Hamlet v. Epic Heroes

Hamlet’s use of performative utterance allows an in depth look at thought processes, feelings, and the decision making process of the main character unlike epics, which offer views of only amiable triats in the character. Hamlet allows us to see the pain that he feels while attempting to complete his duty. His performative utterance shows a struggle of will and duty unseen in heroes before.

Hamlet is not the most brave of characters. He considers ways out of his duties, not only through escape, but through death.  We see a look at these thoughts in “To die, to sleep--To sleep--perchance to dream…” Hamlet considers the prospect of death to escape his hardships. Suicide was looked at as a sin, but when his afflictions seemed to be more than he could bear at once, he did not hesitate as other characters such as Beowulf may have. Honor did not mean to Hamlet what it meant to a normal hero. Due to the view we have of Hamlet’s inner thoughts, we have a better understanding of what Hamlet did see as important.  

                In the eyes of Hamlet, the world was not cut and dry. Nothing for him was black and white. Good would not always triumph over evil, simply because it should. He evaluated the world, attempted to gain a better understanding of the  complexities that existed among people and in life’s situations.        “Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life , But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all…” Through Hamlet’s thoughts, we see how a conflicted person feels. Hamlet we see is a man trying to makes sense of a world that he sees as unjust in the only way that he knows how, talking about it with himself.

                Hamlet understands that people have limitations. He sees man as fragile, and thinks of more than his legacy. People, he knows cannot do everything. Hamlet sees, and talks about the vulnerable state that man exists in.” For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?” Hamlet sees that people are not subject to their will alone. He sees the outside factors that affect people. Hamlet knows that man is not in control of the outside factors that may affect  man’s ability to cope with the life that he is surrounded by.