Poor Hamlet.

For a work to be a tragedy it need to conform to a certain set of rules. While the rules are not set in stone it is generally accepted that the play should have a hero that goes up against some sort of problem but fails due to human frailty or outside influence. The hero doesn't have to die but they have to have some sort of epiphany that transforms them.

Hamlet seems to have neither of these qualities. Hamlet doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes although he dies. Some might say his famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy is his insight that changes him but he still seems to be the same brooding, fatalistic, malcontent.

Perhaps one could argue that after Hamlet kills Laertes he realizes his failings, and in his final moments attempts to rectify the situation. While it's not to much of a stretch it leaves me unsatisfied. Hamlet is not so much a tragic hero as much as a pathetic individual. His character is faced with an ultimatum, kill his father's murder or dismiss the ghost and continue with his life. Hamlet doesn't make a decision; it happens to him. As his world collapses he destroys everything and then kills himself abandoning the mess he created by not being proactive.

Hamlet's lack of heroism is tragic.

[/rant]