Below is an outline for a comprehensive literary criticism presentation. While this may not be what you are doing, there are elements in the outline that may be helpful to you. You do not have to follow this sample exactly--you should do whatever works for you. The outline is to help you navigate through your presentation effectively, so it should be in a format that makes you comfortable.

Presentation title: “Hamlet as Tragic Hero: A Case of Mistaken Identity?”

Introduction: Hamlet is an idiot. Often configured as the hero, though a “tragic” one.

Thesis: Critic Harold Bloom has stated that Hamlet “is a hero who pragmatically can be regarded as a villain: cold, murderous, solipsistic, nihilistic, manipulative.” I agree with Bloom; contrary to his traditional position as tragic hero, Hamlet seems supremely arrogant, self-serving, destructive, cruel, and uncaring—hardly the type of character who exemplifies a “hero.”

Presentation order: H’s initial problem, his treatment of O, his interactions with L, and his death scene.

[Transition: We should begin with the crux of H’s problem: his father’s death and how that begins to demonstrate H’s less-than-favorable personality traits.]

Hamlet’s initial inaction and cowardice. He promises his father’s ghost that he will carry out his revenge “with wings as swift as meditation or thoughts of love” (I.v.30-31), but he does not. 

Is it grief or greed and bitterness? Claudius has usurped Hamlet’s throne.

Comparison to Laertes’ immediate desire to avenge his father Polonius. There is no hesitation on Laertes’ part, no pondering the merits of action versus inaction. 

Hamlet even asks in his third soliloquy: “Am I a coward?”

Traits show here: cowardice, laziness, possibly greed.

[Transition: H’s problematic position as tragic hero is further compromised by his treatment of O, which shows the cruel, callous aspect of his nature.]

Hamlet considers Ophelia to be like every other “frail” woman and never gives her a chance to redeem herself, mistaking her obedience to her father for a betrayal of Hamlet.

Critic David Leverenz argues that Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent revulsion against women and into his brutal behavior toward O.

He taunts Ophelia, telling her not to be a “breeder of sinners” and informing her that she would be better off in a brothel (III.i.126-127). 

Hamlet sends Ophelia whirling over the edge of sanity when he murders her father and hides the body.

Hamlet is obviously to blame for the suicide of Ophelia.

Traits show here: cruelty, callousness, maliciousness, brutality, and murderous intent.

[Transition: What’s even more horrific, however, is his actions during the scene at O’s graveside; that scene emphasizes everything that is repulsive about H.]

Laertes’ moving elegy at Ophelia’s grave

Hamlet’s attempt to “one-up” him, first by starting a fight with Laertes than with his own sappy soliloquy.

According to critic Harry Levin, while fighting for space in Ophelia’s grave, Hamlet “criticizes his rival, echoing and outdoing Laertes’ phraseology as he calls the cosmos to witness.” 

Hamlet then questions the sincerity of Laertes’ own grief (V.i.277-280). He asks of Laertes, “What is he whose grief bears such an emphasis?” (V.i.277-278).

Traits shown here: unbelievable arrogance, unsurpassed vanity, more cruelty and callousness.

[Transition: The graveyard scene prefigures the duel between H and L, another event that does not show H in the best light.]

In setting up his plot to dispose of Hamlet, Claudius says this of Hamlet’s reaction to a Norman gentleman’s report of Laertes’ skill at swordplay: “Sir, this report of his / Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy, / That he could nothing do but wish and beg / Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him” (IV.vii.102-105).

Horatio warns Hamlet that he may lose to Laertes, but Hamlet reassures him, saying, “since [Laertes] went into France I have been in continual practice” (V.ii.210-211).

As critic Paul Cantor puts it, Hamlet “has somehow found time in between soliloquies to work on his parries and his fleche attacks.”

Traits shown here: coldness, envy, more vanity, more laziness.

[Transition: The final proof of Hamlet’s negative characteristics comes during his death scene.]

In his death scene, Hamlet tells Horatio: “In this harsh world draw thy breath in pain to tell my story.” (V.ii.359-360).

Trait shown here: vanity again.

[Transition: As further proof of his arrogance, consider his reaction to Fortinbras, who is on his way to forcibly take over the dying kingdom.]

Hamlet gives the young Fortinbras his “dying vote” for the throne of Denmark (V.ii.367).

As if this is really necessary, seeing how all the would-be heirs are now lying dead in the main hall.

Trait shown here: arrogance. Hamlet can’t even die humbly.

Conclusion: Hamlet a hero?  I don’t think so.  Unlike Laertes and even Fortinbras, Hamlet waits far too long to avenge his father (if that is indeed what he intended to do) and his hesitation costs lives.  He treats Ophelia cruelly and then, with stunning hypocrisy, announces at her graveside that forty brothers could not have loved her more than he. 

He is jealous of Laertes, as if he cannot stand for another man to be better than he. He is vain, cold, and callous—completely indifferent to the feelings of every other human being on the planet.  He is arrogant to the point where that could almost be called his fatal flaw.  But, for some reason, most readers and critics of the play see the character of Hamlet as the good guy.  Not me.

I give no sympathy to Hamlet.  I rejoice when Hamlet dies at the close of the play and Denmark is left in the hands of Fortinbras and I grieve for the innocent victims, Ophelia and Laertes.  If Shakespeare had intended for Hamlet to be a tragic and sympathetic hero, he did not succeed in conveying this to me.  If Shakespeare had intended for Hamlet to be a malicious, arrogant fool, well, then, he succeeded quite nicely in my eyes.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold.  “Hamlet.”  Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.  New York: Riverhead, 1998.

Cantor, Paul A.  Shakespeare: Hamlet.  New York: Cambridge UP, 1989.

Leverenz, David.  “The Woman in Hamlet: An Interpersonal View.”  Signs 4 (1978): 291-308.

Levin, Harry.  The Question of Hamlet.  London: Oxford UP, 1959.