Term paper on oedipus the king and hamlet

Introduction

Oedipus the King is a play by Sophocles in which Christopher Plummer plays the role of the psychologically disturbed Oedipus. This play is about a successful kingdom, which begins to fall apart as the king discovers that he had killed his own father and married his mother. It is paradoxical that Oedipus sleeps in the same bed that he was conceived with his mother. These facts disturbs Oedipus mother to an extent that she commits suicide. Hamlet is play whereby the king Hamlet of the Elsinore castle of Denmark got dead and his brother Claudius had to inherit his position with immediate effect and got married to his wife (Queen Gertrude). after the up rise of Claudius regime a ghost appear and the prince son to the deceased king was call to see. At his appearance the ghost made a conversation with him identifying itself to be his father. The spirit wanted the prince to take revenge on his father dead since it was King Claudius who murdered him. The two stories are based on the evil and bad practices that are inflicted to the innocent citizen of their kingdoms. Both kings that are Hamlet and Oedipus had a role of nobility which eventually lead to their downfall and death. The wrong action of king Oedipus caused him to flee away from his kingdom and his biological mother taking away her life. While King Claudius evil eventual haunted him for having murdered his blood brother for power. Another common similarity between the two stories is that both the ruling kings did make a mistake of killing their blood relative for different reason. For instance in the text we saw that king Oedipus did murder his own father with the knowledge that he was really his father. On the other hand King Claudius murdered his blood brother (Hamlet) due to the greed of power to rule the people of Elsinore. It is a coincidence that both kings got married to the closest relative. Oedipus married his biological mother and got kids together while Claudius married his brother widow. In both context it reached a time when the exact truth of their action was reveal to the general public. The prince did not rush to take action or rather revenge for his father death, after being informed of the evil done by Claudius to king Hamlet. The prince was in a dilemma whether it was advisable for him to kill his own uncle hence he comes up with a strategy to make him confess of the murder. On the other hand was too fast to decide on what to be done on the after realizing the case of Laios. He did the interrogations without bother to take count of the consequence of the whole process. The mistakes or wrongs that Oedipus did brought untold suffering and misery to him and the entire monarch. Fate only exists to teach people a lesson but not to determine future. In these both stories the conflict of fate and divine providence is well highlighted. Basically, it is evident in the case whereby atrocities that took place in the hand and ruling of Oedipus had earlier been prophesied. But due to his pride and brutality nature he never bide to the prophet hence getting in different terms with gods and basing his fate in the will of man versus that of the gods. It contradicted any conclude that his entire family were no at any good position to avoid the wrath of the gods neither did his pride allow him to review his crooked ways. This has shed some light the extent to which the people of that particular kingdom did gave the super nature being the role to determine the future. Though their king did conflict with the gods and heeling to that believe that god rule all the unfolding events in the world. In the hamlet context Claudius was destined to stand up for the consequences of killing his brother. Though he tried all mean to eliminated Hamlet fate had him killed and all his plans to have the prince being killed with poison sword turned out to kill him. He also arranges that Hamlet would be given poison after his first round of the match but he choose to drink from the king thus making his opponent to take the poison. The divine providence come up clear in the evident when hamlet went to kill Claudius and got him praying to God he respect the fact that he was praying. He believed that killing in the process of praying would send him to heaven. In conclusion both plays have cover fate and divine providence. Throughout the play, Sophocles points out that it is wrong to believe in fate. We should not tie our lives to what has been predicted or prophesied to happen. As much as we cannot control certain events in our lives, it is important to do what is right. It is inexcusable to do what is wrong because, it was prophesied to be so. And at the same time Hamlet did respect and believe in existence of the role of the Supreme Being and should be given a chance to oversee our fate.
The essence of supernatural existing in the play is basically important in the play as it helps bring out the various themes depicted in the two sources of literature. The story concerning Oedipus and hamlet ., in the first encounter the essence of seeing a ghost by hamlet literally puts some scary moments to hamlet as he saw a ghost of his father who had died some time ago. His desire to find the root cause of his father’s death and the people responsible about it was driven by the love of his own family.
The essence of the supernatural in the two plays also tries to tell us their believes and practices that were practiced in the two plays of Oedipus and ham let. In this essence the use of supranational beings and symbols depicts the culture of the people as portrayed by the characters in the two plays.
The role of super nation on the poetry and the play for example the show that the oracle is consulted to tell about the future of the child and what the society would expect from the child. they were shout since it was said the child would killed his own farther and marry his wife, as a response the king older the child to be killed to cover up the misfortune that would befell the empire.
The supernatural role creates conflict in both pieces of literature and the incidence of the issue come up due to the fact that the people hold much and treasure the use of supernatural beings practices. The believes accredited to them , in the two scenarios the s particular use of supernatural helps to understand the situation of the characters and the use of cultural items in the making of the story to make sense. In both cases the impact created by the essence of supernatural being give the two scenarios a boost, they get influenced by a mere messenger. The character left to make their choices to determine about their fate and work on ensuring the battle continues.
The Oedipus and hamlet depict the concept of their strategic heroes, they pose as example of tragic heroes as the role they play in the two contents relate to their believes. For example Oedipus got aware of his predicted role. He was to kill his father and in the inheritance of the kingdom. Rather he opted to run way this turns tragic as he killed a man and married a queen. Thus the oracle stated came to pass as they were attacks in the state he was living the disaster.
Tragedy involves the essence of a down fall of major and vital figure in the society, which when they are not in public and they fade off from the real-world. It is tragic in both scene s show the lamentations made by the protagonists. Unlike comedy as we often see this kind of poetry and play has a sad ending and creates havoc in the environments. The essence of helmet in a passion to learn is shown. Oedipus shows the scenarios were he regrets to be invited in any work done.
In characters put in the all situation to make lamenting choices, this shows the simplicity of the use of the literal styles, in explaining various situations in the two scenarios.
In most of the highlights depict the use off the skills learned and the outcome. The tragic situation has an impact in the plays as the audience in the play would feel the essence of sympathy or empathy. The two generally known literal works that face challenge since the start of the works. The human traits get displayed and are in most cases are not based in the ordinary people explanation and depiction. The royal persons, hamlet and Oedipus under the ordeal, for those who does and done noble things without any question. The tragedy shows the particular presentation of the themes. In the leadership both turns to be tragic in the consideration of the task, ethnics and the psychology. The mysterious death for characters for example the murder of the several people in the kingdom turns out to be tragic and causes havoc and disruption of peace in the bare. The particular depiction that portrays the works is the final path taken in solving both issues. For example in hamlet situation liked the essence of procrastination due to the works and complexity of Oedipus. Hate is all over the atmosphere as he comes to realize the situation was worse as he had killed his father and married his own mother. Other than marriage the mother gives a character a status of an uncle, the ghost that affects hamlet is tragic as he was impulsive and overreacting.
The fate that is set on a stone shows the essence of ensuring the destiny as a moral thing for protagonist and people in general.