Similarities Between Hamlet And Oedipus

When heroes that are tied to destiny feature in literature, they often show signs of arrogance. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles shows how Oedipus’s quest for avoiding his destiny drives him to fulfill without being fully aware of it. When running away he finds himself married to his mother and becoming the king of Thebes. In contrast, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet the main character is visited by the former king and informs him of the new kings doings. As a result the main character is convinced and must seek vengeance for the former king. While there is a fairly large time gap between these two pieces of literature, both explore how the arrogance of one can lead to a tragic outcome and how both Hamlet and Oedipus are tragic heroes. However, whereas Sophocles illustrates the destructive effects of attempting to avoid fate, Shakespeare demonstrates how vengeance can lead to one's self destruction. Oedipus and Hamlet, two characters that went through a significant change that defined them in a heroic aspect. The definition of a tragic hero according to CSUS.EDU is ‘‘A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the
Oedipus was meant to be a prophecy in which he was doomed to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus had his destiny settled when he leaves his present home at an ideal opportunity to prevent the prophecy, this lead to him being characterized by self-importance that made him trust he could keep fate from following through to its logical end. Hamlet's fate was determined by a supernatural being, the ghost of his father. The ghost elaborated on the death and how he was poisoned by his uncle and he asks Hamlet to seek vengeance. Unlike what his father would have done, Hamlet hesitates and begins to questions his choices this leads to his fate being