hamlet
Sophocles' Oedipus and Shakespeare's Hamlet both contain the basic elements of tragedy; although the Shakespearean tragedy expanded it's setting far beyond that of the ancient Greek tragedy. The tragic hero of Hamlet finds himself burdened with the task of avenging his father's death from the start of the play, and is not himself the source of the pollution of regicide, while Oedipus is the unwitting fashioner of his own doom, which is unveiled to him through recognition and repentance. Oedipus foretells his tragic situation while speaking to the people of Thebes. The city suffers because of the pollution of Oedipus, and irony is exemplified when Oedipus suggests that by avenging Laius he will protect himself, or that by getting children upon Jocasta, the dead king's wife, he will be taking the place of the son of Laius, which, unknowingly, is himself. This irony peaks when Oedipus calls on the prophet Tiresias to help uncover the murder of Laius and seek an cure to the plague; the met
He faces the shepherd who found the child Oedipus, and who now reveals that the child was the same infant who was cast out to the wolves by Laius; Laius had feared the fulfillment of a prophecy that he would die by his own son's hands, and Oedipus now sees that the prophecy has indeed come true, for he has killed his own father and committed incest with his mother. As long as Claudius reigns, however, he has failed in his duty. The full realizations of his doings come to him, and he cries out to Jocasta. Both plays share the emphasis on a tragic irony in the chain of events that lead up to ritual of catharsis, but the plot of Hamlet makes a much more complicated character than that of the classic Greek tragedy of Oedipus the King. The hubris of Oedipus is demolished when he confides in Jocasta concerning the predictions of the seer Tiresias; she tells him the story of the murder of Laius, and as she speaks, Oedipus comes to recognize the scene and circumstances of the regicide as being the same as those encountered on the road to Thebes. Hamlet treats the crime of regicide from a somewhat different point of view, and the young hero becomes a tragic figure less through the sin of pride than through his major character flaw. Sophocles installs the other major ingredient of the tragic equation, the purging emotion. Hamlet's father is a symbol of his conscience and the corruption of regicide is laid at Hamlet's doorstep. Although the king gives himself away at the performance of the play within a play, Hamlet is still inconclusive, and winds up being sent away to England by the king and his mother and Hamlet's insanity, feigned or not, has served him well. He then blinds himself, as if to acknowledge the charge of the blind seer Tiresias that he was blind in his pride. As Hamlet lays the trap for the new King Claudius, he is procrastinating in order to solve his self-doubt, although he tells himself that wishes only to be certain that he is not imagining the figure of his father's ghost and the strange duty that he must perform. The common theme of Hamlet and Oedipus the King is regicide, and self- destruction of the tragic hero is one way of riding the pollution of that crime, as well as the incest that has developed out of it. Hamlet is guilty because he failed to right this wrong, and the tragic flaw that emerges in his character is that of indecision. aphor of vision is ironic in that the blind Tiresias can see what the seemingly brilliant Oedipus has overlooked, namely the king's crimes of incest and murder.
Common topics in this essay:
Shakespeare's Hamlet,
Laius Laius,
King Claudius,
Oedipus King,
father's ghost,
tragic hero,
oedipus king,
seer tiresias,
greek tragedy,
murder laius,
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