Sophocles and Shakespeare are well known in the dramatic literature world, more commonly Shakespeare, but both are widely appreciated. Hamlet and Oedipus Rex are both tragic stories surrounding the truth and how to deal with it. Hamlet has more emphasis on revenge while Oedipus Rex has more emphasis surrounding prophecy.
In Hamlet the main character, Hamlet, seeks revenge and struggles to find fragments of the truth in order to carry out his revenge. New truths and lies become tangled and ultimately leads to tragedy. Hamlet didn’t immediately latch on to information, he continually looked for more information, while Oedipus in Oedipus Rex latches onto one piece of information and bases everything around that, assuming it was true. This brings up the first difference in the two plays. Truth plays major roles in both the plays, but as said before, the characters handle it differently. Hamlet constantly looks for more of the truth where Oedipus looks for information that only supports one bit of information that may not even be true.
The themes connected to the previous one are different amongst the plays. Hamlet points out the difficulty of creating a plan of action. Hamlet struggles with creating a plan throughout the play as he discovers more and more. His struggles of creating a game plan lead to his death after becoming wounded from Laertes’ poisoned blade. Hamlet’s acceptance of a battle seems reckless and although he succeeds his revenge, his reckless actions lead to his death and the death of many others. In Oedipus Rex the next theme is inevitable prophecies; prophecy is major in Oedipus Rex, and what prophecies to trust, as there are many and many different interpretations of prophecies, is very difficult. Oedipus comes to realize he is the one in the prophecy and the one who killed Laius, so he flees. This decision making the two characters must make is difficult and their decisions bring on their own tragedies.
There are various characters in both the plays and different stories that tie into the main plot of each story, but Oedipus Rex seemed to have much more focus on one plot than Hamlet. In Hamlet there is revenge, but also a bit of a love story. Ophelia was once a girl Hamlet loved and is still in love with. Ophelia is told that her and Hamlet will be together, but is also told to spy on him. This love story gets tangled together with the main plot, served as a distraction in the play that was nice at times but also a bit pointless. But, the love story can also be seen as significant to the tragedy in the story because Ophelia is found dead, bringing despair on many of the characters. Oedipus Rex on the other hand seemed to mostly be focused around a prophecy that would help discover the murderer of Laius. Love is tied into the story as well but it doesn’t become as major as it did in Hamlet. Oedipus and Jocasta are wife and husband and share a bond, this plays into the prophecy well as Jocasta is Oedipus’ mother, fulfilling part of the prophecy. Where in Hamlet the plot for revenge doesn’t rely so much on the love story between Ophelia and Hamlet.
One last theme that are related in the two plays is the sickness of the county/city coming from the sickness within the leaders of that county/city. At the beginning of Oedipus Rex there is discussion about the city and the struggle it is in. The prophecy in the story is believed to solve the issue the city is currently in. In Hamlet the state of the city is so obviously discussed, it is seen more in comparing King Hamlet and Claudius through the eyes of Hamlet. Hamlet sees his father as someone strong, where Claudius is seen as corrupt. Also, the presence of the ghost is seen as indicating something majorly wrong in the world.
These two plays are widely known as tragic stories. The themes are similar in both and connect to the tragedies in both stories along with the tragedies of the people left behind. Both rely on the truth as major aspects and lead to the decisions of major characters.
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