action. His desire to be released “from this mortal coil” is brought about by his refusal to accept the events as they have turned out — with his father dead and his mother married to his uncle. He proposes that to commit suicide is decisive action that may release him from his over-thinking that cripples him throughout the play. Conversely, the audience by now well versed in Hamlet’s weakness can see the idea as a cowardly attempt by the protagonist to run away from “the head-ache and thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to”.
Hamlet is acutely aware of his own weaknesses, and feels frustration
at his inability to act. He passes judgment on himself saying that “thus conscious does make cowards of us
all”, and the cost of contemplation is that we “lose the name of action”. Again his wisdom and ability to express
universal truths, make him a more sympathetic character. It remains debatable,
as to whether the audience could consider him heroic at this point.
It is interesting to note that two instances of Hamlet’s elusive action come about when he is not thinking; he is angry. We see this in the murder of Polonius, “How now! a rat? Dead for a ducat” and then at the climax of the play when he finally enacts his revenge, “…thou incestuous murderous damned Dane/Drink off this potion.” In these scenes the audience is enthralled by the justice carries out. Yet by acting without thinking, we are posed a difficult question: is justice to be served in a fit of anger or after appropriate contemplation? In this sense Hamlet is clearly not heroic as he is not in control of his actions. Ironically this is what makes him appear heroic to the audience: he has finally managed to shake off his inertia and do something. The right or wrong of his actions is almost a secondary consideration.
By the end of the play the audience
cannot help but feel that Hamlet is a hero: he has killed his father’s murderer
and also has sacrificed his life for the sake of truth. His faculty to deliver philosophical
judgments like “What a piece of is a
man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties . . . the beauty of the world, the paragon of
animals — and yet to me what is this
quintessence of dust?” and “There is
a special providence in the fall of a sparrow”, make him a universal
figure. It is
only befitting that the noble hero falls to the beautiful heavenly benediction
of Horatio: “And
flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”