Final answer:
Hamlet elicits pathos through his tragic flaws and complex emotions, which resonate deeply with the audience and evoke empathetic suffering. His internal struggles and the inability to reconcile his emotions with action contribute to the play's powerful dramatic effect.
Step-by-step explanation:
Pathos in Shakespeare's Hamlet:
Hamlet is more successful at eliciting pathos primarily due to his tragic flaws and complex emotions as seen in answer option (a). These elements create a powerful emotional response in the audience. Shakespeare's representation of Hamlet showcases a protagonist facing internal turmoils and existential dilemmas, failing to find a direct outlet for his profound emotional distress. Hamlet's struggle with his mother's actions and his desire for revenge lead to a pervasive feeling of disillusionment, contributing significantly to the pathos of the play.
Moreover, Hamlet's feigned madness, which starts as a ruse, develops into a sincere expression of his emotional chaos. This complexity makes him more human and relatable, thus garnering the audience's sympathy. His inability to reconcile his intense emotions with the actions available to him, and his perception of his mother's guilt, add to a powerful dramatic effect, pulling the audience into a state of empathetic suffering, also known as catharsis.
Therefore, the success of Hamlet in eliciting pathos is intricately linked with the depth of his character and the emotional resonance that his existential plight evokes, rather than through cunning or manipulative behavior, or a straightforward adherence to fate.