Does Hamlet Fit the Bill?

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles was considered to be the perfect tragedy by Aristotle, and he used it to define literary tragedy. According to Aristotle, tragedy must be composed of six necessary elements. There has to be a protagonist, a morally superior hero, who suffers a great fall precipitated by the character’s own tragic flaw. In culmination, the hero must experience tragic enlightenment before he or she succumbs to deep suffering or death. Often labeled a “revenge tragedy,” the Shakespearean play Hamlet is a fatal drama packed with revenge, murder, madness, and mysticism. Prince Hamlet, the protagonist, is plunged into turmoil after his father’s ghost charges him to revenge the King’s murder at the hands of his uncle, who has since donned the crown and wed Hamlet’s mother. Shakespeare’s famous work Hamlet is certainly a calamitous tale, but it fails to meet Aristotle’s requirements for tragedy.
Admirable, sympathetic, and clearly admired by many, Hamlet meet...