In William Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear, the plot is driven by the bad and sometimes unfounded decisions made by King Lear and the brutality of family members towards each other others. Like many of Shakespeare's tragedies, this play is a commentary on action versus inaction, which is also seen in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark who finds himself in a tragic situation when his father is killed at the hands of his brother, Claudius, Hamlet's uncle. Both characters are tormented by family conflicts, the difficulty of managing a nation and dealing with the complex workings of their own minds. Through reading these two stories, many similarities can be drawn between the actions of the characters, the determination of each play, and also the use of the tragic hero in both tales. Over time, the tragic hero has become known as an honorable protagonist who has a fatal flaw that will ultimately lead to his death. This is a concept coined by the Greeks that has been depicted in many different works over time. There are four main concepts that a character must represent to be the tragic hero, and in both plays, the lives of King Lear and Hamlet are linked through this shared title and the characteristics that they both possess. The first characteristic of a tragic hero is nobility or wisdom. by virtue of birth. In defining noble, it is seen as someone distinguished by rank or title, a high moral or mental character and, belonging to or constituting a hereditary class that has a special social or political status in a country or state; or belonging to the aristocracy. By birth, King Lear and Hamlet similarly share a high social position being at the top of the social food chain. Both are in positions where those around them are honored to be in their presence and must take orders as they please. Being king, Lear is entitled to the envy of those around him, but also to the vulnerability of his chair sought even by his own family. This is also seen for Prince Hamlet. When his father died, the prince was next in line to the throne, but his devious uncle interfered. Both men were stripped of power by their own family members, which led to the characters developing their own tragic flaws.