Though tragedies had been written in English prior to Shakespeare, most notably, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kid, Gorge Peele and Robert Greene, it was Shakespeare who gave it its distinguishing features. Tragedy is a very difficult concept to define. Shakespeare’s tragedy depicts the operation of tragic flaw in hero’s character. Of course, chance, fate and supernatural also play a vital role in the fall of the hero. But Shakespeare’s tragedy is the tragedy of character.

A ‘tragic flaw’ is a literary term that refers to a personality trait of the protagonist that leads to his or her downfall due to the personal defect of character. The word ‘tragic flaw’ is taken from the Greek concept of Hamartia used by Greek philosopher Aristotle in his Poetics.1 Hamartia leads eventually to the downfall of the main character due to his misjudgment or ignorance but not due to the action of the protagonist. Tragic flaw is first seen in an Athenian tragedy Oedipus the King or Oedipus Rex2 by Sophocles, which was performed in 429 BC. Oedipus Rex tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes, while in the process he fulfills a prophecy that he murders his father and marries his mother. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragic heroes, in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the hero is not aware of his flaw until the very end.

English Studies Journal, Tragic Flaw, Shakespeare, Claudius, Hamartia, Hamlet, English, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kid, Gorge Peele and Robert Greene.