Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou

Faculty of Letters and Languages
Department of English

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Master in English

Option: General and Comparative Literature

Title:

HEROISM AND LOSS IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S

THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET (1601) AND CHINUA
ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART (1958)

Board of Examiners:

Chair: Dr. Aziz Rabea, MCA, Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou

Supervisor: Pr. Guendouzi Amar, Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou

Examiner: Mr. Laouari Mohammed Larbi, MAA, Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou

Submitted by:

1. Bouzid Samia
2. Brihmat Narimane

Academic Year: 2021-2022

 Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank Prof.Amar Guendouzi for help and generous support. We acknowledge
his valuable guidance, patience, motivation, precious advice, his immense knowledge, and the time
he devoted to us during this research. We also thank him for his availability; he has been the teacher
and the supervisor who made us traces our goal. He supported us in finding materials, references
and generally making this research valuable.
It was a great privilege and honor to work and study under his supervision.

We are equally thankful to all the members of the panel of examiners; namely Mrs. Aziz Rabea and
Mr. Laouari Mohamed Larbi who accepted to examine and evaluate our dissertation.
Your comments are warmly welcome.

I
Dedications:
We dedicate this humble work to all the people who know us well and
have encouraged us to achieve our goals, succeed in our studies and
conduct this research.
To:
• My family, Bouzid. And my dear grandparents.
• My parents: especially my mother, who is the source of success and to
whom I owe a lot and my father who is always giving me supports, advice
and motivation to finish this thesis.
• My precious young sisters, Safia, Lynda, Imane, Ikrame.
• My beloved husband, Mohamed.
• All my teachers, and the committee of the English Department.
• My best friends: Narimane, Lydia, Sabrina.

Samia

• My Parents, siblings, and Family members

• My friends namely, (Samia and Sabrina)
• My Supervisor Prof. Amar Guendouzi
• For all who spare nothing towards my success …

Narimane

II
 Abstract

Our task in this dissertation is to expose two fundamental themes namely: Heroism and
Loss in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, focusing on their
main characters. To do that, we referred to Aristotle’s theory of Tragedy as explained in his
Poetics. Our work is based on the comparison between Hamlet and Okonkwo in order to highlight
the differences and the similarities between them despite they are written in different eras and
places. In fact, both are considered as heroic characters who have a respective status in their
societies at the beginning. Hamlet is seen as an intellectual prince during the Renaissance Era and
Okonkwo is portrayed as a strong wrestler and leader in the Igbo society. Besides, both Hamlet
and Okonkwo have a tragic flaw that led to their death and fall. At the end of the stories, both
witnessed their loss that is caused by their excess of fame and power. Finally, the two works are
studied through a tragic perspective regarding plot or events both the protagonists witnessed.

Key words:

Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy, Hamlet, Things Fall Apart, Heroism, Loss, Literary Affinities

III
 Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................................... I

Dedications ................................................................................................................................................ II

Abstract.................................................................................................................................................... III

Table of Content...................................................................................................................................... IV

I. General Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1

1. Review of Literature............................................................................................................................................ 3

2. Issue and Working Hypothesis ........................................................................................................................... 6

3. Dissertation outline ............................................................................................................................................... 6

II. Methods and Materials......................................................................................................................... 7

1. Method .................................................................................................................................................... 7

a. Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy: Poetics ............................................................................................................... 7

b. Aristotle's Concept Of Ideal Tragic Hero .......................................................................................................... 8

2. Materials: ................................................................................................................................................ 9

a. Biography of William Shakespeare .................................................................................................................... 9

b. Summary of the Tragedy of Hamlet (1601) ......................................................................................................10

c. Biography of Chinua Achebe ............................................................................................................................11

d. Summary of Things Fall Apart (1958) ..............................................................................................................12

Endnotes ..................................................................................................................................................................14

III. Results ............................................................................................................................................... 17

IV. Discussion

IV
Chapter One: Heroism in The Tragedy of Hamlet and Things Fall Apart

A-Heroism in The Tragedy of Hamlet ................................................................................................................. 18.

a- Heroism of Hamlet...................................................................................................................................... 19.

b- Hamlet’s Courage and Bravery ................................................................................................................... 20.
B-Heroism in Things Fall Apart .......................................................................................................................... 22.
a- Power and Reputation ................................................................................................................................ 23.
b- The Heroism of Okonkwo .......................................................................................................................... 26.

Endnotes ...................................................................................................................................................... 28.

Chapter Two: The representation of loss in The Tragedy of Hamlet and Things Fall Apart

A – The Representation of Loss in Hamlet (1601)...............................................................................................30

a. Hamlet’s Loss of Father and Throne ............................................................................................................... 30.

b. Hamlet’s Inability to cope ............................................................................................................................... 31.
c. Hamlet’s Loss of mind .................................................................................................................................... 32.
d. Hamlet’s Loss of The Beloved Ones .............................................................................................................. 33.

B –Loss in Things Fall Apart (1958) ....................................................................................................................35

a. Loss of Identity: Fall of Traditions....................................................................................................................36

b. Okonkwo’s Fall .................................................................................................................................................39

Endnotes ...........................................................................................................................................................42

V. General Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 45

VI. Bibliography...................................................................................................................................... 47

V
 I- GENERAL INTRODUCTION:

Considering literature as a mirror of a life and making a comparison between masterpieces is

of a special prominence. This is why this dissertation brings together two famous and influential

authors in the different world literatures, who are namely William Shakespeare and Chinua Achebe,

to undertake a comparison between two of their respective works: The Tragedy of Hamlet (1601)

and Things Fall Apart (1958). Both works bear many affinities as well as differences. Therefore, it

can be impossible to understand the author’s writings without studying their social contexts and

biographies.

When Shakespeare staged Hamlet a new era in the timeline of England made its appearance,

the Renaissance. Shakespeare represents a portrayal of the existing social and cultural attitudes of

the Renaissance society. His plays reflected the Elizabethan world; Salinger L.G argues that

“Shakespeare’s plays are the monuments of a remarkable age”1. Besides, Queen Elizabeth's interest

and love of arts gave artists a great consideration which led to the full flowering of English literature.

The spirit of exploration and adventure fed the imagination of writers and paved the way for the

flourishment of literature.

The Elizabethan reign was considered to be a brilliant era, not just in literature, but also in all

aspects of life. Elizabeth ruled the country for 45 years. Although her parliament made pressure on

her to marry and name a successor, she died without leaving an heir, so the English crown went to

her relative James I of Scotland who had a claim over England2. He became King James I of

England. This change in leadership meant that Shakespeare’s Hamlet was in a period of uncertainty.

“It was not that Hamlet is Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy or most perfect work of art; it was that

Hamlet most brings home to us at once the sense of the soul’s infinity and the sense of the doom

which not only circumscribes that infinity but appears to be its offspring”3. In this tragedy, character

and fate have an influence on the outcome. The entire legacy of Shakespeare is “a probing,

questioning inquiry into the intractable issues of the self and of the other, the individual and the

community, and the very purpose of life that is to be or not to be” 4.

1
 As we have mentioned above, the two works exhibit affinities and differences

through their plots and timeline; this drives us to study both of their world sides since

Hamlet embodies the Renaissance era and Things Fall Apart represents a post-colonial

discourse.

Chinua Achebe is an African post- colonial writer who has been called” the

father of modern African literature”5. Things Fall Apart is a significant work which

expresses a particular understanding of social and colonial events. It was published in the

period of anti-colonial struggle, just before the Nigerian independence. Achebe intended

his novel for audiences outside Africa, because he wanted to build a direct bridge that links

his African writing-tone with his endeavor to show that Africa has also a cultural heritage.

For that, the context of writing indicates the end of the White colonization. Therefore, it is a

period of celebration and glory.

In our reading of Hamlet and Things Fall Apart, we have noticed that the two works

exhibit similarities and differences in their representation of heroism and loss as two main

themes underlying the construction of plot and the resemblant portrayal of the main

characters. Shakespeare and Achebe present the story of their protagonists to be such heroic

characters who have specific values that bring them praise by their respective communities

in the beginning of their life. Both Hamlet and Okonkwo are plagued by a tragic flaw

causing their loss and demise at the end. Both stories are tragic, and the events are built

around the figures whose very action is followed by an excess of ambition and fame. What

makes the two characters’ heroic? What are the elements of loss in their characters and

behaviors? And how do those elements lead to their tragedies? These are the research

questions addressed in this dissertation.

2
 1-REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart have been highly

acclaimed and have received much criticism by well-known critics and scholars all around the world

in relation to Heroism and Fall. On one hand, A.C Bradley, for example, a specialist of Shakespeare,

argues in his Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth (1904)

that “we feel how strange it is that strength and weakness should be so mingled in one soul, and that

this soul should be doomed to such misery and apparent failure”6.

This quotation shows that The tragedy of Hamlet evokes inside the mind of the reader the

feeling of pity and wrath, because of the tragic end that Hamlet has witnessed. T.S. Eliot, in Hamlet

and His Problems (1919) insists on the evaluation of the play rather than its interpretation. He calls

it the Mona Lisa of literature as well as an “artistic failure”7. On the other hand, Eliot asserts that:

In several ways the play is puzzling, and disquieting as is none

of the others. Of all the plays it is the longest and is possibly the
one on which Shakespeare spent most pains; and yet he has left
in it superfluous and inconsistent scenes which even hasty
revision should have noticed. The versification is variable […] is
the feeling of a son towards a guilty mother”. But Hamlet, “is
dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible because it is in
excess of the facts as they appear 8.

In What Happens in Hamlet (1935), John Dover Wilson writes: “Hamlet is a tragedy, the

tragedy of genius caught fast in the toils of circumstances and unable to fling free. Shakespeare

unfolds to us the full horror of Hamlet’s situation gradually adding one load after another to the

burden he has to bear until we feel that he must sink beneath it”9. In this quotation, John Dover Wilson

evokes the significance of each part of the complex action, against the background of the Elizabethan

era.

Another influential critic of Shakespeare’s work is Paul Cantor (2004) who, in his short text

called Shakespeare Hamlet, he writes that:

Hamlet’s mind is open to all the competing models of heroism available

in the Renaissance. He can admire martial virtue and is haunted by
thoughts of the grandeur of classical antiquity, but at the same time he is

3
 acutely aware of how Christianity has altered the terms of heroic action
and called into question traditional ideas of heroism. 10

Paul Cantor depicted Hamlet as a man torn between ancient and Christian conceptions of

heroism. For him, the character of Hamlet exists exactly where these two worlds meet.

Similarly, to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has been the subject

of many studies since its publication in 1958.It has attracted much critical commentaries both by

African scholars and non-African critics. Africa was crushed mainly under the European powers and

greed until the middle of the 20th century. In this light, different literary works were written to express

the harsh circumstances that the whole continent endured under the colonial control. Eventually,

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), NgugiWaThiong’o’sWeep Not Child (1964) and Alan

Paton’s Cry The Beloved Country (1948), can be best examples of weeping literatures 11. Hence, the

writers highlight the early losses in Africa, blaming the white man for everything happened in Africa.

Simon Gikandi analyses Things Fall Apart in his book Reading Chinua Achebe (1991). He

declares that the novel is dominated by real and historical events and argues that the opening of

Things Fall Apart can be read as an imaginary response to the problems of cultural identity, which

has haunted Igbo culture. Indeed, Achebe provides a description of Okonkwo’s power and his link to

his Umuofia community that gives him a high status. He evokes this to show that Umuofia has origins

and history12.Furthermore, Gikandi argues that Achebe uses Okonkwo, a unique character, to reflect

Igbo culture, because he has extraordinary capacity for fight represented here by his wrestling power.

Gikandi says:

Now, it is true that […] Achebe seems to eschew judgments: in

fact, his representations here and elsewhere are intended to
naturalize Okonkwo’s situation, to show him and his village in
terms which have often been described as universal. Thus, while
many other novelists might be tempted to highlight Okonkwo
and his culture.13

In the book Modern Critical Interpretation in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (2010),

Harold bloom collects some essays that deal with Things Fall Apart. He describes the novel to be a

4
historical one, set in the British colony of Nigeria. Hence, he asserts that Things Fall Apart portrays

the Nigerian history under the enterprise of colonialism. Bloom refers to Okonkwo’s tragic death to

be an aesthetic tragedy set by Achebe since it stands as a sign of refusing change 14.

In The African Novel (2009), F. Irele Abiola reads Things Fall Apart from the perspective of

its dialogue with the English novel and writes:

The novels of Henry Rider Haggard and Joyce Cary, and in

particular Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, come
readily to mind here. It is in this regard that Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart came to assume an innovative significance, as
regards theme and reference as well as narrative idiom, almost
immediately upon its publication in 195815.

From that fact, Achebe achieved canonization with his first novel, recovering the last half of

the twentieth century. He succeeds to portray his love for Nigeria and Africa as a whole. Lame Maatla

Kenalemang, in her dissertation An Analysis of Pre- and Post- Colonial Igbo Society of Things Fall

Apart (2013), aims at analyzing the effects of European colonization on the Igbo culture. She focuses

on revealing how the sudden arrival of the white men to Umuofia creates great changes in political

structures and institutions. The Europeans started their missionary activities by introducing their

culture and religion that are later imposed on Igbo people.

In Things Fall Apart, “Achebe argues, that both perfections and imperfections of their culture

and traditions that made them different from western cultures”16. In other words, Things Fall Apart

according to him is purposefully describing the cultural heritage of the Igbo society, which endures

colonial oppressions that brought changes.

In the light of the above review, we can consider that Things Fall Apart portrays how the

African people fight for their identity during colonialism and this through the portrayal of Okonkwo’s

real life and deeds that bring him fame and power despite the fact that it leads to his own demise.

As for William Shakespeare who highlights the impact of the Elizabethan era on the Europeans

as wealth and power conducts people to commit crimes and seek for revenge. It is shown in Hamlet’s

eventual life under the influence of fame and power even though it also leads to his own demise. By

this we deduce that both novels share the same actions and notions of life even if steeped in different

5
cultures and eras. These actions and notions are reflected in themes of heroism and loss, represented

in the main character’s mental state and behavior.

2- ISSUE AND WORKING HYPOTHESIS:

It follows from the review of literature devoted to William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet

and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart that the two works have received a great deal of criticism.

The critics and researchers explored the meanings of each of Hamlet and Things Fall Apart and

focused on aspects as tragedy, colonialism, and culture. Yet, despite the great number of studies

carried on the two woks to be investigated, and according to the best of our knowledge, there is no

comparative study to have dealt with the issues of our major themes namely, Heroism and Loss in

both works. For this reason, we have undertaken the task of examining the two works in relation to

their contexts from a tragic perspective.

Our intention in this research is to deal with Shakespeare’s dramatization of the Renaissance

ideas and Achebe’s restoring of the African Culture by dramatizing the theme of heroism. It is

important to show how Shakespeare portrayed Hamlet as the embodiment of Renaissance and

medieval heroism. Likewise, Achebe shows how Okonkwo is a traditional hero, whose values of

achievements and heroism are strongly anti-colonial. Therefore, Hamlet and Things Fall Apart lend

themselves to a comparative study with a focus on the theme of heroism, and how this theme bears

to both the tragic genre of the two works, and their respective contexts. Linked to this theme is the

one of loss which confers a tragic end to both plots, as both of Hamlet and Okonkwo witness a change

of fortune which completely isolates them from the rest of their respective communities and leads

them to demise.

3-DISSERTATION OUTLINE:

To achieve our aim, we have exposed our theme in general, in the section of Method and

Materials, we have mentioned the biographies of the authors and explained our method and then we

summarized both the play and the novel. In the Results section, we will explore our findings. In the

6
Discussion section, that we are going to divide into two parts we are going to present heroism

according to Aristotle and analyze both works the tragedy of Hamlet (1601) by William Shakespeare

and Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe relying on Aristotle’s Poetics.

Second, the next part is devoted to highlight loss in both protagonists and the plot from a tragic

point of view referring to Aristotle’s Poetics. In our conclusion, we will end up by showing what we

have reached as the final resolution to our problematic and issue.

II-METHODS AND MATERIALS:

1- Methods:

The purpose of this section is to explore the theory that we think is relevant to our study of

the two works. Therefore, we focus on the important characteristics and definitions of Aristotle’s

theory of tragedy that are developed in his book Poetics. We intend to look for key theoretical

elements which will help us to analyze the affinities and differences between William Shakespeare’s

Hamlet (1601) and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958).

a. Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy: Poetics

To check our hypotheses and analyze the above-mentioned issue, we decided to follow and

borrow some concepts from the theoretical aspects of Aristotle’s Poetics because both Hamlet and

Things Fall Apart are tragedies, and their plots are made of tragic events to show Heroism and loss

through the protagonists. In order to achieve our aim, we need first to expose the meaning of each

concept apart. Aristotle defines tragedy as:

An imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a

certain magnitude, in language embellished with each kind of
artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts
of the play in the form of action, not of a narrative, through pity
and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.18

According to Aristotle, tragedy has six main elements: plot, characters, thought, diction,

melody, and spectacle. Among the six, we focus only on the two important components that Aristotle

calls plot and characters. According to him, “The plot is the source and the soul of tragedy; character

is second “19. In facts, plot is the main element that constitutes and underlies the principle of tragedy.

It is the structure and the arrangement of the tragic events.

7
 Hence, by plot Aristotle means: ‘A whole is that which has a beginning, middle and an end’20.

Aristotle is talking about an ordered structure. In the beginning, everything goes in the right way but

there is a rising action that brings the problematic into its climax in the middle; and at the end, the

situation falls into a tragic end. In addition, some plots are simple, others complex because of the

serious issue, Aristotle explain:

By a simple action I mean one which is, in the sense defined,

continuous, and unified, and in which the change of fortune
comes about without reversal or recognition. By complex, I mean
one in which the change of fortune involves reversal or
recognition or both 21[…] A perfect tragedy should, as we have
seen, be arranged not on the simple but on the complex plan. It
should, moreover, imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this
being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation. Aristotle used
Oedipus as a perfect example of tragic hero22.

According to him, the structure of an ideal tragic plot structure must be complex and full of

high pity and fear. Aristotle considers that the complex plot is the best one for a well-made tragedy,

because it contains three elements. “Reversal” is defined to be the change by which the action goes

round to its opposite. He says that the actions are reversed from good to bad. “Recognition” referred

to a change from ignorance to knowledge. The actions happen throughout a time which makes

someone awaken from his ignorance to awareness. “Suffering” is an action that involves destruction

or pain like death, extreme agony in full view 23.

The complexities of the incidents are succeeding one after another, and this represents the

middle part of the complex plot according to Aristotle. Therefore, Hamlet’s desire for revenge along

with the grief of his father’s death is led to kill innocent people. Likewise, Okonkwo’s personality

begins as brave and heroic shifts ends into a coward and weak. In this way, Achebe refers to him as

he was “deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw

breaking up and falling apart”24.

b. Aristotle’s Concept of Ideal Tragic Hero:

As it is already mentioned, the second main element of tragedy is characters. The protagonist

in tragedy is called a ‘tragic hero’. As Aristotle defines him:

8
 A person who is not outstanding in moral excellence or
justice; on the other hand, the change to bad fortune which
he undergoes is not due to any moral defect or depravity,
but to an error of some kind. He is one of those people who
are held in great esteem and enjoy great good fortune, like
Oedipus, Thyestes, and distinguished men from that kind of
family25.
The tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his

own destruction. This hero must arouse the feeling of pity and fear in the audiences or the readers

because pity and fear are the main objectives of tragedy. Aristotle believes in Poetics that if a

gentleman moves from prosperity to adversity, we take pity on him but we do not feel fear, as the

example of Hamlet and Okonkwo. Therefore, the change in fate of the character is due to his errors,

and this is what Aristotle calls “Hamartia”26. In fact, The Greek concept refers to the tragic flaw or

error made in ignorance or through misjudgment that experiences a dramatic reversal. Thus, it is the

change from his hubris or pride to bad fortune.

The Tragedy of Hamlet and Things Fall Apart are two works that match with Aristotle’s

theory of tragedy. Both protagonists are regarded as “tragic heroes”; they share the same concepts of

Aristotle’s tragic theory. In both works, Hamlet and Okonkwo endure their objectives at any cost.

Even though they lose everything, both characters are considered tragic heroes. They have completed

their missions in life even if it was death to themselves or to others.

2-Materials:

a. Biography of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is a well-known English poet, playwright and actor. He was born on April 26,

1564, at Stratford- upon –Avon, England. He was popular for his mastery of the poetical and literary

forms a well as his capacity to represent the different aspects of the human nature. He wrote

approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems27. He is among the greatest in the

English language and in Western literature. His plays have been translated into every major living

language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

9
 Shakespeare has explored various popular themes among which, we can mention madness,

love, and death. Included in his famous tragedies- Hamlet (1600-1601), Othello (1603-1604), King

Lear (1605-1606) and Macbeth (1606)28. These plays capture the complete range of human emotion,

fate and conflict based on character’s flaw. Since madness during the Renaissance era was a popular

subject, Shakespeare wrote about it because of his audience. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616.

b. Summary of The Tragedy of Hamlet 1601:

Hamlet is a tragedy set in ancient Denmark during the Elizabethan era. It presents an

impressive assemblage of intellectual ideas, ethical system, social norms, and literary conventions of

the Renaissance, as evolved from the classical period through the medieval era. Hamlet’s central

focus is on the moral struggle of his main character, the prince Hamlet. However, his request consists

of grief, revenge, and pride concerning his father’s death. In fact, Shakespeare’s protagonist holds an

elevated position in his society, being a thoughtful, contemplative, and intellectual man.

It is a play telling a story of a young man on an average of 30 years old, living in Denmark

the son of Hamlet the first. Young Hamlet loses his father being murdered by his own uncle called

Claudius. The letter takes advantage of his brother’s death, he marries his wife. Consequently, Hamlet

gone mad and insane as he found himself as an orphan adding to that the throne of the castle is taken

from him.

Because of the eventual events, Hamlet developed delusions as he saw a ghost and believed

it is his father’s. The ghost illustrated his father’s murder scene and commands him to avenge him.

In his path of doing so, he makes many errors of judgment that sinks all of him and the neighboring

persons. Though Hamlet considered on further reflection to seek evidence since at first, he could not

believe the ghost’s suggestions. Consequently, he attempts several investigations, the outcome of this

latter leads him to act completely insane and induced him commit several crimes including

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who because of Hamlet’s strange behavior Claudius hired them to spy

on him. Once Hamlet discovered the affair, he planned to kill his uncle despite the poor prospect.

Hamlet assumed to avenge his father’s death atrociously so, when he gets the chance to kill his uncle

10
he abandoned since Claudius was praying at that moment. Hamlet believed that may save his soul

from the guilt while he wanted him to suffer and be placed in hell.

In another attempt, while Hamlet was talking to his mother, he heard noise behind the curtains

and without any hesitation he speared there thinking it would be Claudius but unfortunately, so he

kills Ophelia’s father. Consequently, Ophelia could not afford the grief and while she was collecting

flowers she drowns in a stream. Laertes Ophelia’s brother was apprised of Hamlet’s part in his father

and sister’s deaths; so, he challenged him to a facing match with the presence of Claudius who, later

convinced Laertes to switch from the traditionally blunted sword to one sharpened tipped with deadly

poison. Claudius also added poison to Hamlet’s drink for extra security.

As far as the battle began things quickly gone wrong. Both Laertes and Hamlet became

wounded by the same poisoned blade. Gertrude, as a witness thought her son approached victory; she

accidentally drunk from the poisoned cup. Therefore, Hamlet Saw his mother dying, by anger he

knifes and kills Claudius saying to follow his mother and both of Claudius and Hamlet dies. Thus,

Fortinbras brake into the castle at the current moment to see the end of the chaos; he found all of

them laying down died so he took the throne.

c- Biography of Chinua Achebe:

Chinua Achebe, in full Albert Chinua lumogu Achebe, was born in November 16, 1930, he

was raised in the large village of Ogidi, in Eastern Nigeria29. He graduated from Ibadan University

studying medicine and literature in 1953.He published his first novel; Things Fall Apart (1958) that

has been translated into 30 languages30. He has published novels, short stories, essays, and children's

books. Many of his novels deal with the social and political problems facing his country. Of his

novels, Arrow of God (1964) won the New Statesman- Jock Campbell Award, and Anthills of the

Savannah (1987) was a finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize (Chinua Achebe, 1958)31.

He was one of the founders of a Nigerian literary movement that drew upon the traditional

oral culture of its indigenous peoples32. In 1958, he published Things Fall Apart as a response to

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902) novel, that treat Africa as a primitive and cultureless foil

11
for Europe33. Achebe’s choice of language was thus political. He composes his work in the language

of the colonizer which is one of the characteristics of postcolonial writers. He died on March 21,

2013, in Boston, United States34.

d- Summary of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart:1985

Things Fall Apart is a story about the African society during the colonial period. It describes

how African people deal with the change of many aspects in their society including laws, traditions,

and religion. Achebe worked to create a clearer picture of the cultural values and attitudes of the

African people. The story centers on Okonkwo’s life as the protagonist who suffers from many

problems caused by Colonialism. However, his main issue is the fear to become like his father,

Unoka, who is described as a lazy, unsuccessful person therefore he is referred to as Agbala or a

failure as a result he dies in a shameful death and left numerous debts.

Unoka is strongly abhorred and hated by Okonkwo; he works hard just to break down his father’s

weakness. He does not want to be a failure like him. He shows himself as a different person from his

father. Okonkwo is a powerful leader and respected warrior within the Igbo community. His first

personal fame was at the age of eighteen; defeating Amalinze the Cat, the strongest fighter who has

won for nine years in a wrestling contest.

Okonkwo is motivated to gain titles and wealth despite his father’s failure, so he started to open fields

and plant yams. Although it was a difficult time to farm, he could prove his success. He has three

wives and many children who have their own houses. He gains several titles and becomes a respected

person in his clan. Okonkwo dominates and organizes his family in a severe way; even he does not

tolerate any mistake his family made. For instance, whenever he feels his son Nwoye is a weak and

failed to do something, he uses violence to change his behavior.

As the novel develops, Okonkwo accidentally kills Ezeudu’s son, after Ezeudu’s funeral.

Okonkwo and his family exiled from Umuofia for seven years. They are sent to his mother’s village

Mbanta. During this period of exile, Colonialism enters to Umuofia. The white missionaries build a

church in the land part of the Evil Forest given by the village leader.

12
 When Okonkwo returns to Umuofia, he is sad from the new state of his clan and considers

the white’s change as the enemy. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, also joined the Christianity with many

others that make Okonkwo feel disappointed. Therefore, he does not hesitate for repressing the white

man’s church in Umuofia. Okonkwo realizes that his clan will never go to war, and everything has

fallen apart for him. By the end of the last chapter, Okonkwo chooses to commit suicide by hanging

himself which is considered as a sinful act. He preferred to die and not to live under the colonizer’s

domination. The customs: after Okonkwo’s suicide, his body will not be touched. It is seen as an evil

and indignation for the land in the Igbo culture.

13
 END NOTES:

1. The Representation of the Renaissance Woman/man in William Shakespeare’s The

Merchant of Venice and Othello pdf, KahinaLegoui :1

2. https://www.britannica.com/art/Elizabethan-literature

3. Bloom’s Shakespeare through the Ages. Edited and with an introduction by Harold

Bloom. 1904:245 A. C. Bradley. From Shakespearean Tragedy Hamlet in the

Twentieth Century.

4. The Representation of the Renaissance Woman/man in William Shakespeare’s The

Merchant of Venice and Othello pdf, Kahina Legoui:3

5. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-father-of-africas-literary

legacy/article4538831.ece.

6. A.C Bradley, a specialist of Shakespeare argues in his Shakespearean Tragedy:

Lectures on Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth (1904:97)

7. Bloom’s Shakespeare through the Ages: Edited and with an introduction by Harold

Bloom. Bloom’s Literary Criticism T. S. Eliot. “Hamlet and His Problems” (1919:

250)

8. Ibid:251

9. What Happens in Hamlet by J.Dover Wilson, Gertrude’s sin (1935:39), Cambridge

university press ;googlelivre

10. SHAKESPEARE Hamlet Paul A. Cantor, University of Virginia Published in the

United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York 2004 :11-12

11. Chapter Two Part one: Literarure Review2.0. Background pdf by AH;Siddig.

2020:8http://repository.sustech.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/25410/Research.p

df?sequence=3

14
 12. Gikandi Simon, Reading Chinua Achebe, Language and Ideology in Fiction: Writing

Culture and Domination (Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1991):28-29.

13. Ibid: 27

14. Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart—New

Edition Copyright © 2010 by Infobase Publishing, 2010:3

15. The Cambridge Companion to the African Novel Edited By IreleAbiola (2009: 8).

Cambridge University Press, 2010

16. Lame, MaatlaKenalemang. Things Fall Apart: An Analysis of Pre and Post- Colonial

Igbo Society, (Magister), Jan. 11, 2013 :5. Print

17. Penguin Classics, The poetics of Aristotle (London WC2R 0RL, England, 1996): 10.

18. Ibid ,50 b: p12

19. Ibid ,50 b: p13

20. Ibid ,51 b: p18

21. Ibid. ,50 a : p 14

22. Ibid., 51 b: p18-19

23. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart published by Heinemann -- (1958:129)

24. Penguin Classics, The poetics of Aristotle (London WC2R 0RL, England,

1996),52b:21

25. Ibid: xxxiii.

26. https://theclio.com/entry/48990 .Shakespeare monument-Clio

27. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) England’s genius. Pdf:6. Compact Performer -

Culture & Literature Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton © 2015

28. Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe:

file:///C:/Users/systemes/Downloads/THINGS_FALL_APART_Notes.pdf

29. Ibid

15
 30. English-Language Literatures: West Africa. Eileen Julien African Literature

1995:297.3rd Edition. pdf

31. Things-Fall-Apart-Chinua Achebe

file:///C:/Users/systemes/Downloads/THINGS_FALL_APART_Notes.pdf

32. Ibid

33. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chinua-Achebe

16
 Results:

This dissertation is a comparative study between William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of

Hamlet (1601) and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958). Its aim is to study the

similarities and differences between the chosen works. To reach our aim, we relied on

Aristotle’s theory of Tragedy which is developed in his Poetics. The First chapter deals with

the issue of heroism and the second one discusses the issue of loss in the same works.

This research allowed us to discover that the two novels deal with the same issues

which characterize the Renaissance and the Post-colonial literatures: heroism and loss. We

have come also to discover that even though the two novels are produced by two writers

belonging to different backgrounds (western and African) and in different historical periods

(European Renaissance and African anti-colonial struggles), the two discourses have

affinities in the representation of characters and the way they face the different situations.

At the end of both works, the main characters suffer a gradual loss in their honor, male

power, and the sense of duty.

Indeed, both Shakespeare and Achebe deal with the excess of ambition for power

and reputation through their protagonists who achieve heroism in their different societies.

Both Hamlet and Okonkwo pass through tragic events and circumstances. This led to their

fall and loss. Their tragedies are evident in the close relationship between Heroism and loss

in both, William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet (1601) and Chinua Achebe’s Things

Fall Apart (1958).

17
IV-Discussion:

Chapter I: The Representation of heroism in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of

Hamlet and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart:

This chapter of the research deals with the representation of heroism in Hamlet and

Things Fall Apart through the study of the main characters referring to Aristotle’s theory. It

focuses on the great actions of Hamlet and Okonkwo over their societies in order to attain

their right place and image of fame and power. The two characters reflect many social norms

presented in the Elizabethan era and the Igbo society. Indeed, their personalities represent

many of the same values of people of the time while Things Fall Apart, has been central to

the clash between the colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo

people. Likewise, Hamlet reflects its society mirroring the monarchial form of government

during the Renaissance era.

By heroism we mean all the qualities and the impressive actions of a hero or heroine

as bravery, nobility, valor, etc.…1. Heroism is a concept that is simple at its surface. A

straightforward definition that is at first satisfying is to act in a pro-social manner despite

personal risk. However, this surface masks several subtle, interrelated paradoxes that

arguably make heroism one the most complex human behaviors to study. Further, it seems

likely that the contradictory nature of heroism is precisely what makes it compelling 2.

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka states that: there are two basic tendencies in man’s nature

that build his personality first, a tendency of fight and prove his will then, a tendency to

defeat without any will to gain his aims. The former is grounded in a desire to introduce

changes into one’s own life and the surrounding world, while the latter is grounded in a

desire to preserve what one has achieved 3

A man fights heroically and defends his actions on which he joins the highest price,

mainly values, and more, great ones. Heroism requires, therefore, recognition of values

and conscious decision to take on highest risk in the fight for the realization or defense of

18
them; it must be the case that only one's heroic deed can secure both the victory and the

significance of value. Fight and defense here reach their climax. Heroism becomes an idea

of human dignity as well as the existence of mankind 4.

A- Heroism in The Tragedy of Hamlet:

The Shakespeare tragedy requires tragic heroes to be great, heroic and in high

position. Aristotle states, “A hero is one of those people who are held in great esteem and

enjoy good fortune, like Oedipus, Thyestes, and distinguished men from that kind of

family”5. In most classical traditions, Hamlet would occupy the role of the hero since he is

the protagonist of the play and a man who belongs to the elite and upper class. Aristotle

thinks it is most tragic that these people in high status end in bad fortune.

As Hankiss summarized Hamlet's picture: at first a hero

who wins over the world and himself, then a fragile
young man who takes refuge in daydreams and
melancholy, then a loveable and weak character that is
too sophisticated both morally and emotionally, then a
symbol of melancholy and Weltschmerz 6

a. Heroism of Hamlet:

There are many traits that make from Hamlet a hero such as the status; since Hamlet

is the Prince of Denmark, he was in line for the throne while his father dies. Therefore, being

a Prince exposed Hamlet’s life to the public’s eye incidentally; so many people in Denmark

like and respect Hamlet7. His heroism in his attentive attention and his valiant heroic

determination is to live by principle rather than by passion since he is a man of thought. He

lives and dies by his wisdom because he is not only a man of actions.8 Therefore, Hamlet

strands in the middle of a court full of corruption, faced with his father’s death and his

mother’s almost immediate remarriage.9 Thus, he somehow comes out as a hero in the

reader’s minds as he has to face, both internal and external conflicts which consist of his

moral scruples and the act of revenge.

19
 Being a hero does not evade Hamlet to undertake abnormal actions, this lead him

commit some errors such as when he was sent to England with Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern, where he sentences them to death by changing a death sentence to say their

names instead of his own since he suspects them of playing him for a while: Why do you

think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you

can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me10.

Besides, Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius instead of Claudius. Consequently, he

becomes a threat to society and causes suffering to others through violating laws11. These

errors lastly mentioned includes Ophelia’s madness which consists about her father’s death,

in which case Hamlet was the killer. This madness led Ophelia to commit suicide. This

caused pain to Laertes who lost his father and sister, though he challenges Hamlet to fight

with him, but in the process, Laertes got killed. Hamlet also causes Claudius to suffer

because he teases him with the guilt of what he has done through the production the theatre

group performed.12

Thereby, through Claudius’s punishment Hamlet saved his own principles, and

brings to justice his father's murderer. Hamlet’s delay in revenge is flawed by emotion and

the situation he faces13 due to his hesitation he gets angry on human reason and action14 ,

which disabled him to accomplish his goal. Either, Rosencrantz’s, Guildenstern’s and Polonius’

death and suffering are caused by Hamlet’s actions, making him responsible for the crime.

b. Hamlet’s Courage and Bravery :

Since Hamlet is the protagonist of the play, it is on his complexity that all the actions

focus, being a popular and good-looking, smart and courageous in his behaviors and some

confrontations in the tragedy. Hamlet, as a person, is noted and admired for courage,

outstanding achievements and nobility. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge claims: “Hamlet is

brave and not afraid of death”15.

20
 Hamlet is a daring person since he is not afraid to follow the Ghost. However, he dares

not to kill Claudius when the moment comes even though he knows that Claudius feels

threatened by him and will do anything to prevent him from making his secret known. As

well, he dares to talk to Gertrude in a rude way as he knows that she is too weak and too

much of a loving mother to turn against him, further he dares to talk to Ophelia in a mad

way, as a part of the plot he also takes the risk of going to England accompanied by

Guildenstern and Rosencrantz while he had a guess as regards the purpose of the voyage.

Eventually, he kills Polonius, noting that this is not bravery, rather foolishness. 16

Hamlet's courage is shown through the mission of revenge instructed by his late

father's ghost. Young Hamlet not only accepts it, but also expands the mission to include

purifying the whole court. Hamlet believes that his mission is not only to kill Claudius, but

to kill corruption as well. Though, he does not consciously announce his goal to root out the

corruption in the court, it can be seen through his reactions after killing Polonius and

manipulating the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. His reaction upon realizing that

he kills Polonius is not one of utter shock or one of regret; instead, Hamlet proclaims farewell

to the wretched, rash, intruding fool 17

Hamlet's courage is not only shown in his mission of revenge; it is conveyed in other

incidence in the play like not being afraid to follow the ghost in the fourth scene of the first

act. Hamlet clearly knows about the dangers of following the ghost, as it can be a devil in

disguise and easily takes Hamlet's life. However, Hamlet senses that the ghost might be his

late father's spirit and therefore disregards his companions' warnings and follows it. This act

shows his courage as he quells any fears that he may have and pursues the ghost in hopes

that it may answer the question of his presence, even if it may cost him his life.

Another event in the play in which Hamlet's bravery is clearly shown is when he

accepts Laertes' dual challenge. Even when Horatio warns him against taking the challenge
21
due to possible acts of trickery by Claudius, Hamlet dismisses it because he believes that

'there's a divinity that shapes our ends'; 18. This clearly shows his courage, as he can accept

death, something that takes bravery and wisdom. Another aspect of Hamlet that brands him

the hero of this play is his nobility. Before his father's death, Hamlet is a very intelligent

man, sophisticated and cultured. However, one of his flaws was his lack of maturity dealing

with death.

After his father's death, he changes but remains noble in essence. He is noble enough

to give Claudius the benefit of the doubt, even after the ghost has revealed the truth to him.

It is shown through the fact that he is willing to wait a few months until he can catch the

conscience of the king19 .His nobility also does not allow him to embarrass anybody in

public. In private, he will speak his mind fully, as shown when he yells such atrocities as get

thee to a nunnery 20Ophelia in the nunnery scene. Another example of Hamlet speaking his

mind in private is when he accuses the queen of living in the rank sweat of a seamed bed,

Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love over the nastysty21in the bedroom scene.

Hamlet courage and bravery played a major role on his heroic statue since he is a

daring person, he is not afraid of taking actions, as before behaving he always think twice.

These traits allowed him to establish a certain respect and resilience toward his family and

friends, even his society. For example, as far as the ghost suggested him the mission of

revenge, he set up a wise plan to fool his uncle so that he would report by himself.

Thereupon, Claudius felt threatened and acted suspiciously. As well as, the case of Ophelia

and Gertrude, where Hamlet allowed himself to face them in a rude and severe way.

B- Heroism in Things Fall Apart:

The cultural and traditional beliefs of the Igbo community show the standards of

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart as a process of heroism with a finer description of the African

social ideals in the Igbo tribe. The issue of heroism investigated here has diverse meanings.
22
It indicates among other things status in society, titles, respect…etc. Indeed, “Achebe”

indicates the role of man in Igbo society, as a powerful and popular in the village of Umuofia

much celebrated and admired for his manly prowess and heroism. Okonkwo represents this

standard in his tribe before the invasion of the British colonialism.

a. Power and Reputation:

At the beginning of the novel, Achebe portrays Okonkwo as the famous person in

his clan. He presents the first title that he has won as an act of courage and bravery in a

confrontation. Accordingly, his defeat of Amalinze, ‘The Cat’ stands as an embodiment of

courage and success, which happens to be the highest ideal of Igbo culture. Achebe says:

Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages

and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal
achievements as a young man of eighteen he had brought
honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat’.
Amalinze was the greatest wrestler who for seven years
was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino […];
Okonkwo’s fame “had grown like a bushfire in the
Harmattan22.

From the above quotation, we can understand that Okonkwo’s position as a pillar of

strength, identify his honorable identity. His achievement grows fast and is considered

unstoppable. He has won his reputation as a warrior and a wrestler becoming one of the lords

of the clan. This suggests that it prominent to show power in the Igbo society. If there are

big fighters, there are powerful men, and no one will argue this fact. As Achebe says: “Age

was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child

washed his hands, he could eat with king”23

It is Okonkwo’s achievements that have enabled him to take part in his society. The

lines quoted above show that he enjoys a high status from an early age among the elderly

who can only achieve high positions in old age. He is still young but has attained great fame

despite his poor family backgrounds. The elders of the Igbo society invite him to take part

in the important meetings of the village. He eats and drinks with the adults of his homeland,

23
because of his worth, fame and position. During that time, a man’s position is judged in

society by his achievements, not by years of age.

Okonkwo believes in power, determination, and self-confidence as tools of resistance

that made him a great leader in his own society, he gains his people’s respect. He is a man

of power; he makes his fortune by the sweat of his brow. He rises to a high position through

hard work and sincerity of serious efforts. At first, he starts by asking help from Nwakibie;

a wealthy man to get yam seeds to be seen in his farm. Even when he gets the seeds, he still

needs to work hard because the year when Okonkwo start farming was the worst year. This

shows that he is a hardworking, as mentioned in the novel. Achebe states that:

H e had sown four hundred seeds when the rain dried up

and the heat returned. He watched the sky all day for
signs of rain clouds and lay awake all night. In the
morning he went back to his farm and saw the with
erring tendrils. He had tried to protect them from the
smoldering earth by making rings of thick sisal leaves
around them. But by the end of the day the sisal rings
were burned dry and gray. He changed them every day
and prayed that the rain might fall in the night. But the
drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams
were killed 24.

Okonkwo can achieve many things through his rise. He has been amazingly noticed

that it has come in a short period. He is a self-made man who began from nothing yet has

achieved a lot; “a farmer who is rich and has two barns full of yams who has just married

his third wife”25. During the planting season Okonkwo worked daily on his farms from

cockcrow until the chickens went to roost26.He is a strong man and rarely feels fatigue. But

his wives and young children are not as strong. He can work from early morning to evening

and he rarely feels fatigue as his routine in farm. Okonkwo surpasses his faulty background

and reaches a great success. He wants to prove that he is unlike his father; he changes his

life to be successful person. Okonkwo who is motivated to become a hero was not afraid of

the forces that surrounded him”27. He is grown upward from an ordinary birth and poverty

to a status of influence to stand apart and differentiate himself from common people.

24
 Okonkwo did not have the head in life which many
youths usually tend to have […] He neither inherited a
barn nor a title, nor even a young wife. But despite
these disadvantages; he had begun even in his father’s
lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future. It
was slow and painful. But he threw himself into it like
one possessed. And indeed, he was possessed by the
fear of his father’s contemptible life and shameful
death28.

From the quotation above, we can understand what drive Okonkwo’s main

motivation to be such an important figure in his society. All his efforts are resulted from his

hatred toward his father and Okonkwo’s unconscious mind to avoid becoming like him.

Among the Igbo people, a man is judged by his worth not by his father’s. Unoka is judged

by people as an Agbala; which means a man or woman without titles.

From the beginning, Okonkwo achieves his success through hard work, he says yes;

so, his chi; referring to God and clan agreed. He has no patience with unsuccessful men.

Okonkwo’s fear of failure probably is the basic cause of his downfall at the end.

Unfortunately, Okonkwo has not a good relation neither with his father nor with his own son

because he seems so much like Unoka. Okonkwo associate’s manliness with aggression and

feels that anger is the only emotion that he should display for this reason.

Achebe describes Okonkwo as a Bad-tempered person. He tends to do more

action than talk as he furiously beat someone when he gets angry rather than talk first and

says what he thought, or he feels. This is briefly said by the narrator in the novel that: “and

he did pounce on people quite often. He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry

and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fist”29

Okonkwo beats his wives for no reason and threatens to kill them from time to

time. Even though Okonkwo is polygamous, he is not demonstrative in his expressions of

love and affection for his wives, children, kinsmen or friends. His clan believes in the view

that demonstration of delicate feeling is a sign of weakness, unless it is the emotion of anger,

since the only thing worth demonstrating was strength. He is not good at talking with people.

25
He prefers to talk with his power and fist as it is easier to him. Here is the difference between

him and his friend Obierika who is much a man of thoughts than actions.

b. The Heroism of Okonkwo:

A hero must unite between physical skills and high intellectual ability. A hero must be

impervious to emotions. This served as a constant reminder of the degree to which the title

“hero” is a social construction (Rankin & Eagly, 2008) that may or may not accurately reflect

the actual merits of an individual’s actions30.The narrator tells us that Okonkwo expresses

no emotion other than anger. He is impassive about the harsh realities of life because this is

the life of a leader. Obierika says:

What you have done will not please the Earth. It is the
kind of action for which the goddess wipes out the whole
families […] the evil you have done can ruin the whole
clan. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may
refuse to give us her increase, and we shall all perish.31

The quotation above indicates that Okonkwo is obliged to accomplish a sacrifice in

order to appease Ani, the Earth goddess for breaking the religious views of the clan on several

occasions. For instance, he beats his wife Ojjugo aggressively in the sacred week. For this

offense, Okonkwo is commanded to make amends: he must take a goat, a hen, some cloth,

and a hundred cowries to the earth goddess. He also kills accidentally a clansman what leads

him to be punished and exiled to his motherland Mbanta for seven years. He is obliged to

restart again a new life there. Achebe states: “Okonkwo’s gun exploded, and a piece of iron

had pierced the boy’s heart […] it was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman,

and a man who committed must flee from the land”.32

Chinua Achebe captures how Colonization can affect tradition and how Imperialism

and European influence can change culture in Africa. During Okonkwo’s exaltation, there

are many changes taking place. After the coming of the white man and Christianity position

have grown stronger. Therefore, Umuofia and Mbanta have greatly changed and lost their
26
culture. Okonkwo comes with a strong determination to free his people and his son Nwoye

who has converted to the new rules of the new life. People lost the power to fight. Okonkwo

knows that he lost his place and realizes the end of his tribe.

Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that

Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they
had left the other messenger’s escape. They had broken
into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that
tumult. He heard voices asking; “why did he do it”. He
wiped his machete on the stand and went away.33

Okonkwo’s return from exile is a persistent reference to his Nationalism. At the end,

he tries to regain his dignity and earlier identity, but it is too late, so, as a great man,

Okonkwo cannot face the reality even to escape from it. His people ignore him as they are

only interested in the white religion and government. He could not adapt or survive with this

new culture; he takes a decision to commit suicide by hanging himself. Achebe writes: “that

man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself, and now he

will be buried like a dog…”34

As a result, Okonkwo's is represented as a disappointment to the Umuofia people. It

is unambiguously imprinted in their minds that there had been an irreversible break with the

past. Umuofia would never again be what it was. Farnood Jahangiri (2015) affirms that

Okonkwo is the conventional hero in the tragedies and is a hero with whom the readers

sympathize, and his end is the result of his own pride he represents his clan with all its

positive and negative aspects35. He is victimized by his own ideas of masculinity and

manhood.

27
End Notes:

1. Collin’sDictionary.com

a. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/heroism

2. Zeno E. Franco, Kathy Blau, and Philip G. Zimbardo. ―Heroism: A Conceptual Analysis and

Differentiation Between Heroic Action and Altruism‖. April 11, 2011. Review of General

Psychology: 1

3. Tymieniecka Anna-Teresa. Paideia: Netherlands, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000: 438

4. Ibid: 441

5. Aristotle’s Poetic,1996

6. Hankiss, https://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/36842.html?page=2

7. www.teenink.com/nonfiction/heroes/article/993306/Hamlet-Tragic-Hero

8. https://cheyennemduncan.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/hamlet-a-man-of-thought-a-man-of-action-a-

man-of-both/

9. www.teenink.com/nonfiction/heroes/article/993306/Hamlet-Tragic-Hero

10. Penguin Popular Classics, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 1994: 3.2: 98

11. Ibid

12. www.teenink.com/nonfiction/heroes/article/993306/Hamlet-Tragic-Hero

13. Tony Nguyen, Mrs. Brown English IV, 7 January 2016, Hamlet the tragic Hero

14. https://sites.google.com/a/rcsedu.org/Nguyen-tonys-efolio/hamlet-the-tragic-hero

15. ibid

16. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Excerpt from "Lecture on Hamlet" (1818)

17. https://digitaltermpapers.com/essays/why-hamlet-is-a-hero/

18. Penguin Popular Classics, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 1994,3.4: 103

19. ibid.5.2:143

20. ibid, 2.2:78.

21. Ibid,3.1: 83

28
22. Ibid,3.4: 105

23. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958:03

24. Ibid :06

25. Ibid:17

26. Ibid :6

27. Ibid :10

28. Ibid:06

29. Patrick C.Nnoromele [2000] The Plight Of a Hero,155

30. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics,1958:13

31. Zeno E. Franco and Kathy Blau, Philip G. Zimbardo, 2011.p 101. Heroism: A Conceptual

Analysis and Differentiation Between Heroic Action and Altruism construction (Rankin &

Eagly, 2008)

32. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics 1958:47

33. Ibid :89

34. Ibid: 146-147

35. Farnood Jahangiri, okonkwo; a victimized Hero: 4 pdfs .25.05.2015

29
 Chapter II: The Representation of Loss in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of

Hamlet and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart:

In this chapter, we continue our analysis in terms of affinities, which appear in the themes

of heroism and loss through the study of the characters of both of William Shakespeare’s

Hamlet and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. It is important to note that we focus on the

protagonists whether they fit or not to the characteristics of Aristotle’s Tragedy. As we

have already mentioned in the previous chapter, both writers present the image of fame and

heroism and the way the main characters are facing difficulties that impose on them certain

aggressive reactions. Hamlet and Okonkwo experience a serious lossof power and respect,

and such a fall affects the whole Western and African nations.

Loss as a concept is defined in Merriam Webster Dictionary to be the act of

destroying and ruining. It is the harm or privation resulting from losing or being separated

from someone or something1.In fact, a loss occurs when an event is perceived to be negative

by individuals involved, and it results in long-term changes in one's social situations,

relationships, or way of viewing the world. Death is the event most often thought of as a

loss, but there are many others2.

A. The Representation of Loss in Hamlet 1601:

The theme of loss is depicted in Hamlet throughout the play. He portrays the

underlying theme of madness and loss of his father that triggers his insanity and quickly

starts to stray further from reality causing him to ponder suicide and seek revenge. It is

evident that Hamlet loses his mind in the play because he loses the thrown. His father’s

murder and his mother’s ultimate remarriage led his uncle Claudius to take his place. As a

result, Hamlet decides to take revenge for his father due to the grief he feels for him. Within

the play, Hamlet does not only lose everything worthy, but also loses himself. First he loses

his father being murdered, and the grief he felt for him drives him to lose his mind resulting,

in the hallucinations he gets assuming a ghost talking to him in order to avenge his father’s

murder. Then, it comes Loss of his two special women in his life, first his mother being
30
 married to his uncle and his beloved one Ophelia who committed suicide. All of these

werecomponents that lead to his demise. 3

a. Hamlet’s Loss of Father and Throne:

Hamlet’s first loss consists in the suspicious death of his beloved and respected fatherin a

sudden way. Even King Claudius, supports the young Hamlet in his serious mourning. It is

shown in the first act as Claudius talks of Hamlet’s behavior:

“Tis sweet and commendable in your nature […]

but to persevere in obstinate condolement are a
course of impious stubbornness. Is unmanly
grief”.4

Hamlet is heartbroken at the loss of his father, which was reflected in his outlook

on life. He regards Denmark as a prison and speaks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of

havingbad dreams. Therefore, Hamlet expresses his pain due love and loss.5Consequently,

just after King Hamlet’s death, young Hamlet goes in a self-depression. Because of the

Queen supportand her remarriage, the throne goes to Claudius, what pushes Hamlet to go

beyond his mind.There's a line where Hamlet alludes to this process in the fifth act: He that

hath killed my king and whor’d my mother, popped in between th' election and my hopes,

Thrown out his angle for my proper life”6

The quotation above suggests that the marriage is approved by a combination of

King Hamlet's will, Gertrude's support, and with the opinion of the gathered nobility led

Claudiusto assume the throne over Prince Hamlet.

b. Hamlet’s Inability to cope:

Most of the conflict comes from Hamlet's internal struggle of deciding whether he should

trust the words and appearance of his father’s ghost. Though, he seeks proof. This comes to

show Hamlet’s inability to trust the ghost because he does not believe the existence of his

father’s ghost is possible; he believes that the apparition might be a devil trying to lurehim in

committing an unjustified act, and he needs to rely on Claudius’s reaction to the playand

validate his trust with the Ghost. Therefore, he decides to organize a play with different

31
 sequence of events the ghost tells him about his father’s murder scene to depend on

Claudius's reaction to help him validate those words. As Hamlet says:

I’ll have these playersplay something like the murder of my

father before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks. I’ll tent him
7
to the quick. If he does blench, I know my course.

In the passage above, Hamlet explains that he will have the players play

somethingof what the ghost claimed about pouring poison in his ear "like the murder of my

father" and then he will observe his reaction for any suspicious signs. If Claudius does

indeed react in an apprehensive manner, then Hamlet will know that he can trust the ghost's

words,otherwise he will stay hesitant of doing the deed.8

c. Hamlet’s loss of mind:

Loss applies to Hamlet, after his father murder, the envy to revenge increased in

his soul which caused his flaw by mixing things and acting unconsciously. Although

Hamlet’s seeks for revenge and rebellion, the continuation of loss during his life was one

of the mostaspects of his downfall.

It is made abundantly clear that Hamlet is going mad since the beginning of the

play when he allegedly saw his father’s ghost then, his madness increased to the point

where he cannot distinguish between appearance and reality. Although in the beginning,

Hamlet planned to act insane, so that he can confirm the ghost’s claims about Claudius

being the one to murder his father, King Hamlet; it ends with him going crazy and

eventually led to his death therefore his tragic flaw.9

Hamlet’s tragic flaw which, according to Merriam Webster dictionary, means: a

10
flawin character that brings about the downfall of the hero of a tragedy is his tendency to

over think scenarios and decisions, while procrastinating any real action, which leads in

part to his eventual murder. According to Aristotle’s rules, the hero’s downfall is partially
11
his ownfault. Their downfall comes from a brief mishap in judgment . This is immediately

verifiedwith the story of Hamlet, while he chooses not to kill Claudius since he believes

32
 him to be praying and cleansing himself of sin. So, Hamlet chose not to commit the deed.
12
Now mightI do it pat, now he is praying, and now I’lldo’t, and so he goes to heaven?

d. Hamlet’s loss of the beloved ones:

The loss of loved ones can be overwhelming and painful in mourning. Thus,

the effectsof loss are expressed through the practice of grief. Hamlet presents deep love and

affection for Ophelia prior to his father’s murder. Hamlet’s undeniable love for Ophelia is

often tested throughout his grieving period by the unfortunate actions of the people

surrounding him. In some of the opening scenes, the reader starts to see how Hamlet’s

mental state begins to dwindle by saying: Thine evermore, dearest lady whilst this machine

is to him13.

Prior to Hamlets unstable behavior, regardless of his status as Prince, he truly had

thenotion of marrying her. Hamlet begins to questions Laertes love by asking him things

like would you cry or fight or starve or even die buried in this grave with her. Thus, Hamlet

was ready to do all these latter for Ophelia. Hamlet’s mishap of judgment leads his own

death and exceeded to the crimes he did by seeing his own mother die after having been

poisonedby Claudius, whose poison was intended for Hamlet. Also seeing Ophelia being

placed intoher grave, shows regret and sadness for Hamlet because he realizes the actions

that blindedhis mind and ultimately caused the loss of his true love. till I have caught her

once more in mine arms: Leaps into the grave14

The loss of two loved ones and losing his own life accumulates Hamlet’s mistakes

tough he found himself lost so he starts asking himself if he even have to pursuit his revenge

mission or just let it down. While trying to revenge his father’s murder, he even loses his

own soul as he also died at the end of the play as Shakespeare tells “O I die Horatio” 15

33
 Nevertheless, Hamlet, as a character is just as guilty of hubris which, according

to Merriam Webster dictionary, is an exaggerated pride or self-confidence16 that fed his

inability to act. His adamancy that his uncle pays for his father's death regardless of the

casualties highlights his pride as his downfall which is literally called Hamartia. According

to Aristotle, the term describes the error of judgment which ultimately brings about the tragic
17
hero's downfall .That pride has paralyzed him that it became a reason for his failure to act,

prevents any viable, adult, or honorable reaction until he has lost almost all grips on sanity.

Due to his lack of action, Hamlet in this play is bound by flaws and events in his life thatlead

him to his fatal doom. He is consumed by a specific tragic flaw which leads to the deathof

his loved ones and himself.

Hamlet is not responsible for the events which complicate theplot, his continuous

awareness and doubt delays him in performing the needed. So far, Hamlet is endangering

his freedom and his life but his failure here is the cause of all the Hamartia and it is usually

translated as "tragic flaw" and much often the character's Hamartia involves hubris. His

madness, his impulsive behavior and most importantly, his indecisiveness or 'change of
18
mind' can be considered as his Hamartia or tragic flaws. The latter results to different

undesirable consequences, Hamlet has proven that Claudius is the real murderer of his

father, as Shakespeare says:

“ O vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I? ay sure, this is most brave,
That I , the son of the dear murthered,
19
Prompted to my revenge by heaven, and hell”

However, when he had the chance to kill Claudius, he could not afford it to not

fall inthe deed since he wanted him to suffer in hell and not reach heaven, he wanted him to

get anawful death. Shakespeare states: “so am I reveng’d: that would be scann’d, a villain

kills myfather, and for that I hid sole son, do this same villain send to heaven”.20.

34
 As a result, we deduce that Hamlet states a tragic flaw as a conflict between his

good and bad side which make him suffer and ends in death. This tragic flaw also brings

suffer to himwhen he thinks too much to decide to continue on living or to commit suicide,

he finds himself lost in his own soul. In the case of Hamlet, he had lost his natural state and

makes away for the bad in him to take over of his actions when he is no longer guided by

his reasonand intellect anymore.

B. Loss in Things Fall Apart:

Things Fall Apart is the definitive tragic model about the dissolution of the African

Igboculture by English Imperialism. It is about the tragic fall of the protagonist, Okonkwo,

and the Igbo culture at the same time. At the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo is pictured

as a heroic and influential leader within the Igbo community of Umuofia in Eastern

Nigeria. He first earns personal fame and distinction and brings honor to his village. Then at

the end, hefaces many trials and tribulations because of the white man’s encroachment of

Igbo land. Therefore, he is doomed by his inflexibility and hubris and the fear of failure

leads to his downfall.

In the light of loss, Achebe suggests many reasons leading to this tragedy. He also

attempts to analyze the different cultural elements, such as language, culture, and religion

in Igbo society and how they change because of the colonizer’s domination. He makes a

clear socio-cultural awareness for his readers about changing life in the Umuofia society.

The novel narrates every important aspect of African society including the struggles of the

Igbopeople. One important problem in this novel is about the colonialism that creates some

conflicts related to identity and tradition. It indicates how the simple villagers cannot escape

the presence of colonialists and finally the Umuofia with all their complexity and integrity

fall down.

At the end of the novel, Achebe exhibits how change should not rule someone's

life. Okonkwo does not only lose his tribe, his family, and his religion; but he also loses

himselfalong the way. Aristotle states that "Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but,
35
 whenseparated from law and justice, he is the worst of all"21. Change was inevitable, and

Okonkwo is afraid of it. He is not ready to accept, and to live within the rules of white men.

After the loss of most of the important things in Igbo culture, it does not make sense to himto

stay alive. Colonialism affected Umuofia in many ways making the Igbo culturedisappear,

and Okonkwo’s death at the end represents the death of the Igbo culture as well. Achebe

says:

Seven years was a long time to be away from one’s

clan. A man’s place was not always there, waiting for
him. Assoon as he left, someone else rose and filled it.
The clanwas like a lizard, if it lost its tail, it soon grew
22
another.

a. Loss of Identity: Fall of Traditions:

Things Fall Apart significantly reflects the colonial effects on indigenous

society. Beforethe advent of colonial power, the people of Umuofia lived in community,

in an organic society of economic, religious, and cultural stability. Achebe argues, in an

interview with Kwame Appiah that: “It is of course true that the African identity is still in

the making. There isn't a final identity that is African” 23. However, it does not mean that

Africans do not need to consider their history while rehabilitating a new identity and much

more regaining dignity as Achebe strongly discusses as follows:

African people did not hear of culture for the first time
from Europeans; that their societies were not mindless
but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value
and beauty, that they had poetry, and above all, they had
dignity. It is this dignity that many African people all but
lost during the colonia1 period and it is this that they
must now regain. The worst thing that can happen to any
people is the loss of their dignity and self-respect. The
writer’s duty is to help them regain it by showing them
24
in human terms what happened to them, what they lost.

During Okonkwo’s exile, a profound change comes over the region of Umuofia.

The white men began to penetrate communities with new ideas, a new religion, and a new

36
 government. Consequently, the natives are very much influenced by this change. The new

religion and government and the trading stores were very much in the people’s eyes and

minds25. This shows the strong influence the colonizer had on the natives. Moreover, the

missionaries change and manipulate religion in order to fit their needs. They break theIgbo

rituals by spreading Christianity through missionaries and teaching to make the natives

forget about their religion. Thus, the prospect of change affects many characters among

them Okonkwo’s son Nwoye, who follows the white men’s religion and became “one of

them”26.

The new religion causes a split between the Umofian people. After seeing Nwoye

with missionaries, Obierika asks him: “How is your father” Nwoye replied:” I don’tknow.

He is not my father”27. In the light of this quotation, we notice how Christianity creates

hatred between Umuofia’s community members. As the numbers of converts grow, a great

division begins to appear between those siding with the British and those remaining faithful

to their own religion. In addition to Nwoye, Akunna negotiates with Mr. Brown and even

gave his son to be taught the white man’s education28. However, Okonkwo resists the new

political and religious orders; he does not accept what is brought by the white man. For

him, he would not be manly if he consents to join and tolerate the British colonizer.

However, with their arrival, everything falls apart.

To highlight Okonkwo’s failure, the authors indicates that he becomes an

individual fighter in Umuofia. His success and failure repose on his ability to make an

appropriate synthesis of the three values that make up his personality: male power, honor,

and sense of duty. In fact, Okonkwo lives in a society, in which male power is at the center

of traditionalbeliefs but after the coming of the colonizer, the society becomes destroyed. In

this sense, Cesaire states: “But colonial rule turns the social stability into instability and

disintegration.The title of the novel itself signifies this claim- things are no longer in order;

Colonialism has disordered them”29.

37
 Through the quotation above, we understand that colonialism destroyed Igbo social

structure that was organic and well-formed. The British came with the idea of destroying the

native’s traditions in order to replace them by their own so as to fit their needs. The new

system imposed on the Africans greatly influenced their values, their way of living, their

system of production and all this influenced their relationships. Okonkwo says, when

speaking about the colonizer, that:

The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably

with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and
allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our
clan can no longer act like one. Hehas put a knife on the things
30
that held us together and wehave fallen apart .

This quote refers to what the whites introduced in Africa such as churches,

schools; The natives considered these institutions as a source of their community’s

destruction. Again, what is worth mentioning is that the confrontation between the British

colonizer and the Igbo was at first at the level of religion, Christianity against the Igbo

religion. Physical force was not the first mode of interaction used when the colonizer

arrived in Mbanta or Umuofia. Their priority was not to kill, but to convert. “They came as

missionaries and built their church there”31. Achebe states that “Christians had grown in

number and were now a small community of men, women and children, self-assured and

confident” 32. Consequently, all was broken. Cesaire states:

I am talking about societies drained of their essence, cultures

trampled underfoot, institutions undermined, lands
confiscated, religions smashed, magnificent artistic creations
33
destroyed, extraordinary possibilities wiped out .

So, Cesaire conveys the idea that the Nigerian tribal culture was destroyed by the

colonizer. The colonizer manipulated the spirit; his aim was to conquer the mind as well as

the land. In other words, he tried to pacify people; to address their mind. This task was

made by religious schools at the beginning (missionaries) but, soon these religious

institutions were replaced by schools. At the end of the novel, one of the elders of the

Umuofian community says to the Igbo people:

38
 An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now
leave his father and brothers. He can curse the gods of his fathers
and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and
34
turns on his master: “I fear for you; I fear for the clan” .

Thus, Igbo religion and traditions were replaced by Christianity to an extent that

the natives began to forget about their ancestors and take side with the missionaries.

Achebe states that the British colonizer reached “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of

the Lower Niger” 35. In short, many of the Igbo people were so influenced by the white

colonizerthat they denied their traditions and history.

b. Okonkwo’s Fall:

Okonkwo’s pride is evident in Things Fall Apart as it contributes to his actions

that lead to exile and eventually suicide. At the beginning of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo

is treated with great honor and respect but by the end he has no pleasure in life at all. This

shows how much power; pride have over Okonkwo to the point that he cannot bear living

any longer. Killam in his book, ‘The Novels of Chinua Achebe [1969], states that “Okonkwo

was one of the greatest men in his time, the embodiment of the Igbo values, and the man

who better than symbolizes his race” 36.

Obviously, Okonkwo’s Hamartia is his fear of being called as weak and his

refusal to be called as compatible in any way as he looks down on kindness. Hence, he

prefers to portray masculinity and manly strength. This tragic flaw of him started to

develop since he had given up his father, Unoka who lives in a life full of debts and cannot

take a good care of his own family. Nevertheless, Okonkwo’s masculinity is driven by his

fear of being called weak and this makes it a tragic flaw. According to Anyokwu (2009),

“There is nothing more despicable than fear. The spirit of fear is the ruling passion of a

coward, and a coward can never be a hero” 37.

39
 This tragic flaw causes Okonkwo to make a bigger error in judgment when he

kills Ikemefuna due to his inability. He does not admit that he cares and loves him even

more than his own son and to avoid himself being called as a coward. Although Ogbuefi

Ezeudu comes to warn him to not interfere and lay his hand on Ikemefuna, Okonkwo still

goes against the command of God (Friesen, 2006, p. 2)38. Hence, this shows that his tragic

flaw had caused him to murder his beloved adopted son. Another example of Okonkwo’s

tragic flaw is when he cannot control his anger and beat his second wife, Ekwefi for a small

mistake; cutting Okonkwo’s banana leaves to wrap some food39.

Once he returns from exile, he realizes that the Christians have begun to change

the traditions of his home and he does not know how to restart. He questions his people,

saying: “What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to

fight?”40Okonkwo will never accept what the colonizer must bring into Umuofia. He refuses

to change his identity. Unfortunately, his return is not what Okonkwo had expected.

Okonkwo discovers his new situation in Umuofia, where everything has changed radically:

“It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offence against the Earth, and a

man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen”41.

After everything Okonkwo has done to have an outstanding reputation, he has

ruinedall of it by taking his life. Even his banishment did not truly tarnish his name but

because suicide is an abomination in Umuofia his clansmen will not remember him

fondly. Just as the village does not remember Unoka fondly, Okonkwo has followed in his

father’s footsteps once again without realizing that he is making himself out to be his

father’s son. The main action of tragedy is the fall of a hero internally and externally.

Externally, he goes on thehero falls from both power and respect; and internally he falls

from peace of mind. Some ofepics heroes fit this feature.

Aristotle was the mind behind the concept of tragic hero. A tragichero is a hero who

falls from good fortune to bad, it corresponds to the failure in action thatevokes pity 42. This

40
 fall must be caused not by ill luck but at the fault of the tragic hero himself.As for Okonkwo

then, the conflict that he is facing gives him no choice except to commit suicide. He

makes the decision solely to protect his clan as he thinks that his clanwould remember

their national culture in facing colonization and his bravery to commit suicide, rather

than leaving his life to the hand of the white men and become a prisoner of the other.

Hence, his hubris brings him to a tragic end and makes him a tragic hero.

The downfall of the tragic hero is the culmination of all the events in the story

come together. It is meant to evoke pity or fear in the audience. The hero’s downfall is his

own fault because of his own free choice, but his misfortune is not wholly deserved. The

downfall is seen as a waste of human potential and is due to excessive pride. Coming back

into the village of Umuofia, Okonkwo believes that he will “return with a flourish and regain

the seven years wasted” 43. This shows that his motivation has come back from when it was

lost during his exile. He believes that his village will let him pick up where he left off, but

he is gravely mistaken.

In conclusion, all of Okonkwo’s features make him a tragic hero. Everything he

does make him out to be a tragic hero. The struggle to keep the Igbo traditions alive is

reflected in Okonkwo’s resistance of change by keeping the values in high regard.

Following the violence in which he kills a European messenger who tries to stop a

meeting among clan elders, he realizes that he is no longer with his society. No one

applauds his actions, and hesees that he is the only one who wishes to go to war with the

Europeans. This novel shows Okonkwo’s tragic flaw of fear, of weakness, and failure.

41
 End Notes:

1. Merriam Webster dictionary.com

2. Encyclopedia .com, Grief, Loss, And Bereavement

3. Representation of Loss, Madness and Grief in Hamlet:

https://edubirdie.com/examples/representation-of-loss-madness-and-grief-in-hamlet

4. Penguin Popular Classics, Hamlet, William Shakespeare,1994. Act I scene II: 34

5. Love Loss and the court of king Claudius, https://studyboss.com/essays/love-loss-and-

the-court-of-king-claudius.html

6. Penguin Popular Classics, Hamlet, William Shakespeare, 1994. Act 5, Scene 2:145.

7. Ibid, Act 2 scene 2:78

8. https://www.ipl.org/essay/To-Trust-Or-Not-To-Trust-The-PCQCY6WPVZT )

9. Representation of Loss, Madness and Grief in Hamlet:

https://edubirdie.com/examples/representation-of-loss-madness-and-grief-in-hamlet

10. Merriam Webster dictionary,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tragic20flaw

11. Analysis of Hamlet in Terms of Aristotle: https://studymoose.com/analysis-hamlet-

terms-aristotle-new-essay

12. Penguin Popular Classics, Hamlet, William Shakespeare, 1994: Act 5, Scene 2:101.

13. Ibid: Act 2, Scene 2: 63.

14. https://www.cram.com/essay/Psychological-Effects-Of-Loss-In-

Hamlet/FK8STA5KUY3W

15. Penguin Popular Classics, Hamlet, William Shakespeare, 1994: Act 5 Scene 1: 140

16. MerriamWebsterdictionary.com/ https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/hubris?src=search-dict-box

17. Aristotle, Poetics,1996: xxxii)

18. What is the most tragic scene in the story

42
 hamlet: https://brainly.in/question/21475955

19. Penguin Popular Classics, Hamlet, William Shakespeare, 1994. Act 2, Scene 2, :78

20. Ibid, Act 3 scene 3 :101.

21. But, When separated from low and justice, he is the worst of all.Ipo 2010-erikamberg.

pdf

22. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958. Print :123

23. Rethinking African culture and identity: The Afropolitan model/Journal of African Cultural

Studies, 2014 Vol. 26, No. 2, 234–247 :236

24. Ibid:236

25. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958. Print :131

26. Ibid :131.

27. Ibid:128.

28. Ibid:103.

29. Md.Mahbubul Alam,Reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart from the Perspective of Cesaire’s

Discourse on Colonialism,2014.Viewed 05 July 2016

https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume14/2-Reading-Achebes-Things-Fall.pdf

30. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958:103

31. Ibid:103.

32. Md.Mahbubul Alam,Reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart from the Perspective of Cesaire’s

Discourse on Colonialism,2014.Viewed 05 July 2016

https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume14/2-Reading-Achebes-Things-Fall.pdf

33. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958:126-127

34. Ibid:128.

35. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958:126-127.

36. Ibid:103

37. Ibid:115

43
 38. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958: 120.

39. Ibid:150

40. Ibid: 9.

41. Ibid :149

42. Ibid:126

43. Etsè Awitor. Individuality in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958): The Case of Okonkwos.

Alizés : Revue angliciste de La Réunion, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines

(Université de La Réunion), 2013 :52

44
V. GENERAL CONCLUSION:

Our choice of conducting the current research upon analyzing William

Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1601) and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) seeks to

understand how the two writers discuss the issues of Heroism and Loss in their

representation of their protagonists who look like Aristotelian tragic heroes. No doubt,

both Hamlet and Okonkwo are similar characters because they meet at two levels:

heroism and loss.

Both of Hamlet and Okonkwo are on top of their world, proud and ambitious,

powerful people. For them achieving heroism is very decisive since they have such a

prestigious position in their communities. They both react by using their mental and

physical strength. Hamlet, as the prince of Denmark, is respected and loved by people

and Okonkwo who is represented as respectable leader of the Igbo community.

In both stories the reader can see a change in each of Hamlet and Okonkwo’s status.

Certain events lead to the fall of these once respectable men. Their failure leads to lose

their respect, and place in their communities. Hamlet finds himself at odds with his

country as he enters in apparent madness to revenge. Okonkwo finds himself alone

between the white men and their rules; he is betrayed by his people and his tribe will not

go to war.

As much as the two characters share many similarities in terms of heroic character,

they also have many differences. We start by the main different point which is action.

Indeed, Hamlet is pained by his procrastination; he is a man of thought whereas Okonkwo

suffers from a need to heighten his reputation. However, Hamlet overanalyzes, Okonkwo

within his aggressive masculinity, does not think at all. Okonkwo completely disregards

the consequences of his actions, while Hamlet examines and reexamines its potential

costs. These facts lead to feel pity and fear toward the heroes because of the approaching

ordeal. Finally, we can say that both Okonkwo and Hamlet move themselves tragic

heroes, since both die as a result of their heroic actions.

45
 By conducting this research, we conclude that although The Tragedy of Hamlet and

Things Fall Apart come from two different cultural and geographical boundaries they can

meet consequently because they share a similar tragic vision linked to the complex

relationships between men of value and their society in a period of trouble. In The

Tragedy of Hamlet, the trouble is represented by the murder of the King and the

usurpation of the throne of Denmark. In Things Fall Apart, the turmoil is caused by the

intrusion of a foreign culture and religion brought to the heart of Africa by the white man.

In the two cases, a struggle ensues leading to the tragic loss of valorous people who once

made the grandeur of their communities.

46
 VI. Bibliography:
Primary sources:

 William, Shakespeare. The Tragedy Of Hamlet. 1994.Penguin Popular Classic.

 Chinua, Achebe. Things Fall Apart. New York: 1958.Penguin popular classics.
Secondary sources:
o Theory

Aristotle, Penguin Classics, The Poetics of Aristotle

(London WC2R 0RL, England,1996)
Journals, Articles and Dissertation:

1. The Representation of the Renaissance Woman/man in William Shakespeare’s The

Merchant of Venice and Othello pdf, KahinaLegoui

2. https://www.britannica.com/art/Elizabethan-literature

3. Bloom’s Shakespeare through the Ages. Edited and with an introduction by Harold

Bloom. 1904:245 A. C. Bradley. From Shakespearean Tragedy Hamlet in the Twentieth

Century.

4. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-father-of-africas-literary

legacy/article4538831.ece.

5. A.C Bradley, a specialist of Shakespeare argues in his Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures

on Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth (1904:97)

6. Bloom’s Shakespeare through the Ages: Edited and with an introduction by Harold

Bloom. Bloom’s Literary Criticism T. S. Eliot. “Hamlet and His Problems” (1919: 250)

7. What Happens in Hamlet by J.Dover Wilson, Gertrude’s sin (1935:39), Cambridge

university press ;googlelivre

8. SHAKESPEARE Hamlet Paul A. Cantor, University of Virginia Published in the United

States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York 2004

47
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