In
Shakespeare's Hamlet and , the action and/or inaction
of theis not based upon their knowledge as much as the circumstances surrounding the death of
each man's father.
Hamlet is struggling with his father's death from the
start. He has not yet been called to action at the start of the play, but still he is suffering
from a deep and overwhelming grief at his father's passing. His reaction to his mother's
remarriage so soon after Old Hamlet's death to a man he finds disgusting (I.ii.132-162), as well
as his repugnance with the manner in which the members at court and the new king drunkenly
celebrate, are things about which Hamlet feels strongly (I.vi.9-13). However, there is nothing
to be done, and he is left for a time to attempt to come to terms with his father's passing. The
audience understands his depression. His feelings are fueled by the greatness of his dead father
and the baseness of his uncle. It is this very difference that he throws in Gertrude's face in
Act Three.
It is not until Hamlet learns that his father was murdered that he
is called upon by the Ghost to avenge his sire's slaying. It is not his father's death that
requires Hamlet to act, but the manner in which Old Hamlet died.
GHOST:
I am thy
father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the
day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of
nature
Are burnt and purged away. (I.v.13-17)
And...
List, list, O, list!
If thou
didst ever thy dear father love (27-28)€¦Revenge his foul and most unnatural
murder. (29)[€¦] The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now
wears his crown. (44-45)
Hamlet struggles for the
remainder of the play to act, for several reasons; and with these reasons, perhaps he knows
"too much," because having all the facts forces the young prince to face the greatest
dilemma of his untried life. The Elizabethan audience (for whom the Bard wrote) believed that it
was a mortal sin to kill a king. In this case, Hamlet must know for certain that the Ghost is
speaking the truth. People of the time also believed in all kinds of supernatural beings, such
as ghosts, witches, etc. In this case, Hamlet cannot be sure that the Ghost is truly his father
and not an evil spirit trying to damn his eternal soul by convincing him to commit regicide. It
is for this reason that Hamlet arranges for the "play-within-a-play," re-enacting his
father's murder in the orchard. When Claudius reacts so violently to the murder scene, Hamlet
has his proof.
Even now, however, Hamlet is not free to act. The Ghost told
Hamlet that he had to suffer a period of
torment because he was not able to confess his sins before he died. When Hamlet has his chance
to kill Claudius, the man is in a pose of prayer, and Hamlet refuses to
send him to the next world free from his sinsbecause Claudius' murder had sent Old Hamlet to
suffer in purgatory.
And so, with all this information, Hamlet (truly his
father's son) weighs the wisdom of his actionsfor losing one's soul to the devil for all
eternity was the worst price a man could pay for his misdeeds on earth.
On
the other hand,is a man of action not because he does not know that his
father is dead, but because he does not know that he murdered his father.
It is this knowledge that freezes him in his tracks. If that were not enough, he discovers that
in marrying , he has committed incest by sleeping with his own mother.
As the
story goes, a plague has befallen Thebes, and , Oedipus' brother-in-law, has traveled to the
temple of Apollo to discover what they must do to end the sickness and death. When he returns,
Creon speaks of the previous king, Laius, who was murdered by an unknown hand, and the man
responsible has never been brought to justice.
CREON:
He died, and the god now orders
us clearly
to take violent vengeance on the murderers. (117-118)
Oedipus promises that he will not stop until he has discovered who
the murderer is because he loves the people of Thebes and suffers himself because
they suffer.
OEDIPUS:
Then I shall reveal these
things anew,
for justly did Phoebus, and justly did you
assign me this case
on behalf of the dead,
so that you will rightly see me as an ally,
avenging
both this land and the god together. (143-147)
, the
blind prophet, tells Oedipus the truth he seeks:
That man,
whom you have long sought,
threatening him and naming as the murderer
of
Laius, that man is here.
An immigrant in theory, soon he will be
revealed a
native Theban, though he will not be
happy to learn it; for blind instead of
seeing,
a beggar instead of rich he will travel
foreign earth, tapping it
with his staff.
He will be revealed to live with his children
as brother and
father both; and to his parents
he is both his wifes son and lord and his
fathers
fellow-sower and slayer. (472-483)
Oedipus at first cannot believe what he has heard, and suspects a plot on Creon's part.
Upon speaking to Jocasta about a prophecy Laius (her murdered husband) had once heard about his
death, and the circumstances surrounding it, Oedipus finally suspects that Tiresias' words may
be true. However, he has Jocasta send for the servant that survived the attack on Laius to have
him confirm Oedipus' new suspicions.
When all things are confirmed, Jocasta,
realizing that she has married her son, kills herself. Oedipus blinds himself with the pins from
the broaches (jewelry) his wife wears. His last wishes are to be led out of the city so that no
one will ever see him again, and that the children of his incestuous relationship with Jocasta
not suffer because of his sins.
Oedipus' lack of knowledge supports the old
clich©, "Ignorance is bliss." As long as Oedipus is unaware of what he has done, he
acts for the good of Thebes. He loves his wife and the people of the city and tries to be a
worthy leader. With the news of the murder of a man (Laius) that he never knew, he feels
required to act to spare the citizens of Thebes the suffering they are experiencing because
Laius' murder has gone unpunished.
Not having enough information drives
Oedipus because he believes that he must put right the wrong that has been committed. It is not
the knowledge of knowing that his father is dead that causes the dilemma for Oedipus. (He is
adopted and does not know this.) He has left his father's house so he never kills him, as was
prophesied about him. Oedipus is proactive. When he hears that his [adoptive] father is dead, he
believes the accusations of Tiresias are false. However, it is the knowledge of how his true
father died (at Oedipus' hands) that is the turning point in Oedipus' life.
So with both of these men, Hamlet and Oedipus, it is not the knowledge of the death of
their father that drives them, but the knowledge of how each father died
that controls each son's behavior.
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