Hamlet And Oedipus Essay, Research Paper

In the play Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, a young prince is in search of the truth

behind his father?s murder. At first, Hamlet sees the ghost of his deceased

father and it tells him he was murdered by the now current king, Hamlet?s

Uncle Claudius. Hamlet has to think about how he will get revenge for his

fathers death, but because his only knowledge came from a ghost that only Hamlet

heard speak, he is hesitant to get his revenge quickly. Hamlet does everything

he can to show others the truth he knows. It is important to Hamlet that he gets

revenge but he also wants to torment the king and show everyone the truth.

Hamlet knows his anger toward his Uncle may cause confusion in his judgement of

the truth so he is hesitant to kill him right away. Hamlet second-guesses

himself throughout the play only to end up dying, but not before he kills

Claudius. In Oedipus the king, a child is born to a royal couple, this king and

queen want to know how their child will be in the future. So they ask an oracle

to tell them the future and it tells them he will kill his father and marry his

mother. They have the child taken away to be killed, so they save themselves,

but instead the child ends up in a new castle and is raised by another couple as

their own child. They never tell Oedipus that he is not their own. When Oedipus

hears he is to kill his father and marry his mother, he leaves his parents and

searches for a new residence. Except he meets up with a man on the road and

kills him. He then finds a castle that is being terrorized by a sphinx and

answers the riddle it asks. He then marries the Queen and rules over the

kingdom. In the end, the city is threatened by a plague that the oracle said

will cease when the city gets rid of the one who murdered the king, Oedipus

announces that the murderer will be punished. However, while searching for the

truth Oedipus discovers that he is the murderer and the son of his wife. In the

end, Oedipus finds his wife/mother hanged herself, so in the midst of all this

Oedipus gouges his eyes out and banished himself from the castle. In both these

plays, truth played a major role in the outcome. Hamlet became so engrossed in

the truth; he was too hesitant and continued to second-guess himself throughout

the play. He may have become king but because truth was so important to him

Hamlet ended up dying as well. As for Oedipus, knowing the truth may not be all

it is cracked up to be. Would Oedipus have really murdered his father and marry

his mother if they had not asked the oracle about the future? These plays

question the power of truth but is it better to know what is lurking behind

every door, or is it better to be curious about it, but never actually seek it.

Knowing the truth was very powerful in both these plays and it had a major

effect on the outcomes of both stories. Maybe by knowing the future the truth is

set. If the future remains unknown than so will truth. Truth was a deciding

factor in both outcomes of the plays. If the truth were known earlier, it would

have changed the entire aspect of each play. Works Cited  Shakespeare,

William. Hamlet: Prince of Denmark.  The Essential theatre 7th edition

 Oscar G. Brocket, Robert J. Ball. Harcourt Brace College Publishers

 Pg. 114  Sophocles. Oedipus the King  Pg. 71