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Resilient people can quickly overcome adversity, trauma, tragedy, and threats. A person should become more resilient and mentally tough after quickly overcoming these challenges. People get an understanding of life’s obstacles via resilience, so Oedipus and Hamlet both exhibit considerable tenacity, but neither one excels the other. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus shows bravery when he solves the murder of King Laius, but he lacks emotional fortitude when he learns the truth about his fate. Although Hamlet exhibits tremendous intellectual fortitude throughout the play, he cannot adjust to challenging emotional situations. By the end of the plays, Oedipus and Hamlet are no more resilient than one another due to the tragic outcomes that result from their hubris and hamartia. Both Oedipus and Hamlet struggle to accept terrible realities about themselves and their family, but Hamlet seems to be more resilient, acting with more restraint and a more composed demeanor rather than making rash decisions. This essay will look at the actions the characters in the stories took and how they displayed resilience.
Either Hamlet or Oedipus might make a compelling case for having more extraordinary fortitude. Each is obstinate, driven to accomplish their goals, and sticks to their action plan. Typically, solitary people prefer to rely on their judgment rather than seek other advice. Oedipus contacts the blind prophet Tiresias to be sure. However, Oedipus fiercely rejects the horrible truth when Tiresias reveals the one thing he does not want to hear—that he, Oedipus, killed his father. After the scenario where Oedipus begins to doubt Creon and questions the seer and how he presses the seer for the truth, the truth is ultimately made clear. Oedipus’ response is seen in the following, “Who murdered Laius—that man is here. He passes for an alien in the land but soon shall prove a Theban native born…” (Sophocles 9). However, one must also admit that Hamlet is more tenacious than Oedipus because he ought to be. Unlike Hamlet, Oedipus does not have the truth on his side. In fact, he is gravely endangered by the truth. In this way, Hamlet has the luxury of not being quite as obstinate because he knows that Claudius murdered his father and that he should exact retribution. He has a better ability than Oedipus to pass the time.
A sequence of incidents puts Hamlet’s resiliency to the test. The sudden marriage between Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, and his uncle, Claudius, as well as the death of Hamlet’s father and the encounter with his father’s ghost, all make him crazy. Adversity hits young Hamlet, who is very dejected. After his father passes away, he experiences a range of feelings, including anger, sadness, and even a loss of the desire to survive. However, as a devoted audience member, Horatio supports Hamlet and helps to soothe his emotions. By the time the play is out, Hamlet has matured into a circumspect and incredibly balanced individual who can show Laertes sympathy. He is more resilient than Oedipus in the face of this challenge.
Even though it means fighting the new monarch, Hamlet is adamant about exacting revenge for the death of his father throughout the entire play. He is determined to kill his uncle, “He that hath killed my king, and whored my mother/ Popped in between the election and my hopes/ Thrown out his angle for my proper life” (Shakespeare 208). He is willing to take any risk because he thinks his acts and views are fair, which is resilience at its best. Hamlet is furiously upset with his Uncle Claudius for assassinating his father to take the throne. When Hamlet overthinks and refrains from attacking Claudius, this acts as his hubris and hamartia. The protagonist’s battle for justice and to avenge the loss of his father as a truth seeker continues as he rises against the adversary Claudius on his terms.
Hamlet appears to be a far less spirited figure than King Oedipus’ perseverance in pursuing truth and his active life position and angle to solve the pressing problems. It is not that he does not want to find the truth; on the contrary, he is pretty motivated to do so because he has a strong suspicion that his mother’s marriage came about improperly, given how soon after his father’s passing, it happened. After making a terrible discovery, Oedipus blinds himself and vows to live the remainder of his days in exile. He is heartbroken and unable to cope with the fallout from his actions: “If only I had died, this weight of monstrous doom could not have dragged me and my darlings down” (Sophocles 69). Hamlet, however, is more of a logical thinker than a fighter. Thus, he spends a lot of time thinking about and reflecting on the events before taking action. In one monologue, he expresses a hunch that things are not as simple as they seem, saying, “Not it cannot come to good,” to find the answer to the dilemma tormenting him (Shakespeare 116). The startling information Hamlet learns about the crime from his father’s ghost supports this sense of impending doom.
While King Oedipus pursues the truth with determined action, Hamlet opts for a different approach to investigate the truth. Instead of immediately questioning reality, as Oedipus’ character would have done, he observes his homicidal uncle’s response to the play performed by the visiting comedians to determine whether the ghost is telling the truth. Hamlet appears to be quite clever in his investigation of the actual offender, in contrast to the brave and straightforward King Oedipus, who does not care much about the insinuating remarks that help to search out the facts. However, Oedipus and Hamlet do share certain parallels.
Before the play begins, Hamlet develops a deft psychological plan to identify the killer: “I’ll observe his looks; / I will tent him to the quick. If he but blench, / I know my course” (Shakespeare 173). By doing this, Hamlet establishes himself as a sane individual who can set aside his emotional turmoil and make a well-considered decision. With the help of his father’s ghost, Hamlet cleverly creates a play to find the person who killed his father. This tactic ultimately proves to be a successful endeavor. Hamlet demonstrates tenacity in uncovering the meaning behind the truth he holds dear. Hamlet makes his own choices because he knows that if he does not kill the man who killed his father, Claudius will kill him.
Finally, neither Oedipus nor Hamlet shows more resilience than the other, and they both succumb to their conceit. They demonstrated some grit throughout their stories, but they both fell short. One will perish, and the other will be banished. Their hubris caused them to make poor choices, and neither of them could fix their problems. Oedipus and Hamlet disregarded warnings that could have prevented the disasters that ultimately befell them.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Yale University Press, 2003.
Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Prestwick House Inc., 2005.
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