Similarities Between Hamlet And Oedipus

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Religion can change a person’s whole perspective on life and fate can control one’s actions. Hamlet and Oedipus are prime examples of characters affected and motivated by their religion. Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Sophocles’ Oedipus The King have very similar storylines. The protagonists in each play, Hamlet and Oedipus, are both royalty, which entails a lot about their personality. A king or prince is usually benevolent, assertive, noble, and honorable. Both Hamlet and Oedipus are mistreated by their parents. Hamlet’s own mother marries the man, her brother in law, who executes Hamlet’s father. On the contrary, Oedipus’ mother and father, Jocasta and Laius, order the death sentence of their own son because they do not comply with his prophecy. …show more content…
Hamlet takes place during the 16th century, which explains why Hamlet has so many mixed emotions about god and Christianity; this is the time of the Protestant Reformation, which challenges the ideals of the Roman Catholic church. In Act I Scene 5 the ghost of King Hamlet says to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The spirit wants Hamlet to seek revenge while he is in purgatory; it is interesting that Shakespeare includes this in the play because most Protestants believe that purgatory does not exist. Purgatory in the Catholic belief system is the temporary state of suffering one faces before they go to heaven. The fact that the ghost is solely focused on murder before he reaches heaven, is quite unusual. Oedipus The King takes place around 400 b.c. In Ancient Greece there is a polytheistic religious influence; the followers of the gods use people as mediums to communicate with the gods and hear their prophecies. In the play Oedipus says “I went to the oracle to learn more, and Apollo foretold of horrors to befall me: that I was doomed to lie with my mother and be the murderer of my father.” Oedipus is revisiting the time in which he was furious of what the oracle told him when he was younger. Oedipus’ predestined life drives him insane; he focuses on not letting his life turn out vile due to his fate, but in return it became his life. He is letting his religious beliefs control him; he believes
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