When heros that are tied to destiny feature in literature, they often show signs of arrogance. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles shows how Oedipus’s quest for avoiding his destiny drives him to fulfill without being fully aware of it. When running away he finds himself married to his mother and becoming the king of thebes. In contrast, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet the main character is visited by the former king and informs him of the new kings doings. As a result the main character is convinced and must seek vengeance for the former king. While there is a fairly large time gap between these two pieces of literature, both explore how the arrogance of one can lead to a tragic outcome and how both Hamlet and Oedipus are tragic heroes. However, whereas …show more content…
The definition of a tragic hero according to csus.edu is ‘‘A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering. But the hero struggles mightily against this fate and this cosmic conflict wins our admiration.’’ When Hamlet is faced with the quest to seek his father 's vengeance he does not act on impulse. Hamlet decides the make a play reacting the death of his father that was described to him by his father 's ghost this can be seen as Hamlet seeking the truth before making his decision which leads to his outcome. Oedipus was told his prophecy. With this being Oedipus prophecy he chooses sacrificing his happiness in order to keep his parents safe from danger.
In both stories Hamlet and Oedipus were both fated by gods or supernatural beings, there lives can be seen as predetermined. Oedipus was meant to be a prophecy in which he was doomed to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus had his fate decided which lead to him being defined by arrogance that which made him believe he was able to prevent destiny from taking its course. Hamlet 's fate was determined by a supernatural being, the ghost of his father. The ghost elaborated on the his death and how he was poisoned by his uncle and how he asks of