exist with the pockmarked real. Most heroes' strong points are unique for their possessors. They have few others. And so, the tension is concentrated upon those spots and they are quickly and noticeably scratched. And the interpreters leap upon the battle wound and call it a flaw. It is given a name, "ambition", "arrogance", or other words that society likes to use to demonize a rise above mediocrity and indecision.All this, of course, has been tried on Hamlet, and none are universally accepted as right or even slightly viable. He has no one point on which to concentrate the attack. He smashes against the ragged walls of his cell with inflexible force. He alters his environment on all fronts, from his own appearance to the psychological states of others (most notably Ophelia). His "flaw" is the strength of his strengths, the consistency of his consistencies. There is, first of all, what he says of himself. He says to the ghost, just as the plot gets underway, "thy commandment all alone shall live / Within the book and volume of my brain."(Act 1, Scene 4, 102,103) Then, again, the message comes, soon after the climax, in the form of: "My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!"(Act 4, Scene 4, 66) He then dedicates himself entirely to his cause. He feigns madness to the point of starving himself, and transforms himself into a ragged shadow of the former appearance that Ophelia bewails. In thus degrading himself, he places a tremendous hobble on his chances of ascending to the throne, his expected position since birth. And as is blatantly obvious in the tense aftermath of the performance of "The Mousetrap", he is not satisfied with the technicality of revenge. He will wait until Claudius is "about some act / That has no relish of salvation in't,"(Act 3, Scene 3, 91,92) though it mean that he must endure the corruption longer and act at a time which could warrant "a more horrid hent"(Act 3, Scene 3, 88) upon his sword. Despite his own self...
