This essay outlines the similarities in theme, symbolism and writing structure between William Shakespear's "Hamlet" and Sophocles "Oedipus King".

Essay by MAlvar1College, UndergraduateA+, November 2003

download word file, 3 pages 4.6

Downloaded 164 times

When reading the works of two great writers, a person can find many similarities between them. The underlying themes of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Sophocles Oedipus King excite the reader yet leave us with the desire of wanting more. There are significant similarities between Oedipus King and Hamlet, especially when it relates to the theme of the tormented king, incest, and Shakespeare's and Sophocles metaphorical references to vision and hearing. Sophocles Oedipus King and Shakespeare's Hamlet both contain the basic elements of tragedy, although the Shakespearean tragedy expanded its setting far beyond that of the ancient Greek tragedy.

The theme of the tormented king is perhaps the strongest comparison between Hamlet and Oedipus King. In Hamlet, Shakespeare establishes the theme of torment early in the play with the arrival of the ghost of Hamlet's murdered father, the former King of Denmark. Even before the ghost is revealed to Hamlet, Shakespeare suggests some instability in Hamlets mind: "My father / I thinks I see my father / in my minds eye" (Act I, Scene II).

Throughout the play the reader will begin to see Hamlet as the tormented prince of Denmark, which has always proven to be melancholy, bitter, cynical, and full of hatred. 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 of course the unwitting fashioner of his own doom, which is unveiled to him through recognition and repentance. Sophocles has Oedipus foretelling his own tragedy when speaking to the people of Thebes. The city suffers because of the pollution of Oedipus. The irony is shown when Oedipus suggest that by avenging Laius he will protect himself, or that by getting children...