Examining the Tragic Protagonists of "Oedipus Rex" and "Hamlet"

Tragedy can be defined as the downfall of a protagonist through some fatal error or misjudgment, producing suffering and insight on the part of the main character and arousing pity and fear on the part of the audience. Of all the characteristics of tragedy, one is most important: the tragic hero must be essentially admirable and good. In both the common tragedies, “Oedipus Rex” and “Hamlet”, both main characters are generally good. In either play, both Hamlet and Oedipus make a flaw that will cost them an extreme suffering, and in “Hamlet”, that concludes in many deaths.

A tragic protagonist is usually one of noble authority, who upholds a position high in society. In a tragedy, the protagonist falls from high to low, through the suffering they endure. During his fall from high to low, the protagonist is unable to escape his fate, though he may try so hard to break it. In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Hamlet holds the position of prince of Denmark, a job of high authority, though by the visitation of the ghost of his father, the former King, fate enacts a twisted and nasty downfall upon h...