Tragic Hamlet, Act One

During the first act of Hamlet, Tragic elements are already beginning to show. Such as the early appearance of the ghost, immediately raising questions about how he died? Whether he was a good king? Is he missed? These are quickly answered in hamlets soliloquy in scene two, which marks him as the classic tragic hero. All the things that have happened prior to the play have affected him the most and from the final scene in the act we discover his fatal flaw or “Hamartia”; his inability to charge into the banquet hall and kill Claudius immediately. Instead he keeps it to himself and makes Horatio and Marcellus swear to, also.

Another tragic element which presents itself in the first act is the conflict; internal and external. Hamlet is battling with his Mother and new Step-Father in scene two about mourning his father's funeral and resenting the hastily followed wedding. All the while internally conflicting himself, as he cannot seem to help but hurt his Mother even though he doesn’t want to.