Comparing Oedipus Rex and King Lear Essay -- comparison compare contra

Comparing Oedipus Rex and King Lear Oedipus Rex and King Lear are, as their titles announce, two about kings. These two plays are similar in theme and in the questions they pose to the audience. The kings in each play both fall from the surmount of power to become the most loathed of all classes in society Oedipus discovers that he is a murderer and committer of incest, and Lear becomes a mad beggar. Misjudgments occur in both plays, and the same questions about the gods, fate, and free will are posed. In ill will of these similarities, however, the final effects of these two plays differ greatly. For me, as I aim Oedipus Rex again this fall, I experienced a sensation nearly of distortion. Because I had al pick outy known the myth as well as read the play, I was in the Greeks position of foreknowledge. This caused me to feel acutely the irony of Oedipus self-confident declarations that the murderer of Laius should be driven from every house, / Being, as he is, putre accompa nimention itself to us, and again on the next page, As for the criminal, I pray to God- Whether it be a lurking thief, or one of a number- I pray that that mans vitality be consumed in evil and wretchedness. And as for me, this nemesis applies no slight If it should turn out that the culprit is my guest here, Sharing my hearth. (13-14) Oedipus has absolutely no idea that the murderer he is denouncing so vehemently is, in fact, himself. The fact that the reader knows that, and he does not, becomes increasintly painful, especially in the line where Oedipus says, And as for me, this curse applies no less(prenominal).... Oedipus means only that he will not cherish the guilty, even under the constraints of hospitality he has absolutely no ... ...n has already occurred, is concentrated fully on them. King Lear comes to a much more than acceptable resolution. At the end of Oedipus Rex, I felt nothing yet relief that the worst was finally over. King Lear also made me take a breath heavily with relief, but it was more cathartic than the other. There is less agony in the experience of the play, and the ending is more resolved. While Sophocles leaves the audience with a burden of unresolved issues, Shakespeare, though not resolving them, makes them less cumbersome. In this way, King Lear, though no less a tragedy than Oedipus Rex, seems less ponderous and sad. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Russell Fraser. impertinently revised ed. New York Penguin Group, 1998. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. The Oedipus Cycle. New York Harcourt Brace and Company, 1939.