Hamlet and Oedipus: Free Will versus Fate

For ages, man has sought to be in command of his life. The common debate is

whether we, as human beings, have free will or if a divine force, sometimes referred to as

fate, determines our destiny. Though the two plays, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and

Sophocles’s Oedipus were written in two different eras, these two ideas are common

between them. Although Hamlet and Oedipus both strive to be in control of their lives,

Oedipus refuses to accept his destiny and therefore unknowingly fulfills his fate.

In less than 2 months of the death of Hamlet’s father, the King of Denmark, his

mother marries the brother of the deceased King. This speedy marriage causes Hamlet a

lot of grief for he feels that he has not only lost his father and his mother but also the

throne to the brother, Claudius. Throughout the play he is shown to be an intellectual and

manipulating character. After meeting with the ghost, Hamlet decides to behave mad so

that he might have a chance to revenge his father, “As I perchance hereafter shall think

meet to put an antic disposition on…” (Shakespeare, 34). This is Hamlets way of

misleading the people around him including Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, and his friends,

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while he forms a plan to revenge his father. Further along

in the play, Hamlet confronts his mother in her bedroom and tells her his opinion of

Claudius. Gertrude says that she now truly sees what she has done, but this is not enough

for him, before he leaves he says “Good night. But go not to my uncle’s bed.” (100) thus

trying to control his mother’s actions. When Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern, visit him without any reason as to why, he ge...

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fate without truly knowing the outcome. Would he have acted differently if he knew he,

among many others, would die that day? Perhaps, but in his mind his father’s revenge

was the most important and it seemed that he would stop at nothing to get it. On the other

hand, Oedipus meant well when he left Corinth and defeated the Sphinx, but in trying to

free himself from his fate, he killed his father in his departure and in his victory over the

Sphinx won Jocasta’s hand therefore completing the prophecy. In these two plays a

persons ending is already determined, but free will decides how one gets to the

destination. Oedipus’s critical mistake was trying to go against the Gods and fate. Overall

the elements of this topic have fascinated the human mind for centuries past, just as it

will for the centuries to come.