The book begins by examining the substance and structure of Shakespearean tragedy, defining the tragic hero as a person of high estate whose exceptional suffering and calamity arise chiefly from actions issuing from character. Rather than mere victims of blind fate or simple accidents, heroes contribute to their own doom through a fatal imperfection, creating a profound sense of waste and mystery. The author then analyses construction, tracing the rise of the conflict, the central crisis, the subsequent decline, and the methods used to sustain tension and emotional variety throughout the rising counter-action.
In the subsequent sections, the author explores Shakespeare's tragic period, noting the evolution from the reflective tragedies of thought like Julius Caesar and Hamlet to the passionate and turbulent later works such as Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. A detailed analysis of Hamlet follows, addressing the hero's delay and arguing that it springs not from excessive reflectiveness or external obstacles alone, but from a state of profound melancholy induced by a sudden moral shock. The text examines Hamlet's temperament, his exquisite sensibility, and his intellectual genius, tracing how his very virtues become the instruments of his paralysis.
Further sections dissect Hamlet's relation to Ophelia, the characters of the minor figures such as Polonius, Laertes, the Queen, and King Claudius, and the pervasive sense of a vaster power working through human agency. The study highlights the religious undertones and the tragic inevitability present in the dramas, concluding that the tragic world, though marked by self-torture and self-waste, is ultimately animated by a passion for perfection.
