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Oedipus Rex Vs Hamlet Resilience Essay

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Hamlet vs Oedipus Resilience Essay People all around the world experience and demonstrate resilience differently. It arises in different situations when needed, and thrives when the right conditions are involved. In William Shakespeare’s play; “Hamlet,” and Sophocles’s play; “Oedipus Rex,” both main characters show resilience. The main character of Hamlet - Hamlet - is a young prince whose father was murdered. The main character of Oedipus Rex - Oedipus - is a king who is determined to solve the mystery of his prophecy. However, only one of the two royals shows greater resiliency than the other for a plethora of reasons. Hamlet is more resilient than Oedipus Rex due to his willingness to accept fate, ability to adapt, and inclination to absolve. …show more content…

Forgiveness is a challenging skill to harness that must be used to overcome challenges and continue in life. When done properly, resilience is able to shine from it. Absolving allows a character to let go of hurt and move forward from a negative experience, along with continuing to work to accomplish their goals without having something holding them back. If all of this is executed, a character is able to exemplify resilience. Hamlet is able to forgive Laertes and even requests for his forgiveness. He states, “Heaven make thee free of it!” (5, 2, 294). By Hamlet displaying this, it exhibits his resilience due to the fact that he is able to let go of his painful feelings towards Laertes and move on from it. Conversely, Oedipus is not able to absolve Creon. Although he did not do anything to Oedipus, he is still unable to forgive Creon and even wants him to perish by expressing, “No. I want you to die.” (754). Creon could have given Oedipus advice during his journey of discovering the prophecy. However, after driving Creon away, he lost that privilege. Overall, if Oedipus was able to forgive Creon for delivering a prophecy and were able to reconcile, Oedipus’s life may have had different outcomes. Henche, Hamlet’s ability to forgive illustrates a greater sense of resilience than

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