All great literature, throughout time, has attempted to explain the true human condition. It has attempted to show why man has always questioned his purpose. In doing so, many writers also have portrayed man's quest for heavenly knowledge. Hamlet, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Faust, in Goethe's Faust, exemplify this type of tragic protagonist. Both of these characters ask the same questions and search for the same answers in life; however, they both differ greatly in how they arrive at their epiphany, how they attempt to achieve their goals, and what final conclusion they arrive.
             In most tragic literature, especially Greek, the protagonist reaches his catharsis through a tragic moment. Hamlet experiences this moment. He had been a student at college when he received the news of his father's death. Along with the upsetting event, he was faced with the surprising semi-incestuous marriage of his mother and his father's brother, who allegedly killed his father. As if this chain of events was not enough, he met with the alleged ghost of his father, King Hamlet, who ordered his son to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (I, v, 30). These events led Hamlet to his tragic moment. While the tragic moment theory might hold true in Shakespeare's work, it, however, is not at all evident in Faust. He comes to his moment by a gradual boredom of life. The doctor went through his existence reading about life, but never experiencing it. He becomes dissatisfied with his repetitive lifestyle and yearns for more, eventually convincing himself that, because of his unknowledgeable self, he "lack[s] all delight" (p. 467, line 17). Both Faust and Hamlet will now search to find their respective selves.
             Another contrasting attribute these two works share is the source from which they receive their answers. Searching internally, Hamlet seeks no other outside assistance in his quest for knowledge. T...