In life the border between sanity and madness is thin and undefined. At best it isa gray area, fuzzy and unclear. Yet it is this area that Shakespeare so deftly depicts inThe Tragedy of Hamlet. The gray environment he weaves eventually renders it almostimpossible to tell the sane from the insane, the ability to reason ultimately becomes theaudience’s sole determiner of a character’s mental condition. Thus, Shakespeare is ableto successfully tie his thoughts on reason and emotion to a character’s sanity. In the playHamlet, by Shakespeare, the main character fits the description for being a tragic hero. Atragic hero is a character who has experienced life more fully, whether by heroic actionor by capacity for enduring suffering than other characters in the play and ultimatelydestroys themselves. In Hamlet Shakespeare seems to suggest that suicide is an escapefrom the sorrow of life, “a consummation/Devoutly to be wished” (3.1.64-65), yet muchof the play suggests that, for Hamlet at least, it is out of reach. He goes beyond thestandards to which reasonable people adhere. Hamlet’s main tragic flaw is anger becausethrough the play he acts upon impulse rather than logic, which results in the destructionof himself and his cruel remarks to Ophelia that contribute to her suicide.Since Hamlet does not give into his suicidal impulse, he is admired by theaudience and given the qualities of a tragic hero. Throughout the play he is dominatedby calculating reason and his contemplative nature. Often times Hamlet fantasizes aboutdeath. He calls death an end to “the heartache and the thousand natural shocks/ Thatflesh is heir to,” and “a consummation/ Devoutly to be wished” (3.1.62-65). However, herecognizes that death is not truly an escape from life, as evidenced by the ghost, hisfather, King Hamlet, who is “doomed for a certain term to walk the night,/ and for theday co...
