Sophocles Oedipus The King And Shakespeare's Hamlet

Some explain Hamlet 's mysterious hesitancy as a result of the Oedipus complex. One might think that Hamlet continually postpones the act of vengeance against Claudius because of the overly confused psychodynamic situation in which he finds himself. Although he hates his uncle, at the same time he unconsciously identifies with him, for having killed his father and having married his mother. Claudius has fulfilled the frustrated desires of Hamlet. However, from the beginning of the play there is an essential element that marks an important difference between Hamlet and Oedipus, which brings with it certain effects in the clinical analysis.

   Oedipus Rex and King Lear are, as their titles announce, both about kings. These two plays are similar in theme and in the questions they pose to the audience. The kings in each play both fall from the pinnacle of power to become the most loathed of all classes in society; Oedipus discovers that he is a murderer and committer of incest, and Lear becomes a mad beggar. Misjudgments occur in both plays, and the same questions about the gods, fate, and free will are posed. In spite of these similarities, however, the final effects of these two plays differ greatly.

Oedipus, on the other hand, chooses to be involved in the death of Laius, thus, concurring with the predetermination of Oedipus’ fate set forth by the gods. When arrogantly speaking to Creon, Oedipus proclaims, “I shall rid us of this pollution, not for the sake of a distant relative, but for my own sake.” (Sophocles 12) Unlike Hamlet, it was Oedipus’ foolishness and egotistical behavior that kicked him in the direction of his tragic ending. Oedipus has nobody to blame but himself for the way he ended up. His negligence towards the wise words of Tiresias eventually resulted in the belated acknowledgment that he really did murder Laius, who was in fact Oedipus’ biological father. Due to the revelation of events, the fate of Oedipus is more tragic than that of Hamlet. But the fate of Hamlet is also tragic, only occurring in a different way. He, Laertes, Queen Gertrude, and Claudius all die in the duel at the end of the story. Not to mention it was Hamlet who is directly responsible for killing Claudius’ chief counselor, Polonius, and also indirectly responsible for the death of Polonius’ daughter, Ophelia. Both Hamlet and Oedipus believe that fate is responsible for their tragic end, but clearly, Hamlet is more a victim of Claudius than fate, whereas Oedipus creates his own demise.

In Sophocles play Oedipus the King, Sophocles depicts the horrible fate of Oedipus, a pompous, arrogant young ruler. The story begins in the Greek town of Thebes. A plague has descended upon the Thebians causing death and famine throughout the land. Oedipus, being the heroic king, takes full responsibility to find out the cause of their aliments. While working to discover the source of the plague, Oedipus stumbles upon the tragic truth of his heritage and the horrifying implications of his appointment to the throne. Unfortunately for Oedipus, everything ends in tragedy. With the suicide of his mother/wife and the self-inflicted blindness followed by exile from Thebes, Oedipus paved the path to his own

*INTRO*The character Oedipus in the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles, and the character Othello in the play Othello the Moor of Venice by Shakespeare are both tragic characters. Oedipus ends up killing his father, and marrying and having children with his mother, whereas Othello ends up mistrusting and killing his wife. These two individuals have similarities and differences in several aspects such as the roundness of their characters, the retribution that they incur upon themselves and upon their respective wives whether directly or indirectly, and their horrors.

Being noble and honorable go hand-in-hand because of their similar connotations: respect given to someone who is admired for their good reputation, high moral standards, courage and honesty. Many characters showed such traits in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare and Antigone by Sophocles (for example, Brutus being known as an "honorable man" even by his enemies), but of all the characters in both plays, Antigone's and Antony's acts of nobility are most prominent. While both Antigone and Antony exhibited noble characteristics, Antigone demonstrated the most honorable character due to her good intentions and integrity.

There are two excellent tragedies in world literature, Hamlet and Oedipus the King. Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles and Hamlet was one of the famous dramas of Shakespeare. There were some similarities and several differences between the two tragedies. Although the plays were both set in different time periods, they had similar themes about fate and free will. Their plots were also analogous. However, the two main character had a major vital difference that Hamlet is a tragedy of inaction and Oedipus is a tragedy of action.

Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, follows the tragic story of a king named Oedipus who goes from an all-powerful ruler to a hopeless blind peasant. Oedipus the King was written as a play and performed in front of an audience. Sophocles shows in Oedipus the King that one cannot escape the fate of the gods. Throughout the play Oedipus struggles to find a solution and change all the troubles in his life. The play observes the story of Oedipus who defies the gods and through the journey experiences hardships in tragic flaw, tragic fall and tragic realization.

Considering King Oedipus’s self-inflicted blindness and Hamlet’s overwhelming thirst for his own stepfather’s blood, it seems that both men have lost their minds. However, these men are not truly mentally unhinged, but rather incredibly devoted to their religious ideals. Hamlet, a Catholic, believes that his actions will determine his afterlife; the way he acts, though crazy, is an attempt to please God and avoid eternal damnation. King Oedipus, a follower of Apollo and the Greek gods, acts irresponsibly and makes rash decisions because he believes that his fate is set in stone and that his actions, no matter how extreme, can not change his destiny. Hamlet and King Oedipus are similar in that their impractical actions and decisions stem

Oedipus from the drama, “Oedipus the King” and Hamlet from, “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” are two characters that are different, yet they both share the same title of being a tragic hero. Oedipus and Hamlet have many characteristics of a tragic hero that separates them in varieties. However, some of those characteristics show that both characters have and use similar thought processes and methods, which classify them as tragic heroes of their dramas. The five characteristics of a tragic hero are: nobility, tragic flaw, peripeteia, anagnorisis, and lastly irony. Both Oedipus and Hamlet hold or have a nobility position in their drama’s plot. Oedipus is the son of the king, and fate has foretold that he will kill his father and take over the

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A “tragic hero” can be defined as a courageous character who is destined for their own destruction. These characters usually seek out to do something for the greater good, but end up causing their own death. Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” tells the life of a king named Oedipus who is trying to solve the murder case of the former king. A similar plotline is seen in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, where Hamlet tries to uncover who killed his father, who was also the king before his untimely death. Both characters set out to do something good, but create many problems and ultimately find themselves corrupted.

Oedipus the King is perhaps one of the most famous and influential of Sophocles' plays. It is a tragic play which focuses on the discovery by Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. On the surface of this drama there is, without a doubt, a tone of disillusionment.

Oedipus and Othello were both honorable and heroic men that became the victims of tragic downfalls that can be compared and contrasted with each other. Sophocles, the writer of Oedipus the King, and Williams Shakespeare, the writer of Othello, were both enormously influential playwrights of their respective generations and their legacy continues today. The two playwrights made their masterpieces during different eras; Sophocles life coincided with the Golden Age of Greek tragedy and Shakespeare worked during the Elizabethian period. Despite being born about 2,000 years apart, their works are similar in that they could both describe and make the tragic downfalls of two distinguished men come to life. The downfalls of Othello and

A hero in a drama is the focus point throughout the story, someone who technically saves life’s and carries pride within them. In Hamlet by Shakespeare and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles they simply create a tragic hero due to their stories having a twist in what a hero turns out to be at the end of the dramatic stories. They have similar issues as well as they have their differences in their stories. Shakespeare and Sophocles create a similar touch to their dramatic heroes, and not only do they write those type of stories but they also create different characteristics to them and defining them in other ways that can be entertaining. Even though in both Hamlet, and Oedipus contain tragic endings, both main characters were viewed as heroes at one point in the story, however the authors did not create a same character each main character has their own characteristics and each author had their way of writing a drama. Shakespeare and Sophocles wrote different things and as well as Shakespeare is known for his poems, he is also known for his dramatic stories with a tragic ending.