Chapter-01

Introductions
1.1 Introduction:
A Shakespearean tragedy is defined as a play written by William Shakespeare that
tells the story of a seemingly heroic figure whose major character flaw causes the
story to end with his tragic downfall. Shakespeare wrote 10 plays that are classified
as “Shakespearean tragedies,” including "Hamlet" and "Macbeth."
The word tragedy has been derived from the Greek word tragoidia, which means
‘the song of the goat.’ It is called the song of the goat because in the ancient times
the performers used to wear goatskin dress to represent satyrs. According to
Webster dictionary, “Tragedy is a serious play or drama typically dealing with the
problems of a central character, leading to an unhappy or disastrous ending brought
on, as in ancient drama, by fate and a tragic flaw in this character, or, in modern
drama, usually by moral weakness, psychological maladjustment, or social
pressures.”
Shakespearean tragedy is a play penned by Shakespeare himself or by another
writer in the style of Shakespeare. Shakespearean tragedy has got its own specific
features, which distinguish it from other kinds of tragedies. It must be kept in mind
that Shakespeare is mostly indebted to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy in his tragedies.
These elements are discussed below:

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1.2 Characteristics of Shakesperean tragedy
 Unlike Greek tragedy, Shakespeare uses comic relief

 Outside forces (antagonist) may contribute to hero’s downfall

 Series of events leads to catastrophic conclusions

 This conclusion usually involve the death of the hero

 Tragic hero usually recognizes his/her flaw by the end

The dramatic form of classical tragedy derives from the tragic plays of ancient
Athens, which depicted the downfall of a hero or famous character of Greek
legend. The hero would struggle against overwhelming fate, and his defeat would
be so noble that he wins the moral victory over the forces that destroy him. A
tragedy evoked pity and terror in the audience; it was a catharsis, or washing clean
of the soul, which left the spectator trembling but purified.

Aristotle proposed the tragic unities of Place, Time, and Action, that is, the whole
tragedy would take place in a single location, for example a house or a city square
(this included messengers who came in from elsewhere), it would happen during
the course of one day (including speeches about events which had happened in the
past), and it would be a single story, without sub- plots.
Compared with these strict rules, Shakespeare's tragedy is a more relaxed genre, but
Othello much more than, for example, the sprawling Hamlet, observes the spirit of
Aristotle. Othello, apart from Act I in Venice, is located entirely within the fortress
at Cyprus. Although logically the play covers an unspecified time lapse of, we
presume, two or three weeks, it proceeds, more or less, by major scenes through the
hours of the day, starting in Venice with the elopement after midnight, the Senate
meeting at dawn, then at Cyprus with the morning storm and afternoon landings
and developments, the fateful drinking party in the early evening and the murder at

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bed time. This is not to say that everything happens in the same day; it obviously
cannot, but the impression is of an abstract day unfolding.

The plot is fairly unified, focusing on Othello and his fate, and dealing with other
people and events only in so far as they are relevant to this focus. Othello is about
as near as Shakespeare gets to classical tragedy.

1.3 The Tragic Flaw

A. C. Bradley saw Shakespearean tragedy characterized by the "tragic flaw," the
internal imperfection in the hero that brings him down. His downfall becomes his
own doing, and he is no longer, as in classical tragedy, the helpless victim of fate.
Some say that Othello's tragic flaw was jealousy which flared at suspicion and
rushed into action unchecked by calm common sense. A more modern
interpretation would say that Othello's tragic flaw was that he had internalized, that
is taken into himself, the prejudices of those who surrounded him. In his heart he
had come to believe what they believed: that a black man is an unattractive
creature, not quite human, unworthy of love. Thinking this, he could not believe
that Desdemona could truly love him for himself. Her love must be a pretense, or a
flawed and corrupted emotion. Iago hinted at these ideas, and Othello rushed to
accept them, because they echoed his deepest fears and insecurities.
The Play's Structure.

Shakespearean tragedy usually works on a five-part structure, corresponding to the

five acts: Part One, the exposition, outlines the situation, introduces the main
characters, and begins the action. Part Two, the development, continues the action
and introduces complications. Part Three, the crisis (or climax), brings everything
to a head. In this part, a change of direction occurs or understanding is precipitated.

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Part Four includes further developments leading inevitably to Part Five, in which
the final crisis of action or revelation and resolution are explained. Othello follows
this pattern.

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 Chapter-02
Conceptual Issues
2.1 Tragic Hero
Tragic hero is another significant element of a Shakespearean tragedy.
Shakespearean tragedy is considered as a one man show. It is the story of one or
two characters, who may be hero or heroine. It is a story of riyhrt one man or a
woman, who suffers due to some flaw in their character or due to their inevitable
fate. Whatever may be the case, the hero is the most tragic personality in his
tragedies. According to Bradley, “It is essentially a table of suffering and calamity
conducting to death” Usually the hero has to face death in the end.

An important feature of tragic hero is that he is a towering personality in his state or

locality. He hails from elite stratum of society and holds high position in his state.
Tragic heroes are kings, princes or military generals, who are very important for
their states. Look at the personality of Hamlet, who is the prince of Denmark. He is
intellectual, eighthly learned and sociable and holds a philosophic bentof mid. Hero
in the tragedies of Shakespeare is such an important personality that his death gives
rise to turmoil, disturbance and chaos in the country. In Hamlet, when Hamlet takes
revenge upon the death of his father, he not only kills his uncle but in invites his

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own death at the hands of Laertes. Due to the death of Hamlet, the army of
fortinbras enters Denmark and gets control of the affairs of Denmark.

2.2 Hamartia
Hamartia is a Greek word for “sin” or “error”. Which derives from the verb
hamatanein, meaning “to err”or “to miss the mark”. In simple words, it is also
called tragic flaw. Hamartia is another important element of Shakespearean
tragedy. All of his heroes or heroines fall due to some flaw in their character. In this
connection, Bradley asserts, “The calamities and catastrophe follow inevitably from
the deeds of men and the main source of these deeds is character.” On account of a
blemish in the character of a hero, he falls from his high position, which leads to his
indispensable death.

His wrong judgment, blunder and vision lead him to face his death. Look at the
character of Hamlet. Hamlet is suffering from procrastination. He finds a number of
opportunities to kill his uncle, but he couldn’t succeed in his motives due to his
procrastinating nature. Every time, he delays his actions. Once, he finds an
opportunity to kill Claudius, while he was praying, yet he postpones his plan on the
plea that he doesn’t want to kill him while he is praying. He wants to kill him,
when he is an a state of committing a sin. Thus, it is a flaw in his character that
results in his death.

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2.3 Good vs Evil
Shakespearean tragedy is an example of the struggle between good and evil. Most
of his tragedies deal with this the supremacy of evil and suppression of good.
Edward Dowden says in this regard, “Tragedy as conceived by Shakespeare is
concerned with the ruin or restoration of the soul and of the life of man. In other
words, it subject is the struggle of Good and Evil in the world.” Evil in his plays
has been presented in such a manner that it suggests that evil is an indispensable
thing and won’t come to an end. For example, in Hamlet, the author gives us the
impression that something rotten will definitely happen in of Denmark. In a
Shakespearean tragedy, you might have observed that the common and simple
people are unaware of the impending evil.

In Julius Caesar, the mob is unaware of the good or evil nature of the King Caesar.
They are also ignorant of the furtive and sneaky motives of Cassius. Goodness has
never beaten the evil in the tragedies of Shakespeare. Evil conquers goodness. The
reason is that evil go in disguise, while goodness is open to everyone. Due to the
supremacy of evil, the main character i.e., the most pious and honest man in the
tragedy is assigned the task of defeating the evil. Resultantly, he suffers a lot at the
hands of evil. In Hamlet, Hamlet says:

2.4 Tragic Waste

You might have seen in the Shakespearean tragedies that a hero dies along with the
death of his opponent. The death of a hero is not an ordinary death. It is the loss of
exceptionally intellectual, honest, genius, noble and virtuous personality. This
extraordinary loss of a man of high profile is called tragic waste. In a tragedy, when
good is destroyed along with the destruction of evil, then such a phenomenon is
called tragic waste. It can also be termed as the waste of Good. Shakespearean

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tragedy is always a tragedy of tragic waste. Almost every tragedy of Shakespeare is
a play of tragic waste. Hamlet is a perfect example of tragic waste. Though, Hamlet
succeeds in uprooting the evil from Denmark, yet at the cost of his death. In this
case, the Good gets destroyed along with the destruction of evil. Neither of them
wins, rather, they fail together.

2.5 Conflict
Conflict is another imperative element of a Shakespearean tragedy. There are two
types of conflicts:
External Conflict
External conflict plays a vital role in the tragedies of Shakespeare. External conflict
gives rise to internal conflict in the minds of a tragic hero. Every tragic hero in a
Shakespearean tragedy is confronted with some external conflicts, which he has to
solve by hook or by crook. Hamlet is confronted with external conflict in the shape
of his uncle, Claudius. He has to take revenge upon him, but due to strong security
and cunning nature of his uncle, he isn’t able to translate his ideas into action. This
external conflict gives rise to internal conflict, which hinders Hamlet from taking
any action.
Internal Conflict
Internal conflict is the most essential element in a Shakespearean tragedy. Internal
conflict is responsible for the fall of a highly genius, intellectual, noble and virtuous
personality. Internal conflict is the confusion in the mind of a tragic hero. The
tragic hero is always on the horns of dilemma. He cannot make a decision, which
brings about his fall. The Tragedy of Hamlet is a perfect example in this regard.
Hamlet is a man of action and a man of high caliber, but one thing that prevents
him from taking any bold step is his procrastination and highly philosophical bent
of mind. His philosophical nature of attitude is a great hurdle in his way. It is this

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internal conflict, which hinders Hamlet to spare the life of Claudius, when he was
praying. Thus, conflict assumes a key part in the tragedies of Shakespeare.

2.6 Catharsis
Catharsis is a remarkable feature of a Shakespearean tragedy. Catharsis means
purgation of one’s emotion. In simple words, it means expression of one’s emotions
through the aid of tragedy. A Shakespearean tragedy gives catharsis to our
emotions i.e., it gives us an opportunity to feel pity for a certain character and fear
for another. Catharsis is the most important function of a tragedy. When, we watch
a tragedy, we identify ourselves with the characters. We feel as if we are
performing the role in the tragedy. Thus any trouble, misery or hardship of a hero
compels us to feel pity for him. Similarly, we also express our wrath at the cruel
deeds of the villain. Tears begin to roll down our cheeks, when a hero like Hamlet
dies along with the death of Claudius. On the one hand, we feel sorry for Hamlet;
while on the other hand, we feel happiness for the death of a villain. This creation
of pity and fear is called Catharsis.

2.7 Supernatural Machinery

Supernatural machinery is an integral element of a Shakespearean tragedy.
Supernatural elements play an import role in creating sense of awe and wonder in
the tragedy. Supernatural elements are used to advance the story ahead. In Hamlet,
the ghost plays an important role in developing the internal conflict in the mind of
Hamlet. It is the ghost that tells Hamlet that his father was killed by his uncle,
Claudius. There is no one to inform him about the murder of his father. It is the
ghost that informs him and assigns him the duty of taking revenge upon the death
of his father. Similarly, there are witches in Macbeth, which play a significant role
in the development of action in the play. Witches are responsible for motivating

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Macbeth to take resort to murdering and ascend to the throne of Scotland. Witches
lead him to his ultimate destruction. Thus supernatural machinery is of paramount
importance in a Shakespearean tragedy.

Poetic Justice
Poetic Justice means that good is rewarded, while evil is punished. There is no
poetic justice in the tragedies of Shakespeare; rather, there is a partial justice in his
tragedies. Shakespeare knew that in the real world the result of virtue and evil is
opposite. You might have seen in your real life that it is very rare that you will get
rewards for your goodness or good deeds. Sometimes, those who are morally bad
and don’t do any good to any person enjoy their life in its full essence. “Do good
and have good” is an antediluvian maxim. That is why; we don’t find any poetic
justice in the tragedies of Shakespeare. Good is crushed along with evil as well. For
example, Hamlet dies along with the death of Claudius.

Comic Relief
Comic relief is another element of a Shakespearean tragedy. Shakespeare didn’t
follow his classical masters in writing tragedies. He tried to deviate from his
classical masters, who detested any sort of comic relief in their tragedies. Greek
and Roman writers didn’t use comic relief in their tragedies. Shakespeare went
against them and made use of comic relief for certain purposes. He wanted to
include comic scenes in his tragedies so that to relieve the tension of the reader and
provide them a little bit of relief. There are many comic scenes in Shakespearean
tragedies. There is a Grave Digger Scene in Hamlet, the drunken port scene in
Macbeth, the fool is smarter than the king dialogue in King Lear, the Polonius in
the wings speech in Hamlet. We have the following scene in Romeo and Juliet:

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MERCUTIO: “No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but ‘tis
enough; ‘twill serve. Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I
am pepper’d, I warrant, for this world.”
In Hamlet, we find the following humorous scene:
HAMLET: Whose Grave’s this, sirrah?
CLOWN/GRAVEDIGGER: Mine, sir….
HAMLET: What man dost thou dig it for?
CLOWN: For no man, sir.
HAMLET: What woman then?
CLOWN: For none neither.
HAMLET: Who is to be buried in’t?
CLOWN: One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead.
HAMLET: How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or
equivocation will undo us.
(Hamlet: Act 5, Scene i)

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2.8 Critical Essays Shakespeare's Tragedy
Unity, Time, and Place
The dramatic form of classical tragedy derives from the tragic plays of ancient
Athens, which depicted the downfall of a hero or famous character of Greek
legend. The hero would struggle against overwhelming fate, and his defeat would
be so noble that he wins the moral victory over the forces that destroy him. A
tragedy evoked pity and terror in the audience; it was a catharsis, or washing clean
of the soul, which left the spectator trembling but purified.

Aristotle proposed the tragic unities of Place, Time, and Action, that is, the whole
tragedy would take place in a single location, for example a house or a city square
(this included messengers who came in from elsewhere), it would happen during
the course of one day (including speeches about events which had happened in the
past), and it would be a single story, without sub- plots.
Compared with these strict rules, Shakespeare's tragedy is a more relaxed genre, but
Othello much more than, for example, the sprawling Hamlet, observes the spirit of
Aristotle. Othello, apart from Act I in Venice, is located entirely within the fortress
at Cyprus. Although logically the play covers an unspecified time lapse of, we
presume, two or three weeks, it proceeds, more or less, by major scenes through the
hours of the day, starting in Venice with the elopement after midnight, the Senate
meeting at dawn, then at Cyprus with the morning storm and afternoon landings
and developments, the fateful drinking party in the early evening and the murder at
bed time. This is not to say that everything happens in the same day; it obviously
cannot, but the impression is of an abstract day unfolding.

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The plot is fairly unified, focusing on Othello and his fate, and dealing with other
people and events only in so far as they are relevant to this focus. Othello is about
as near as Shakespeare gets to classical tragedy.

The Tragic Flaw

A. C. Bradley saw Shakespearean tragedy characterized by the "tragic flaw," the
internal imperfection in the hero that brings him down. His downfall becomes his
own doing, and he is no longer, as in classical tragedy, the helpless victim of fate.
Some say that Othello's tragic flaw was jealousy which flared at suspicion and
rushed into action unchecked by calm common sense. A more modern
interpretation would say that Othello's tragic flaw was that he had internalized, that
is taken into himself, the prejudices of those who surrounded him. In his heart he
had come to believe what they believed: that a black man is an unattractive
creature, not quite human, unworthy of love. Thinking this, he could not believe
that Desdemona could truly love him for himself. Her love must be a pretense, or a
flawed and corrupted emotion. Iago hinted at these ideas, and Othello rushed to
accept them, because they echoed his deepest fears and insecurities.
The Play's Structure.

Shakespearean tragedy usually works on a five-part structure, corresponding to the

five acts: Part One, the exposition, outlines the situation, introduces the main
characters, and begins the action. Part Two, the development, continues the action
and introduces complications. Part Three, the crisis (or climax), brings everything
to a head. In this part, a change of direction occurs or understanding is precipitated.
Part Four includes further developments leading inevitably to Part Five, in which
the final crisis of action or revelation and resolution are explained. Othello follows
this pattern.

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 Chapter-03
Database
3.1 Methodology
This report has been prepared on the basis of experience on the basis of experience
gathered during the period of term paper. In order prepare this report, I have also
collected information from organization. I have presented my experience and
findings through using different table charts which are presented sequentially.
Methodology implies more than simply the methods you intend to use to collected
data. It is often necessary to include a consideration of the concepts and theories
which underlie the methods. For instance, if you intend to highlight a specific
feature of a sociological thereby or test an algorithm for some aspect of information
retrieval, or test the validity of a particular system, you have to show that you
understand the underlying concepts of the methodology.

Here includes the steps of conducing the term paper and the explanation of the
source of data:
Data Collection:
Mainly two types of data based on the source of information

 Primary data and

 Secondary data

3.2 Source of data:

The information and data for this term paper have been collected from both the
primary and secondary source.

 Primary data and

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event,
object, person, or work of art, Primary sources include historical and

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 legal document, eyewitness accounts, result of experiments, statistical
data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches,
and art object.

 Face to face conversation with the respective officers and stuffs of the
branch and impossibility theorem of Shakkesperean tragedy.

 Face to face conversation with clients visited the library.

3.3 Data Analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative analysis has been followed in this research. To
analyze the data different types of computer software’s were used such as:
Microsoft word, Microsoft excel and Microsoft Power point.

3.4 Sampling Method:

The non-probability convenience procedure is used in the survey to collect the
information and make this report accurately.

Questionnaire Design:
Questionnaire was prepared with both open ended and closed operations. The
average time of questioning is 15/20 minutes. The nature of the questions used in
the questionnaire id dichotomy with determinant choice questions and one open
ended questions and Likert scale questions.

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 Chapter-04
Findings of the Study
4.1 Classification
The primary characters in a Shakespearean tragedy are of high status, either by
class like king lear and hamlet or by military rank like Othello nd Macbeth. The
main characters in a Shakespearean further the central conflict of the play to the
point that their lives, families, or socio- political structures are destroyed. The title
characters along with many other characters in Shakespeare’s tragedies die as part
of the story of the play. Many of Shakespeare’s history plays share the qualifiers of
a Shakespearean tragedy, but because they are based on real figures throughout the
History of England, they were classified as “histories” in the First folio. The
Roman tragedies Julius Cesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus- are also
based on historical figures, but because their source stories were foreign and
ancient they are almost always classified as tragedies rather than histories.
Shakespeare’s romance (tragicomic plays) were written late in his career and
published originally as either tragedy or comedy. They share some elements of
tragedy featuring a high status central character but end happily like Shakespearean
comedies. Several hundred years after Shakespeare’s death, scholar F.S. Boas also
coned a fifth category, the “problem play” for plays that don’t fit neatly into a
single classification because of their subject matter, setting, or ending. The
classifications of certain Shakespeare plays are still debated among scholars.

4.2 Chronology:
Below is the list of Shakespeare's plays listed as tragedies in the First Folio, along
with a date range in which each particular play is believed to have been written.

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 Play Terminus
post quem ante quem
Antony and Cleopatra 1606 1607

Coriolanus 1607 1608

Hamlet 1600 1601

Julius Caesar 1599 1600

King Lear 1605 1606

Macbeth 1605 1606

Othello 1604 1605
Romeo and Juliet 1594 1595

The Tempest 1610 1611

Timon of Athens 1605 1608

Titus Andronicus 1591 1593

Troilus and Cressida[a] 1601 1602

4.3 Influences and sources

The English Renaissance, when Shakespeare was writing, was fueled by a renewed
interest in Roman and Greek classics and neighboring renaissance literature written
years earlier in Italy, France, and Spain.[1] Shakespeare wrote the majority of his
tragedies under the rule of James I, and their darker contents may reflect the
general mood of the country following the death of Elizabeth I, as well as James'
theatrical preferences. Shakespeare, as was customary for other playwrights in his
day, used history, other plays, and non-dramatic literature as sources for his plays.
In Elizabethan England there were no copyright or protections against plagiarism,
so characters, plots, and even whole phrases of poetry were considered common
property. The majority of Shakespeare's tragedies are based on historical figures,
with the exception of Romeo & Juliet and Othello, which are based on narrative

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fictions by Giraldi Cintio. The historical basis for Shakespeare's Roman plays
comes from The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans by Plutarch,[5] whereas the
source of Shakespeare's Britain based plays and Hamlet (based on the Danish
Prince Amleth)[6] derive from Holinshed's Chronicles. Furthermore, the French
author Belleforest published The Hystorie of Hamblet, Prince of Denmarke in 1582
which includes specifics from how the prince counterfeited to be mad, to how the
prince stabbed and killed the King's counsellor who was eavesdropping on Hamlet
and his mother behind the arras in the Queen's chamber. The story of Lear appears
in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regium Britanniae c. 1135, and then in John
Higgin's poem The Mirror for Magistrates in 1574, as well as appearing in
Holinshed's Chronicles in 1587. Some events that happen in Shakespeare's King
Lear were inspired by various episodes of Philip Sydney's Arcadia from 1590,
while the nonsensical musings of Edgar's "poor Tom" heavily reference Samuel
Harsnett's 1603 A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures.

4.4 Contemporary tragedy

Tragedies from these eras traced their philosophical essence back to Senecan
tragedy, grounded in noble who have a tragic flaw or commit a grave error
(hamartia) which leads to their reversal of fortune (peripeteia). (However, critics
have argued that the "pseudo-Aristotelian" concept of the tragic flaw does not apply
to Shakespeare's tragic figures. Revenge tragedy was also of increasing popularity
in this age, Shakespeare's Hamlet is one example of this. Plays of this age were also
decidedly secular, in contrast to the religious morality plays which by this time
were outlawed by Elizabeth I. One marked difference between English renaissance
tragedies and the classics that inspired them, was the use and popularity of violence
and murder on stage.
Select exemplary (non-Shakespearean) Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies

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  The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd

 The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe

 Tamburlaine by Christopher Marlowe

 Antonio's Revenge by John Marston

 The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton

 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford

4.5 The Fatal Flaws of Shakespeare’s Most Famous Tragic Characters

Shakespeare is considered to be the ultimate playwright. His works have
transcended time and place, being staged and performed on a daily basis across the
world some 400 years after his death. Many of his classic works are required
reading for high school English language curriculums. In total, Shakespeare wrote
37 plays, and in writing these plays he added 1,700 words to the English language.
it's no wonder he's so famous and still studied to this day! Of Shakespeare’s 37
plays, ten are considered tragedies as defined as: plays dealing with tragic events
and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main
character.

In each of his tragedies, Shakespeare has his main character suffer some flaw in
their core character. He gives each tragic hero a 'fatal flaw' that ultimately results in
their death. Shakespeare built each one of his tragic protagonists with a defect in
their personality, a normal human emotion or characteristic taken to its extreme,
that directly leads to their downfall. Each tragic character has their own fatal flaw,
and each fatal flaw shines a light on some of the darker characteristics of humanity.
Below are some of the fatal flaws of Shakespeare’s most famous tragic heroes.

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A rose by any other name...Romeo woes Juliet during the famous balcony scene.

1. Romeo
Romeo and Juliet is easily Shakespeare's most well known play, and Romeo is
probably Shakespeare’s most famous protagonist. Romeo falls deeply and madly in
love the first time he lays eyes on Juliet, the daughter of his father’s sworn enemy,
and Romeo is famous for his headstrong, love-at-first-sight relationship with Juliet.
In fact, Romeo is often looked upon as the ultimate romantic: willing to put aside
the feud between his and Juliet’s family in the name of true love. But most people
often overlook the tragic consequences of his actions: both he and Juliet end the
play dead by their own hands.

Romeo’s fatal flaw is his impulsiveness. At the start of “Romeo and Juliet,” Romeo
is in love with another woman, Rosaline. In his mind, he and Rosaline are destined
for each other and in “true love.” But it takes only one night at the Capulet’s ball
for Romeo to forget all about Rosaline and fall in love with Juliet. After only one
night together, Romeo impulsively marries Juliet, thereby setting a dire chain of

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event in motion. Shortly later in the wedding, he impulsively slays Juliet’s brother
Tybalt in a fit of anger, leading to his banishment from Verona.
Juliet hatches a scheme to be reunited with her love by faking her own death.
Unfortunately, Rome's final act of impulsivity is to rush to Juliet’s tomb before
receiving the letter imforming him that her death was faked. If he had thought his
actions through further, he would not thought his true love dead. By rushing
headlong into every action without any thought of the consequences, Romeo seals
his and Juliet’s fate.

2. Hamlet
While Romeo lives at one end of the spectrum, rushing into decisions too quickly,
Hamel lives at the other: his fatal flaw is his indecisiveness and inability to commit
to a course of action. While Romeo never stops to think of the consequences of his
actions, Hamlet broods over them too long. While it is certain without a doubt that
his uncle Claudius murdered his father, it takes a startling visit from his father’s
ghost to even begin making Hamlet consider that his father was killed by fold play.
Additionally, Hamlet’s lack of commitment can also be seen in his relationship
with Ophelia, whom Shakespeare implies Hamlet has “tumbled” with no intention
of then wedding her.

Even after his ghostly visit at the start of the play, Hamlet still isn’t convinced of
Claudius’ guilt. He stages a false play at the castle, a play containing the very
murderous actions he suspects his uncle of taking, to try to discern further his
uncle’s guilt. By the time he decides to act against Claudius, it’s already too late:
Claudius has hatched his own scheme to poison Hamlet. And while Hamlet does
ultimately get his revenge against his uncle, his procrastination leads to not only his
own death but the death of his mother and Ophelia along the way as well.

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3. MacBeth
Unlike Romeo’s impulsiveness or Hamlet’s indecisiveness, Macbeth’s fatal flaw is
a much baser human emotion: ambition. From the start of the play, we see that
MacBeth desires more than his current station. While serving as the king's general,
MacBeth encounters three witches who foretell of his destined greatness. So strong
is his desire to be king that he takes the ambiguous prophecy of the witches to mean
that he is destined to be king, not one day, but right now. Once he assumes the
kingship is his destiny, he is willing to do anything to achieve this goal and any
cost, including murdering the king he serves.

His very ambition, and the murderous way that he earned the kingship, immediately
lead to his crippling paranoia. He assumes all those around him suffer from the
same ambition he himself feels. He constantly sees knives around every corner and
mistrust in the eyes of all those around him. This paranoia leads to him isolating
himself by killing his greatest ally, Banquo. At the witches behest, he then seeks
out to kill MacDuff, his greatest rival. The irony of his actions is that by killing
MacDuff's family, he ultimately draws the attention and anger of MacDuff, the only
man that, according to the witches , can kill him. All MacBeth’s actions as king are
driven by his ambition, and these decisions culminate in his death.

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 Chapter-05
Conclusions:
5.1 Conclusions:
Shakespearean Tragedy:
Tragedies may involve comedic moments, but tend towards more serious, dramatic
plots with an ending that involves the death of main characters. The main features
of a Shakespearean Tragedy are that:

 Characters become isolated or there is social breakdown

 Ends in death

 There is sense that events are inevitable or inescapable

 There is usually central figure who is noble but with a character flaw which
leads them towards their eventual downfall.
The Shakespeare tragedies share a number of common features, as outlined below:
"A.C. Bradley put Shakespeare on the map for generations of readers and students
for whom the plays might not otherwise have become 'real' at all" writes John
Bayley in his foreword to this edition of Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on
Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.
Approaching the tragedies as drama, wondering about their characters as he might
have wondered about people in novels or in life, Bradley is one of the most
liberating in the line of distinguished Shakespeare critics. His acute yet undogmatic
and almost conversational critical method has—despite fluctuations in fashion—
remained enduringly popular and influential. For, as John Bayley observes, these
lectures give us a true and exhilarating sense of "the tragedies joining up with life,
with all our lives; leading us into a perspective of possibilities that stretch forward
and back in time, and in our total awareness of things."
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic
literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin

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Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and
across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts
enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary
authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

You might have seen in the Shakespearean tragedies that a hero dies along with the
death of his opponent. The death of a hero is not an ordinary death. It is the loss of
exceptionally intellectual, honest, genius, noble and virtuous personality. This
extraordinary loss of a man of high profile is called tragic waste. In a tragedy, when
good is destroyed along with the destruction of evil, then such a phenomenon is
called tragic waste. It can also be termed as the waste of Good. Shakespearean
tragedy is always a tragedy of tragic waste. Almost every tragedy of Shakespeare is
a play of tragic waste. Hamlet is a perfect example of tragic waste. Though, Hamlet
succeeds in uprooting the evil from Denmark, yet at the cost of his death. In this
case, the Good gets destroyed along with the destruction of evil. Neither of them
wins, rather, they fail together.
 The fatal flaw. Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are all fundamentally flawed. It
is this weakness that ultimately leads to their downfall.
 The bigger they are, the harder they fall. The Shakespeare tragedies often
focus on the fall of a nobleman. By presenting the audience with a man with
excessive wealth or power, his eventual downfall fall is all the more tragic.
 External pressures. Shakespeare’s tragic heroes often fall victim to external
pressures. Fate, evil spirits and manipulative characters all play a hand in the
hero’s downfall.
 However, Shakespeare's plays often overlap in style and there is debate over
which plays should be classified as tragedy, comedy, and history. For

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 example, Much Ado About Nothing is normally classified as a comedy but
follows many of the tragic conventions.
 Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear,
Macbeth, Othello Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus

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 References

 Shakespearean tragedy, K.J., 1950, “A difficulty in the Concept of Social

Welfare”. Journal of Political Economy, 58:328-346.

 Boyce, Charles (1990). Shakespeare A to Z. New York: Roundtable Press.

ISBN 0-440-50429-5.

 Brockett, Oscar G.; Hildy, Franklin J. (2007). History of Theatre (9th ed.).
Boston: Pearson Education. ISBN 9780205358786.

 Bryson, Bill (2007). Shakespeare: The World as Stage. Eminent Lives. New
York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-074022-1. OCLC 136782567.

 Dunton-Downer, Leslie; Riding, Alan (2004). Essential Shakespeare

Handbook. New York: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 9780789493330.

 Foakes, R.A., ed. (1997). King Lear. The Arden Shakespeare, third series.
Cengage Learning. ISBN 1903436591.

 Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. (1997). The Norton Shakespeare (2nd ed.). New
York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-92991-1.

 Hoy, Cyrus, ed. (1992). Hamlet. Norton critical editions. New York: W. W.
Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-31642-1.

 Jamieson, Lee (1 May 2015). "Shakespeare Tragedies". About.com.

Retrieved 4 April 2014.

 McEachern, Claire, ed. (2013). The Cambridge Companion to

Shakespearean Tragedy. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521790093.
ISBN 9780511999314.

 Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2013). The Tragedy of Julius
Caesar. New York: Folger Shakespeare Library. ISBN 978-1-4391-9671-7.

 Boas, Frederick S. (1910). Shakespere and his Predecessors. University

manuals. John Murray. OCLC 939680633.

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