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. ... They never tell Oedipus that he is not their own. ... 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. ... In the end, Oedipus finds his 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. ...

• Word Count: 606
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

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. ... They never tell Oedipus that he is not their own. ... 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. ... In both these plays, truth played a major role in the outcome. ... Truth was a deciding factor in both outcomes of the plays. ...

• Word Count: 587
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

"The Kings to Blame" In all myths, tragedies and plays there is always a tragic hero. ... In "Oedipus Rex", Oedipus was also the character that was looked to as the savior and was asked to find the murderer of King Liaus. ... Claudius kills poisons the king and marries the kings wife to become king. ... In "Hamlet", King Claudius starts the trend by poisoning King Hamlet so that he can become king. ... Madness and lack of control play a big part in both plays. ...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the two plays, Oedipus and Hamlet are unconsciously exposed to incest. After Oedipus unknowingly kills the former king, he enters the City of Thebes after solving the Sphinx's riddle and freeing the citizens of her morbid tax, the people choose him to be their new king. ... Although both plays are different, they both meet a tragic end. Shakespeare and Sophocles both wrote their plays to incorporate the long battle between good and evil. The events that occur in both plays show the power of fate, greed, and madness....

• Word Count: 523
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In the two plays, Oedipus and Hamlet are unconsciously exposed to incest. After Oedipus unknowingly kills the former king, he enters the City of Thebes after solving the Sphinx's riddle and freeing the citizens of her morbid tax, the people choose him to be their new king. ... Although both plays are different, they both meet a tragic end. Shakespeare and Sophocles both wrote their plays to incorporate the long battle between good and evil. The events that occur in both plays show the power of fate, greed, and madness. ...

• Word Count: 495
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In Shakespeare's most famous tragedy, Hamlet, this dominant theme of revenge saturates the play and is the manipulative influence behind the actions that make the play a tragedy. ... The ghost of Hamlet's father, the old King, introduces the first ideas of vengeance into Hamlet's mind. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was wrongfully killed at the hands of his traitorous brother, the present King Claudius. ... First, it is claimed that Hamlet suffered from an Oedipus complex in a slight sense. ... If Hamlet did indeed have the Oedipus complex then it helps explain many of his acti...

• Word Count: 988
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

"The play dramatizes the perpetual struggle to which all civilization that is genuine is doomed" (Alexander 184). ... In Oedipus of Colonus, Sophocles illustrates these qualities that Antigone possesses. ... The children: Nora plays with her children and treats them like dolls. ... Sounds of the city play on the house speakers" (Hwang 21). ... "To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother. ...

• Word Count: 2132
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. ... There are different concepts on the Oedipus complex. ... Hamlet does love his mother, but early in the play he falls in love with Ophelia. ... Hamlet states, "Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: / Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed" (III.iv.183-184). ... Hamlet is a play that can be related to the Oedipus complex. ...

• Word Count: 1901
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The classic tragedy, Oedipus tells the story of the King of Thebes, Oedipus who foolishly tries to challenge fate and evade prophecy, which proclaimed that he would murder his father and marry his mother. ... The play Oedipus displays three elements of the cathartic moment very well. ... Before the palace of Thebes, when the prophet Teiresias had accused Oedipus of murdering Thebes" previous king, Laius, Oedipus" pride would not allow him to see the truth of the prophet's words, which is evident in this quote: Teiresias: Thou seekest, and thou art, the murderer! ... Not only are all of th...

• Word Count: 3952
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

Hamlet's Oedipus Complex towards his mother linked with his profound feelings of melancholia are the direct roots of his other problems. What is the Oedipus complex and what is melancholia? To start, here is the definition of the Oedipus Complex. ... This is a direct cause of Hamlet's constant feelings of deep melancholia throughout the play. ... The king proposes a duel in which Hamlet will meet his "assured" doom. ...

• Word Count: 1687
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Upon examining Shakespeare's characters in this play, Hamlet proves to be an exceedingly complex character, and functions as the key element to the development of the play. ... He wants the murder of the King to be perfect. ... Hamlet spends too much time planning and not enough time doing, thus making the King's murder more complicated and belated. ... Under this light, Hamlet cannot kill Claudius until he can prove that he poisoned the late king. ... Some critics attribute Hamlets inability to act to an Oedipus complex. ...

• Word Count: 1772
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

"A was a goodly king." ... Fortinbras vows revenge on King Hamlet. ... This is why he decides to use the play within a play to provoke a reaction from Claudius. ... "I doubt some foul play." ... There is also a suggestion of the Oedipus complex, which would obviously have made Hamlet crave revenge even more. ...

• Word Count: 2360
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

KING Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? ... KING At supper? ... KING Alas, alas. ... KING What dost thou mean by this? ([IV.iii.16-31] Bloom 62); Hamlet verbally plays with the King and the King unable to match or understand the obviously superior wit and mind of Hamlet, presents Hamlet with a weak antagonist. ...

• Word Count: 1115
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In Shakespeare's play, the death of Old King Hamlet triggers different actions in its major characters; especially Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and to a lesser extent Polonius and Ophelia. ... Because of this tendency, psychologists have concluded that Hamlet must have suffered from an Oedipus complex (pinkmonkey.com). According to the renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, all males possess this tendency, which is marked by a desire to kill their fathers and marry their mothers; as occurs in the earlier Greek play of Oedipus the king. ... This weakness was copied from Thomas Kyd&#...

• Word Count: 1979
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Hamlet has been accused of having an Oedipus complex since Sigmund Freud first introduced the concept. ... Hamlet pursues stopping this crime throughout the play. ... He compares his recent murder of Polonius to her incest: "A bloody deed-almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king, and marry with his brother... The incest drives the play to conclusion. ... A recurrent theme in the play is the continued wantonness of his mother. ...

• Word Count: 736
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

But that is not all that is needed to consider a play a tragedy, and sometimes a hero doesn't even need to die. Making Not every play in which a Hero dies is considered a tragedy. There are more elements needed to label a play one. ... In Oedipus Rex, the proud yet morally blind king plucks out his eyes, and has to spend his remaining days as a wandering, sightless beggar, guided at every painful step by his daughter, Antigone. ... Every tragic play must have a tragic hero. ...

• Word Count: 1033
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

But that is not all that is needed to consider a play a tragedy, and sometimes a hero doesn't even need to die. Making Not every play in which a Hero dies is considered a tragedy. There are more elements needed to label a play one. ... In Oedipus Rex, the proud yet morally blind king plucks out his eyes, and has to spend his remaining days as a wandering, sightless beggar, guided at every painful step by his daughter, Antigone. ... Every tragic play must have a tragic hero. ...

• Word Count: 1033
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School