Hamlet's fatal flaw, or hamartia, is his inability to act. His father's ghost urges him to avenge his murder, yet Hamlet is hesitant to act on impulse; Hamlet contemplates suicide, before deciding that he cannot go through with it because it is a sin. Similarly, President Bill Clinton failed to intervene during the Rwandan Civil War, with considerable evidence indicating his administration knew the full extent of the genocide.

Polonius and Claudius plot to spy on Hamlet and Ophelia. Claudius is intelligent and manipulative, killing Hamlet's father (his brother) in order to gain power. He also arranges a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet, manipulating the odds by poisoning the tip of Laertes's fencing sword. Cleopatra was considered wise and actively manipulated men in leadership to gain power. Cleopatra married her younger brother Ptolemy XIV and was likely involved in his murder in order to make her son co-ruler.

There are some researchers who assert that Polonius only acts foolish to better hide is motives for social advancement. Following this interpretation of Polonius, he can be considered similar to Francis Walsingham, a formidable Tudor spy during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Ophelia descends into madness upon discovering that Hamlet killed her father Polonius, and likely because it was the supposed love of her life who betrayed her through this murder. Consumed by grief, she eventually commits suicide. The circumstances leading up to Ophelia's death are similar to that of Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in 1941. In her suicide note, she wrote:

I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate.

Considering the historical incidences of murder, treason, and espionage, it becomes apparent that Hamlet's story is not so far-fetched (ghost of Hamlet's father aside). During Shakespeare's time, there were many plots to overthrow and assassinate Elizabeth I, and this play can be interpreted as a commentary on the playwright's own societal circumstances.

Hamlet, with a giant tragic flaw of inaction, could adequately be compared to Jimmy Carter who waited far too long to get the hostages from the US Embassy in Iran, . . . with tragic results.

Polonius, always trying to butter-up Claudius while remaining the fool and avid spy, could be compared to Woodrow Wilson at the end of World War I, pandering to the European Powers by accepting the Treaty of Versailles.

Claudius, the immoral leader who kills in order to gain power, could be compared to Lenin and his followers who killed Russian Czar Nicholas II (and his entire family) in order to gain power.  (Oh, there are so many good examples of historical comparisons to Claudius in that regard!)

A second idea for Claudius revolves around his desire to kill in order to gain the wife of a friend.  There is no better example for that idea than King David, who kills the husband of Bathsheba in order to gain her as his wife.

Finally, Ophelia loses all her mental capacity and goes completely insane (ultimately committing suicide) because she can't handle the stress of sexual advances, murder, and corruption.  How about comparing Ophelia to Sylvia Plath, the famous writer, who had a mental breakdown and committed suicide some say as a result of working for Mademoiselle and some say because of her husband’s affairs.  (Honestly, though, I couldn't stop thinking about the novel Girl, Interrupted here, . . . and Daisy, the character who kills herself after being brought out of her fantasy world and into the reality of a lifetime of incest with her father.)