Hamlet is not like other tragic heroes of his period. He stands out from Shakespeare's other heroes by his innocence. Perhaps this supposed tragic hero is an ideal hero, without the tragic flaw. The tragic flaw has been part of the formula for tragedy since Greece's golden age. The main and, very often, only flaw that has been attributed to Hamlet is his tardiness. This seems to form the central part of Hamlet. Critics seem to cling to this detail, as if trying to salvage Hamlet's status as a typical Elizabethan revenge tragedy. According to the definition of tragedy, there should be a flaw in the character of the main hero, who is a great personality engaged in a struggle that ends catastrophically (Stratford, 90). If Hamlet had no flaws, what kind of tragic hero would he be? Without a doubt, Hamlet is a tragic drama, because it has many characters who lose their lives. But the play would not lose its tragic tone if Hamlet were an ideal hero instead of a tragic one, which is exactly the case. If more people realized this, perhaps we wouldn't have so much trouble trying to "decipher" Hamlet's character, just as Elizabethan audiences never raised any questions about Hamlet's tardiness. It has only been in the last two centuries that audiences and their perceptions have changed dramatically, which causes this confusion regarding the character that was created by Shakespeare for ordinary people, perhaps for some ignorant ones. Hamlet is like a soldier who is thrown into a war where he has to do some things he would rather avoid doing, but given the circumstances he grits his teeth and does well (Stratford, 128). In this war, the circumstances caused by Cla...... middle of paper ...... have occurred in the kingdom in the past two months. Hamlet is Shakespeare's only tragic hero who does not have a tragic flaw, making him an ideal hero, rather than a tragic one. Hamlet, the play, is still the tragedy of revenge, because Hamlet never lived to see complete revenge. Works Cited1. Hamlet. The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 6th Edition, Bain publishers, Beaty, Hunter, New York: WW Norton & Company, 1995.2. Weitz, Morris. Hamlet and the philosophy of literary criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1964.3. Hamlet. Stratford-Upon-Avon studio. London: Edward Arnold Ltd., 1963.4. Grebanier, Bernard. The Heart of Hamlet, the play written by Shakespeare. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1960.5. Hamlet. Editor Harold Bloom.New York: Chelsea House Publishers, a division of Maine Line Book Co., 1990.