Hamlet And Oedipus Comparison

The definition of tragedy is great suffering, destruction, or distress like a disaster. The term is commonly used in our society but where did it come from. Aristotle, an ancient greek philosopher, laid the foundation for the definition of a tragedy that we still use today. His idea of tragedy is a character who makes a judgment error that inevitably lead to his or her own destruction. He called this a tragic hero. Aristotle's’ idea was based on five specific characteristics. The characteristics were hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis, hubris and lastly, the character’s fate must be greater than deserved. The book, Oedipus The King, written by Socrates, fits Aristotle’s idea perfectly. Oedipus is an ideal tragic hero because he goes through all the five specific characteristics throughout the book.

A tragic hero is a person who has qualities of a hero such as intelligence and strength but makes choices that lead to their self-destruction. The tragic hero is usually from a noble family or high position. Oedipus from The Sophocles is a tragic hero because he possesses tragic flaws such as hubris, hamartia, and too much curiosity. Marcus Brutus, a Roman politician, also serves to be a tragic hero since he is too naive, honest, and sometimes impulsive. Both Oedipus and Brutus have certain characteristics that determine them to be a tragic hero.

Today, tragedy is understood as a disastrous event, that involves an enormous loss of life (ex: terrorist attack, natural disaster, etc.), which gains widespread media attention for public perception and world understanding. As a literary term, tragedy in a fictional narrative, typically drama involves a sorrowful event, where a good individual, who through a character flaw and/or conflict with an overwhelming effect, experiences setbacks of fortune from success to adversity and becomes a tragic individual. Tragedy usually involves the death of one or more characters (including the tragic individual) caused by the actions of a tragic individual and/or the villain in the literary work of art. (Aristotle)

In literature, a tragedy is defined as a drama where the main character in the end suffers extreme sorrow because of their mistakes or poor judgment. The characters that are fated to suffer the extreme sorrow, the tragedy, are (called) tragic characters. These tragic characters, however, must follow Aristotle’s principles which include:

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

A tragic hero in literature is a type of character who has fallen from grace, where the downfall suggests feelings of misfortune and distress among the audience. The tragic flaw of the hero leads to their demise or downfall that in turn brings a tragic end. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” The characteristics of a tragic hero described by Aristotle are hamartia, hubris, peripeteia, anagnorisis, nemesis and catharsis which allows the audience to have a catharsis of arousing feelings.

Curiosity and revenge are what make every form of entertainment in the action genre truly enjoyable. The characters draw the audience in and take them through a plot to find justice. Separated by around 2000 years, Sophocles's Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark both possess a plot akin to each other with a similar main idea of attempting to discover the main character’s father’s murderer. These famous tragedies depict two tragic heroes plagued with incestuous mothers and bad luck who fight to find truth and justice. Although both plays are similar in plot, the characterization of Hamlet and Oedipus have crucial differences which begin to appear: Oedipus is dependent on external forces and unorganized in his search for his father’s killer, whereas Hamlet is highly affected by internal forces and meticulous with his planning.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles and Hamlet by Shakespeare are two plays that both explore the idea of taking revenge. While both plays use the idea of revenge to continually progress the plot forward, the motivations behind the two characters strive for revenge have some differences. In Oedipus the King, the motivation for Oedipus’ revenge is to stop the plague that has been brought upon to the people of Thebes, while the motivation for Hamlet is to avenge his father's death. The outcomes of each character’s strive for revenge is quite different from each other as Hamlet ends up killing more people than he needs to and Oedipus discovers a dark secret about himself. Both Oedipus and Hamlet are characters that are familiar with royalty as Hamlet

    By definition, a tragedy is a story that details the downfall of a protagonist. Most often, the protagonist (tragic hero) is a member of high society who is faced with an oppositional force, be it internal or external. In his Poetics, Aristotle states that "tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves, and these- thought and character- are the two natural causes from which actions spring, and on actions, again all success or failure depends...." This quote illustrates an aspect of tragedy upon which many works are based, including

Hundreds of years ago Greek plays were very popular. People would plan to go to these plays for entertainment and to have fun with their friends. These plays would also help to teach the audience all about Greek mythology. The main character in these plays often had something tragic occur at the end, such as death. This character was the referred to as the “tragic hero.” A couple hundred years later a Greek philosopher named Aristotle described tragedy with 4 simple elements, nobility of the character, the flaws of the tragic hero, the start of the tragic hero’s downfall, and his/her punishment. In Things Fall Apart, Oedipus, and Antigone there is a character that shows this definition of tragedy by the end of the book and or play. This is usually caused by something called hubris, excessive pride. Things Fall Apart, Oedipus, and Antigone all fulfill Aristotle 's definition of tragedy.

Two magnificent plays that have stood the test of time are “Hamlet, King of Denmark” and “Oedipus the King.” The playwright of “Hamlet, King of Denmark” was William Shakespeare. This is said to be one of his most popular works. “Oedipus the King” is one of few Oedipus’ plays written by Sophocles. These tragedies consists of two protagonists that encounter many problems.

There are just as many differences as there are similarities with Oedipus and Hamlet. Oedipus kills his father, and the father of Hamlet is murdered by his uncle Claudius. Both Oedipus and Hamlet are victims. Both Hamlet and Oedipus can avoid their fate, however both of them feel the only solution to solving the issue at hand. The main similarity I see between Oedipus and Hamlet is how they both believe that the only way to save themselves from the set of mind they are in, is by solving it alone. They alone must overcome what has happened and no one can change that. Hamlet and Oedipus are both worried of the state of Denmark, and its current conditions. I can see how Hamlet’s father function like Apollo and Tiresius. Though have completely

Tragedies have been a form of plays since the beginning of the high powered Greeks. One of the most influential playwrights of all time is Sophocles. Sophocles’ plays focus on humans under the influence of Gods. Sophocles, in plays such as Oedipus Rex, tells of a king who violates rules set upon him by the Gods. Thousands of years later William Shakespeare becomes the most influential playwright. William Shakespeare wrote “Hamlet,” a play with a similar theme to Oedipus Rex yet has a quite different story line.

The Webster dictionary defines tragedy as, “a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror.” (Webster Dictionary) So a tragic hero is a character who goes through a conflict and suffers catastrophically as a direct result of his choices. You will see throughout this story that the character Hamlet is a clear example of Shakespeare’s tragic hero.

Occasionally in literature all of the hardships and pain that tortures a character is actually unknowingly brought onto them by their own actions. In Hamlet(1603), Shakespeare creates Hamlet with a very cautious personality causing him to continuously ponder his next move rather than taking the next step to actually act. After discovering that his father was killed by Claudius, his uncle, Hamlet knows that he must then kill Claudius in order to avenge his father but keeps on making excuses to delay the killing. This delaying leads to so much pain and death of characters that could have quite easily been avoided. In contrast, in Oedipus the King(430 B.C.) Sophocles tells the story of a hero that was cursed with a terrible fate right from the point of his birth. It was prophesied that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother, so his father ordered him to be killed but he lived and then everyone went on trying to stop the prophecy from coming true but that just ended up causing it to happen. In both books the main characters did a play a role in their own demise but were not the sole cause of it. However, whereas Shakespeare displays the nature of Hamlet causing the