Hamlet is a complex character because his controversial personality plays a crucial role in developing a tragic flow throughout the play. With the growth of Hamlet’s inner conflict, the intricacy of his temperament turns into a noticeable problem. Moreover, his behavior becomes impulsive, and he gets into a constant state of confusion with his emotions and actions being unpredictable.
Explanation:
Hamlet is the type of person who has a strong correlation between inner and outer conflicts. The internal conflict refers to the dominant quality of his character: the uncertainty in his actions and emotions. He is struggling with finding the right way of resolving the conflict inside himself. Hamlet’s inward fight lies mainly with the relationship between his mother and uncle. On the one hand, the tragic hero is furious, angry, and mad at his mother because she is not expressing a deep feeling of regret regarding his husband’s recent death. Instead of mourning her spouse’s death and supporting her son in such a critical and hard time, she is marrying Hamlet’s uncle. On the other hand, Hamlet truly loves his mother; consequently, he is afraid of harming her by revealing the truth of her previous husband’s death.
Besides the inward struggle, Hamlet is also dealing with outward conflict. The complexity in Hamlet’s character makes him battle with fate and question his intended purpose of being the king. He decides that the rejection of the notion and the acceptance of the banishment is the most effective way to overcome the outer conflict. Thus, the storyline of the crown in Shakespeare’s tragedy explores the outer struggle the tragic hero is dealing with.
Hamlet’s tragic flow growths throughout the play due to the constant contradiction of two intends inside himself: revenge and forgiveness. Hamlet desires to find a person who is guilty in the death of his father. Nevertheless, his mind is full of doubts because he refuses to commit an act of revenge until he has enough evidence.
In addition, the process of vengeance is more complicated than it seems to be from the first sight. While revenging his uncle, Hamlet also harms the people he loves. The most undesired and unfair consequence of Hamlet’s revenge is that he brings pain to Ophelia, his loved one. Therefore, revenge and forgiveness are two feelings that trigger Hamlet and battle inside his heart. He is struggling with the choice: to revenge or to forgive and this conflict inside himself does not let him live a fulfilled life.
The paradox of Hamlet’s behavior lies in his complex character. The opposition of his thoughts and feelings leads him to a state of fear. The main hero of the tragedy is afraid to reveal the horrible truth that his father killer is his uncle who is now married to his mother. Hamlet is concerned about the perception of the truth by his mother, since it would be extremely hard for her to accept the fact of being married to her previous husband’s murderer.
To sum up, the best explanation of Hamlet being a complex character is his unpredictable emotions and actions. Shakespeare created a character with strong inner and outer conflicts, which make the behavior of this individual paradoxical. Nevertheless, this complexity in Hamlet’s character makes the tragedy unique and fascinating for a reader.