Comparing Hamlet And Oedipus The King

Kartikeya Sharma
09/12/2014
COM 1102 – 04
Drama Paper
Character Comparison between Hamlet and Oedipus
Both the tragedies ‘Hamlet’ written by ‘William Shakespeare’ and ‘Oedipus the King’ by ‘The Sophocles’ contain the basic tragic elements, though the Shakespeare’s Hamlet took place way after the early Greek tragedy. Both of these plays are highly written in the poetic language. In these two tragedies, if we try to compare the two tragic heroes playing their roles, then we see quite a lot of similarities and differences between them. At the same time, it is a bit hard to compare these two men from the two different eras having different morals and religions, as Oedipus grew up in a time when the Greek gods were setting their examples of their
living by destroying the titans. Whereas, Hamlet grew up in a time when the Catholicism marked its place in his principles. Both of the characters in these plays had the same goal and intention, which was to seek revenge for their fathers (although it’s quite ironic for the play ‘Oedipus the King’.)
There were a lot of similarities between these two protagonists as they both are determined to find the truth about their father’s murderer.
For example, in the Hamlet, he first truly sees his dead father’s ghost telling him that it is the current king and Hamlet’s uncle ‘Claudius’ who has murdered his father. This was still not a very strong evidence in order to prove his uncle’s guiltiness, but this was a hint for Hamlet to check if his uncle had left any traces or not related to this murder. He was afraid and hesitant to get his revenge quickly from ‘Claudius’ as Hamlet was the only one who heard his dead father speak about
this. In the tragedy ‘Oedipus the king’, the royal couple had a baby and were very keen to know that what the child will become in the future.
For that purpose, they go to an oracle and ask to tell them the future of that baby. The oracle then replies that this child will kill the father and get married to his mother. The royal couple gets horrified of this and strictly take the child away to be killed, so they save themselves, but instead the child ends up in a new castle and is raised by another couple as their own child. This also shows that how much belief the people had at that time for the Oracle that even the royal couple were ready to kill their child. Though, they never tell Oedipus that he is not their own, because they were afraid that he would hold his father’s kingdom and marries his mother. Somehow, eventually, Oedipus hears that he has to kill his father and marry his mother, so he leaves his current parents, and searches for a new residence. Then he meets up with a random man on his way on the road and kills him for no reason. Then he discovers a castle that is being terrorized by a sphinx, and the riddle it asks was answered correctly by Oedipus. Due to that, he marries the Queen and rules over the kingdom, as told by the oracle. In the end, the oracle said that the city is being endangered by a plague and it will end only when the city gets rid of the person who murdered the king. When Oedipus hears this, he announces to the people that the murderer will be
punished. However, while searching for the truth Oedipus discovers that he is the murderer, because he realizes that the person he killed on his way to the castle was actually the King, and the son of his wife. In the end, Oedipus’s mother hanged herself, so in the middle of all those circumstances, Oedipus extorts his eyes out and exiles himself from the castle.
When comparing and contrasting Oedipus and Hamlet, I mainly see Hamlet as an ordinary person who does not show any compassion towards the people except his own father and maybe his mother, but definitely not anyone else. I am not even completely sure about his love for his mother, because if the ghost had instructed him to kill her, then he may have killed her too. He has been shown as very sensitive and a moody person. At a point, he does admit that he has love for Ophelia, but then later he denies about it. Though, he seems very passionate about killing his uncle ‘Claudius’ because he is completely determined to take his avenge from him. Whereas, I see Oedipus as more of a manly type, though he takes decisions very quickly without even thinking about it and also has a very rapid temper. Oedipus has been characterized as an extraordinary person and he is concerned more about his image compared to Hamlet. In my opinion, he is a selfless man and also a very passionate man unlike Hamlet, as he is quite passionate about the position that he holds in the kingdom, about his wife and people, and also about Merope and Polybus. Also, I also observe him as a very poor thinker and an emotional person unlike Hamlet, who is a great thinker and a planner too.
In both these plays, truth played a major role in the outcome. Hamlet became so engrossed in the truth; he was too hesitant and continued to second-guess himself throughout the play. He may have become king but because truth was so important to him Hamlet ended up dying as well. As for Oedipus, knowing the truth may not be all it is cracked up to be. Would Oedipus have really murdered his father and marry his mother if they had not asked the oracle about the future? These plays question the power of truth but is it better to know what is lurking behind every door, or is it better to be curious about it, but never actually seek it.

Knowing the truth was very powerful in both these plays and it had a major effect on the outcomes of both stories. Maybe by knowing the future the truth is set. If the future remains unknown than so will truth. Truth was a deciding factor in both outcomes of the plays. If the truth were known earlier, it would have changed the entire aspect of each play.