The plays “Oedipus the king” and “Hamlet” have many similarities that make them a perfect pair to be compared. The two plays are written in a highly poetic language that makes them interesting to the reader. They are also dramatic in structure with Sophocle’s representing an ancient Greek drama while Hamlet represents drama in twentieth century. Due to this difference in time the two plays differ in many aspects. This paper will compare and contrast different aspects of the plays in terms of theme, character, use of irony, form, plot and also the structure as presented by the writer.
One of them is in the character used by the writers. The two characters are different and they lived in different eras. Oedipus grew up during the times of Greek…show more content… The gods had foretold the fate of Oedipus. His insistence on exposing Laius’ murderer brings his downfall. This is clearly demonstrated in Oedipus lamentations that, "It was Apollo who brought to fulfillment all my sufferings. But the hand that struck my eyes was mine and mine alone" (Sophocles 75). Though Blindness can be thought to have brought his downfall, Oedipus seems very passionate in believing that it is the gods that brought his downfall. In a similar manner, Hamlet is portrayed as one who believes that some superior power is responsible for his fate. It is through his talk to his friend Horatio that this conviction comes out when he says, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, / Rough-hew them how we will" (Shakespeare 10).In the end both the parents of the two character are killed. Only that Oedipus own hand murdered his father while in Hamlet’s case his uncle is the killer. The ghosts of Hamlet’s father urge him to avenge the death of his father while on the other hand Oedipus is determined to find the murder of Laius but in both there is some form of fate that propels them forward and they seem not to turn back. The two characters are determined to avenge the death of their