{"id":168,"date":"2018-08-05T15:35:13","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T22:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/?p=168"},"modified":"2018-08-20T01:21:22","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T08:21:22","slug":"the-irony-of-hamlets-fatal-virtues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/05\/the-irony-of-hamlets-fatal-virtues\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irony of Hamlet\u2019s Fatal Virtues"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s commonly said that one of the flaws contributing to Hamlet\u2019s downfall is his inability to act. Had he killed King Claudius early on, the conflict would\u2019ve been quickly wrapped up, and things probably wouldn\u2019t have spiraled out of control. Yet this \u201ctragic flaw\u201d is uncharacteristic for a Shakespeare play. In many other Shakespearean works, characters face the opposite problem: they don\u2019t exercise enough caution, and they make decisions before they have all the facts.<\/span><\/p>\n

(<\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Macbeth<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Othello<\/span><\/i> spoilers for this paragraph.) In <\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i>, Romeo acts too quickly and kills himself under the false impression that Juliet is dead; if he\u2019d waited, he would have discovered the truth. Macbeth hastily kills King Duncan because Lady Macbeth doesn’t give him time to consider whether this is actually a good idea. Othello murders his innocent wife without sufficient evidence that she\u2019s cheating on him. Hamlet is the perfect character to star in these stories because he wouldn\u2019t make those mistakes, but he ironically happens to be in a rare situation that requires a risk-taker, not someone to think things through.<\/span><\/p>\n

With all this talk of other Shakespearean plays, the prevalence of theatre in <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i> is not to be overlooked. Beginning in Act 2 Scene 2, a troupe of actors known as the Players arrive to cheer Hamlet up, and it\u2019s revealed that Hamlet knows them well. He\u2019s also well-versed in theatrical performances, which shows when he discusses a given play\u2019s general reception, number of performances, comments from critics, and even details from his favorite scene with such specificity that he can recite thirteen lines word-for-word and impress Polonius with his good accent. He clearly cares a lot about actors, considering his emphasis on treating them with honor and dignity. He appreciates their art, admiring the Player\u2019s emotional performance. He spends an entire monologue giving acting advice. And he knows exactly which play will reveal Claudius\u2019 guilt: The Murder of Gonzago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamlet\u2019s love for theatre is no coincidence. When we read or watch plays, we learn from them: verify your facts before taking action. Be cautious and reasoned. \u201cWhy\u2019d Romeo have to kill himself right after finding out that Juliet was dead?\u201d we ask. And, \u201cOthello killed Desdemona with minimal evidence that she was cheating on him. He basically just took Iago\u2019s word for it.\u201d If you\u2019ve learned anything from Shakespeare\u2019s tragedies, hopefully you won\u2019t make the same mistakes that they did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, Hamlet has learned a lot from theatre, no doubt including a few plays similar to these. And he\u2019s not about to make the mistakes of his predecessors. He deliberately avoids impulsiveness by thinking carefully before killing any kings and getting definite evidence before taking action. Iago has already established that Shakespearean protagonists can\u2019t trust even their closest friends, so why should Hamlet trust a spirit taking the shape of his father, especially in a setting where \u201cthe devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape\u201d? Why should he kill someone just because a spirit tells him to? He has good reason to be afraid of acting too quickly. Yet the irony of <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i> is that the one time someone decides to be cautious, the distrusted character\u2014in this case, Claudius\u2014really <\/span>is<\/span><\/i> guilty. Hamlet\u2019s foresight backfires.<\/span><\/p>\n

But caution isn\u2019t the only trait that makes Hamlet perfect for any other Shakespearean tragedy besides <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i>. He also possesses incredible self-awareness: he recognizes his flaws and then works to fix them, which is more than most Shakespearean protagonists can say. \u201cHow did Macbeth not realize that he was going way overboard with his ambition?\u201d you might yell at your pages. \u201cIago straight-up warns Othello to beware of jealousy, the green-eyed monster, and the guy still ends up controlled by jealousy.\u201d Yeah, characters can be pretty oblivious sometimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Hamlet, again, is familiar with plays. He knows about tragic flaws and can recognize his own; he realizes that he\u2019s too hesitant and decides to start thinking on his feet. In a different Shakespearean play, this ability to recognize one\u2019s shortcomings and learn from them would have been lifesaving. Yet in <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i>, when our protagonist tries to fix himself by making quicker decisions, he ends up accidentally killing Polonius after a spur-of-the-moment choice to stab the spy behind the curtain\u2014thus causing everything to fall apart. The guy just can\u2019t catch a break. First he\u2019s being too cautious when he needs to be decisive, then he\u2019s being too decisive when he needs to be cautious.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamlet\u2019s ultimate problem is that he\u2019s adapted to the wrong situation. It\u2019s like natural selection. You can be perfectly adapted for the tundra, but you\u2019ll still die in the desert. Hamlet\u2019s cautious personality would be perfect for another Shakespearean story, but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019ll survive in this one. No virtue can be applied universally. Even when Hamlet strives for self-improvement and becomes more decisive, it turns out that like cautiousness, decisiveness also doesn\u2019t work in every situation. So in Hamlet\u2019s efforts to avoid a tragic fate like the ones he\u2019s seen performed countless times, he finds that he still can\u2019t escape his demise. The narrative twists his virtues against him. Because, as our prince has already figured out, <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i> is a tragedy.<\/span><\/p>\n

We like to believe that we\u2019re smarter than Romeo and Juliet, and Othello, and whatever other characters accidentally further their own downfall. We\u2019d think things through. We wouldn\u2019t fall for lies. We\u2019d learn from our flaws. But would that necessarily save us?<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, even when you do everything right, the world just finds another way to spite you. Maybe that\u2019s the biggest tragedy of all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out parts two and three of my\u00a0Hamlet<\/em>\u00a0series:
\nHamlet and Horatio Are In Love<\/a>
\nThe Divergence Between Hamlet and Ophelia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s commonly said that one of the flaws contributing to Hamlet\u2019s downfall is his inability to act. Had he killed King Claudius early on, the conflict would\u2019ve been quickly wrapped up, and things probably wouldn\u2019t have spiraled out of control. Yet this \u201ctragic flaw\u201d is uncharacteristic for a Shakespeare play. In many other Shakespearean works, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}