Oedipus first runs away when a drunken man tells him that his parents are not his real parents and he wants to seek wisdom on this from the oracle of Apollo. The oracle tells Oedipus a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus said that “When (he) heard that, (he) ran away” (Sophocles 56). Oedipus then makes the choice to run away and not go back to Corinth, his home. Oedipus has other options that he could have chosen instead of running away from home.
Hamlet in his first soliloquy demonstrates his disgust that his mother has allied herself in love and in politics with her late husband’s brother, so soon after his death, “frailty, thy name is woman... to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets”. Claudius is clearly established as the villain in Hamlet, murdering his own brother and then plotting to kill Hamlet. He lies and is deceitful toying with the notion that the appearance of things is not their reality. The audience is privy to the ‘reality’ of Claudius ‘deed’, and of his guilt, through an aside, climactically stating, “then is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden!”.
Rome goes to the Friar and asks him to marry him and his beloved Juliet. The friar agrees because he thinks it will end the two family’s feud. Mercutio (a Montague) and Tybalt (a Capulet) get in a sword fight Romeo tries to interfere to stop it but then Tybalt slays Mercutio under Romeos arm. Romeo wants revenge to he kills Tybalt, The Prince here’s word of this and banishes Romeo. Juliet is very sad over this so she goes to Friar Lawrence for advice he gives her a sleeping potion that will make her dead for 42 hours.
And the last similarity, though not in exact description, is Amleth/Hamlet killing his uncle, the king. Now that you know the similarities, let’s move on to the differences. The first difference between the two stories is that in Hamlet, Hamlet sees the ghost of his dead father, and tells Hamlet that his uncle, who is now king, was the one who killed him. He also orders him to seek the revenge of his murder and to kill his uncle. Hamlet obviously agrees to this and sets out to follow the ghost’s demands.
Electra fights with her mother, Clytemnestra, and her mother’s lover, Aegisthus, because she feels betrayed by them as they killed her father. When Electra and Orestes are finally reunited, they plot against their fathers killers, and finally kill them. The play has several themes, such as vengeance and deception which are extenuated by the heightened realism style of the play. In Electra’s introductory speech, I would emphasises her agony of her father’s death, as this is the main reason the character is vengeful. To fit with the heightened realism of the play, I would exaggerate the mental pain that the character is going through by associating some lines with physical pain, such as ‘But my mother, and her bed mate Aegisthus, Split open his head with a murderous axe’.
Also, when the official who is telling the city of Thebes that Oedipus blinded himself he says, “He shouts for all the barriers to be unbarred and he displayed to all of Thebes, his father’s murderer, his mothers…no, a word too foul to say…”(71). Even though Oedipus didn’t know that Lauis was his father it was still his choice to kill him and marry Jocasta although it was his mother. In addition to Oedipus being responsible for his fate he is also endowed with a tragic flaw and is doomed to make a serious error in judgment. Oedipus is arrogant and stubborn and these flaws cause him to accuse people of things they didn’t do. For example, when Oedipus says to Tiresias,”Yes, you, you planned this thing, and I suspect you of the very murder even, all but the actual stroke” (20).He is accusing Tiresias of murdering Lauis when the actual murderer is Oedipus himself.
Friar tells Juliet “Thy husband in the bosom there lies dead” (V.iii.155). He tells her that Romeo has died because he thought she was actually dead and couldn’t stand to be without her. Friar stated, “Miscarried by my fault, let my old life be sacrificed some hour before his time unto the rigor of severest law” (V.iii.267-269). He is explaining to The Capulet’s, Montague’s, and the Prince that he is to blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence should of told the two star crossed lovers to tell their parents that they were in love with their
In both Hamlet and the Lion King, Simba and Hamlet are the cause of their father’s death. Unlike Simba, Hamlet was not present at the time of his father’s death; However, the jealousy of Claudius and Scar towards the heirs to the kingdom spurred their decisions to commit murder. The murder of their fathers killed Simba and Prince Hamlet so emotionally that each of these characters just wanted to escape everyone and be alone. The death of their fathers was, in a way, a death to both Simba’s and Prince Hamlet’s spirit. Both characters had such a connection to their father, which is why they were able to see the deception and trickery behind the murder of the two rulers.
Macbeth Act V Macbeth's death was inevitable. Because he wanted to be king, his wife talked him into murdering Duncan, who was the king and a relative, while Duncan was a guest in his home. He had his best friend, Banquo, murdered because the witches predicted that Banquo’s descendents would be kings. He also wanted Banquo’s son, Fleance, murdered, but he escaped. Macbeth had reason to be afraid of Macduff, so he sent men to kill Macduff’s wife and children.
He does this when he is talking to Gertrude and assumes that Claudius is the man behind him. He compares his deed to his mother’s when he says, “A bloody deed-almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother” (3.4.34-35). He tells his mother that killing Polonius is just as horrible as killing a King and marrying his brother. Here, he is describing his mother’s actions. He hints that maybe his mother is associated with his father’s murder.