Heroes are defined by the actions they take, but they either live to see them fall or they die heroically. One of Shakesphere's most memorable tragic hero Hamlet is the definition of a tragic hero. In the book Hamlet, Shakespeare's character Hamlet is determined to kill his uncle the king. This goal proves to be a challenge for him because of his morals. He often struggles with this throughout the book. This turns out to be his downfall for not deciding to kill the king until the very end. A tragic hero must have a fatal flaw which, combined with fate, results in tragedy. This is one of the essential characteristics of a tragic hero. He has had many opportunities to kill the king, but due to his inner turmoil, he lets adversity pile up against him. This leads to him being poisoned and ultimately dying heroically along with his mother, the king, and Laertes. Hamlet proves that he is a tragic hero because he receives supernatural advice, his morals contradict his purpose, and he possesses tragic flaws. Hamlets can be defined as a tragic hero because he has a goal given to him by the supernatural. This goal transforms the life of the hamlets in a direction he could never have imagined possible. “For Hamlet, it is a secret, revealed to him by the ghost of his murdered father. Hamlet shares the same roof as his father's murderer, and the murderer has now hastily married Hamlet's mother. Suspicion, anxiety, unbearable tension. » (Duran 3) To be a tragic hero, a literary character must have some kind of direction that Hamlet receives. Without his father's perspective, Hamlet would live the rest of his life without knowing it. This is the first time Hamlet encounters the supernatural, but not the last time he speaks to it. Throughout the book, Hamlet is given instructions from the middle of paper......Eare's feminine endings. 44-71. np: Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books, 1999. Literary reference center. Internet. February 5, 2014. Duran, Manuel. "Don Quixote and Hamlet: strangers or brothers?." Confluence 20.1 (2004): 2-8. Literary reference center. Internet. February 5, 2014. Johnston, J. “Characteristics of a Shakespearean Tragic Hero.” Sussex High School. Np, nd web. February 1. 2014 http://sussexhigh.nbed.nb.ca/jjohnston/pdf%20files/tragic_hero_characteristics.pdf Nevo, Ruth. “Acts III and IV: problems of text and direction”. Modern critical interpretations: Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 53-56. Print.Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Dover, 1992. Print. Smith, Nicole. “Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a tragic hero.” Myriad article. Article Myriade, 2014. Web. February 6, 2014. http://www.articlemyriad.com/shakespeares-hamlet-tragic-hero/