Essay Comparing Hamlet And Gilgamesh

Plenty of characters share traits that Hamlet, from the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, possesses. A protagonist that shares traits with Hamlet, while also separating himself from this character is Gilgamesh, from The Epic of Gilgamesh, written by the ancient Sumerians. These two characters suffer from a tragic flaw, encounter a supernatural being, and change the way they view life after the death of a character close to them. However, these similarities contain major tweaks within them making them significant differences amongst the similar features. These two characters share more than one similar experience, in a broad sense, but one in particular allows for a comparison. Hamlet and Gilgamesh encounter a supernatural being,

Hamlet’s theophany occurs between him and his dead father’s ghost, while Gilgamesh communicates with multiple supernatural beings by discussing with his mom and Ishtar, who are goddesses. Their requests after the death of the significant person in their lives also separate them. Gilgamesh goes through tremendous lengths searching for eternal life, while Hamlet wonders if life is worth living by contemplating suicide. Their greatest difference occurs between their tragic flaws. Hamlet’s indecisiveness, his tragic flaw, becomes clear in the scene where King Claudius, his uncle, prays and Hamlet obtains the opportunity to slay him. “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying and now I’ll do ‘t: and so he goes to heaven: and so am I revenged. That would be scanned; a villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (Shakespeare 1860). Hamlet ponders on the idea of getting revenge on his uncle, but fails to achieve the goal at that moment. Gilgamesh’s arrogance becomes his tragic flaw and it appears often, such as in the scene where he encounters Ishtar. “What would I get if I marry you? You are a brazier that goes out when it freezes, a flimsy door that keeps out neither wind nor draught, a palace that crushes a warrior, a mouse that gnaws through