Similarities Between Hamlet And Paradise Lost

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Even just at first glance, many apparent similarities exist between William Shakespeare's hamlet and john Milton's paradise lost, after all, they were both written around the same time, and Milton was highly influenced by Shakespeare's work. However, the similarities are not just in style. Many people don’t realize that huge parallels between the characters exist in both stories. One of the most striking examples are the incredible similarities between Hamlet and Satan. On the surface, characters might seem different, after all, while both protagonists, one is seen as a hero, while the other an anti-hero, and Satan actions seem uncalled for and out of pure evil while Hamlet might seem like he is on a noble quest for revenge. But the fact …show more content…

In the case of Hamlet, he returns from England having evaded execution by swapping the letters and having Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed instead. He returns to Denmark only to find that Ophelia has died which only makes him angrier. He then is eventually challenged to a duel by Polonius's son who has come for revenge, and who together with Claudius conspire to poison Laertes sword and a cup from hamlet to drink from, but instead Gertrude drinks from it and dies. In the end, Hamlet is poisoned but also poisons Laertes, who tells him about the poison cup and sword. And in the passage: “HAMLET: Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother.” (V.ii.320) we learn than Hamlet successfully kills Claudius before dying, by stabbing him and forcing him to drink down the poison cup. In satan’s case, he and the other fallen angels discover Paradise, and Satan became furiously jealous when he sees eve and Adam in the garden. Driven by jealousy and revenge for being cast out of heaven, Satan enters the garden of Eden and takes the form of a snake. As seen in this passage: “So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat: Earth felt the wound, and

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