Sophocles' Oedipus and Shakespeare's Hamlet have much in common. Both plays deal with corruption in the state, incest, and the psychological torments of the two men--Oedipus and Hamlet--who must set things right. By pursuing the corruption that threatens the destruction of each of their states so relentlessly, both Oedipus and Hamlet are destroyed. And they both undergo the psychological tortures of the damned as they fulfill their destinies on the road to the truth. Neither Oedipus nor Hamlet can escape the fate that the gods have decreed for them. It is their destiny to cleanse the state at the expense of their own existence.
Before his birth, Oedipus is fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Knowing this destiny, his parents intend
to have Oedipus killed but a shepherd saves him and he goes to
live with adopted parents. Upon reaching manhood, Oedipus is
told of his destiny and in order to escape the hideous fate,
he leaves only to confront his destiny even as he tries to escape it. He kills his real father while traveling and upon reaching Thebes solves the riddle of the sphinx and in gratitude the people arrange the marriage between Oedipus and Jocasta, his mother.
As the play begins, Oedipus is told of the corruption within Thebes, the presence of which is punishing the people with death and pestilence. The message from the oracle is clear. The
pollution in Thebes must be driven out. Creon tells Oedipus the message of the oracle. "We must banish a man, or have him put to death / To atone for the blood he shed, for it is blood / That has brought this tempest down upon the city."
In his determination to save the city and confident of his ability to do so, Oedipus calls for Tiresias, the blind soothsayer who knows "all things in heaven and earth" (p. 324). But Oedipus cannot believe the truth when it is revealed. Tiresias says: "Then listen to my comand! Obey the edict / That you yourself proclaime...