Research paper on three plays - Essay Example

an, narrates the story of a tragic character so engrossed in his false belief, that reality and illusion merge, resulting in an internal struggle that leads to his downfall. Each play portrays the internal battle of a man struggling to come to terms with his own, bitter reality and departing from his fantasy world. In selecting the frailty of illusion over the constancy of reality, the protagonists meet their inevitable disaster. From the start of Sophocles’ tragic play, Oedipus takes many actions and makes many choices leading to his own downfall.

Oedipus selects to disregard numerous warnings, involving truth of his life and family background. Teiresias supplies Oedipus with everything he has to know regarding his fate by stating, “You, yourself, are the pollution of this country,” (634). Notwithstanding this evident assertion of truth, Oedipus chooses to delude in his comfortable fantasy, that he has escaped his inevitable fate. He chooses to ignore the prophecy of his fate to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus tries to resist the gods by escaping from his homeland, Corinth, but instead throws himself directly into the hands of fate.

Oedipus ignores another warning of truth in ignoring the words of Teiresias. He thinks that he has successfully evaded his own destiny; however, he could not have been farther from the truth. Oedipus’ imprudent decisions finally lead to his ruin in the play. Oedipus’ most irrational choice succeeds throughout the play: the choice of illusion over reality in the end costs him his life. Similar to the Oedipus’ inability to accept the truth, Hamlet persists in blinding himself. Even after the ghost narrates to Hamlet how his father was killed, Hamlet has the players act it out, in order to be convinced.

His obscurity of the truth remains consistent. Although the king gives himself away after seeing the replay of his brother’s murder, by yelling, “Give me some light. Away!” (79), Hamlet is still undecided.