POST 25: What Character is most like Hamlet?

Throughout the entire semester we have read some really amazing stories and poems. From The Wife of Bath who brings a whole new meaning to the word Feminist, Gilgamesh King of Uruk and  brave warrior, Poets like Rumi who write the most mind blowing love poems or even Li Po whose use of imagery in his writing brings every poem to life. When we read Shakespeare's Hamlet Prince of Denmark , i tried to think of what other character from any of the stories we have read this semester has some similarities to him. That Character would be Oedipus  from  Sophocles' Oedipus The King. The first and the most obvious similarity between Hamlet and Oedipus  is that both characters are part of a royal family. Oedipus is the King of Thebes and Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. We start to see more similarities when we look at the motives that led up to the tragic endings in both stories.  Both characters are fueled by the lost of their fathers and on a quest to find that person and avenge the deaths. Oedipus The King, King Laius has been murdered and Oedipus unbeknownst to him that he killed his own father  Is out to find who did it and exact his punishment. This is apparent in Oedipus' conversation with Creon:

"It is fitting for Phoebus, and fitting also for you
 For the sake of him dead, to return your concern there
 And fair that I am seen as an ally
In avenging this land and the god.
Yet not in the name of remote kin
But for myself will I banish the abomination
Since that person who killed may—and soon—
And by his own hand, wish to avenge me."(Vol 1, 289)

In a very much similar situation, we have Hamlet , who urged by the ghost of his father King Hamlet to "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."(Vol 3, 92) The difference between both Characters is that Oedipus does not yet know his dad died by his own hands, but Hamlet is told by his father that his Uncle and current King, Claudius is responsible for his murder. These events combined make both characters tragic heroes as a result of their self destructive ways. Oedipus eventually finds out that he killed his father and married his mother, this ends in him " ...striking into his eyes. At each, blood From his eyes dropped to his beard, not releasing blood. Drop by drop—but all at once:A dark storm hailing drops of blood.From those two has this burst forth..."(322) and Hamlet who eventually dies in the end"O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit..."(185)