Oedipus the King by Sophocles and Hamlet by Shakespeare have many distinct concepts. The themes of vengeance and the significance of the bond between father and son are two of the most significant. The topics are brought up multiple times in each play. Revenge and relationships are only few of the topics that have been handled throughout history in the plays. Themes play a critical role in a tale or play since they serve as the framework for the major concepts. Themes are also well-known concepts that have a significant impact on society.
A person may decide to seek vengeance on another if they believe that person has done something wrong or conducted an act that has harmed the other person's feelings. "He was slain; and Apollo instructs us now to seek retribution upon whoever killed him," Creon says in Oedipus the King (1288.110) Revenge might be argued to be an instinctive human response. No one likes to think that a heinous act, such as the murder of the King in this drama, should go unpunished. Because King Laius's murder affected an entire region, it is conceivable that majority of the people who lived under King Laius's dominion wanted retribution done on those responsible.
While in Corinth, the shepherd informs Oedipus, "It was claimed that the kid will slay his father" (1313.62) Imagining oneself as an adult and killing one's own father is a difficult subject to contemplate. The majority of boys would say that no matter what, they would never kill their own father. Despite the fact that Oedipus was reared by the King of Corinth, he had no knowledge that Laios was his father. Freud and other psychologists have been studying this complex for decades, and it has been dubbed the Oedipus complex because of the play's plot.
When Oedipus first swears to avenge the death of King Laios, he doesn't reAalise it was him. King Laios was assassinated by most of the persons there, who would have made explanations, left, or otherwise kept the public from learning who was responsible. Oedipus, on the other hand, was fully aware that it was he who had done it and even sought vengeance on himself. In my opinion, this punishment I have imposed on myself is fair. " How could I stand to see my father's face in the abode of death if I had eyes? (1319.140) Because the conduct is so repulsive, most people would be unable to carry out such a depraved act on themselves. Even though he was the one who killed King Laios, Oedipus honoured his pledge and pursued vengeance upon the murderer.
From the tragic circumstance in which Oedipus the King's son kills his father to the happy one in which Hamlet's son loves and wishes to avenge his father's death, the father-son interactions in both plays are markedly different. "Revenge his vile and most unnatural murder," says Hamlet's father's ghost the first time he sees him (1.5.26) Adults who grew up with a father figure around more likely to seek justice for the murder of that father and punish the perpetrators. King Hamlet's love with his son, Hamlet, is so strong that Hamlet is able to communicate with him in the afterlife.
Claudius and Gertrude make several observations on Hamlet's behaviour throughout the play, as though the death of a father or husband should only produce temporary pain, as Gertrude demonstrated by her hasty new marriage. Perhaps Prince Hamlet would have coped better with his father's death if the King's spirit hadn't returned. His last wish was that he be allowed to believe that his death was a gentle and natural one. In the wake of his father's death by a man who is now married to Hamlet's mother, Hamlet felt driven to seek revenge, which was misunderstood by others in his immediate vicinity.
Revenge is a hazardous thing in any tale since it relies solely on feelings and does not employ any logic or reasoning. Claims that Claudius was responsible for his father's death were Hamlet's goal in the play. In order to show Claudius's guilt, Hamlet staged a presentation of the play, which alerted Claudius to the fact that Hamlet had found him out and placed him on guard. Laertes, too, feels the urge to revenge the deaths of his father and sister, and Hamlet is not the only one who feels this way. Fortinbras was also out for vengeance on Hamlet's father, who had murdered his father and taken the estate that should have been his. To avenge his father's death Laertes comes, and Claudius is more than delighted to tell him that Hamlet killed his father. As for Claudius, his retaliation is to get Hamlet out of the way and prevent him from informing anybody that he was, in fact, responsible for the death of King Hamlet's son.
In both Oedipus the King and Hamlet, retribution and father-son relationships are recurring themes. The audience will be enthralled and captivated by these subjects. The royal families in both novels would have survived if it weren't for the idiocy of the male characters and their desire to revenge the deaths of their loved ones. It would have been quite different if the main protagonists were women, as most girls would not have taken retribution. Shakespeare and Sophocles, on the other hand, were well aware of this. Both of these plays would not have been as popular or as long-lasting if the characters hadn't been who they were.
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