Who was in life a foolish prating knave (III. iv. 214-15). Hamlets emotions transform him into a chilling person, who cares about nothing but revenge. His plot for revenge causes him to think too much. This affects his decisions, especially the decision on when to kill Claudius. The delay in Claudius murder results in Hamlet causing more tragic deaths (Laertes, Gertrude, Ophelia, Polonius, and his own). Hamlets uncontrollable emotions are the indirect cause for his, as well as others, suffering.Antony is also very emotional, although as previously noted, his emotions at times are very different from Hamlets. Antony goes from one emotional extreme to the other in brief periods of time. This can suggest that his mind is also unstable, even though his sanity is never questioned within the context of the play. Antony, as opposed to Hamlet, is able to love. Even though it is debatably love or lust, for the sake of the argument we will call it love. His heart is with Cleopatra in Egypt, even when his body is at times in Rome. Like Hamlet, Antony lets his emotions take control of him. As Enobarbus says to Cleopatra when Antony praises his servants after declaring he will wage war on Caesar, Tis one of those odd tricks which sorrow shoots out of the mind (IV.ii.13-14). Antonys mood fluctuation creates spontaneity in him. He is very unpredictable. He lets his emotions make his decisions instead of his mind. This is his tragic flaw. He makes decisions without considering their consequences. Antony has an inner struggle between his love with Cleopatra in Egypt, and his duties as a leader of Rome. Antony makes the mistake of letting the two interfere with each other. A prime example of this is his marriage to Octavia. He marries her for the good of Rome, and to patch up his unstable friendship with Caesar. He does this without any consideration to Cleopatra. He fails to even inform her of it. Cleopatra finds out from a mess...
