Detective Work in Famous Literature

The detective work of both Hamlet and Oedipus is marked by their delays in pursuing either the truth, the killer, or justice. Hamlet knows almost immediately the killer of his father, and his delaying the inevitable begins at that point. The bulk of the delay in Oedipus' detective work is due to the simple fact that years pass between the time of the murder and the declaration from "the God" that the city is under a curse because of the murder of Laius. Creon reports that the God calls for vengeance to lift the curse from the city: "The God commanded clearly: let some one/ punish with force this dead man's murderers" (Sophocles 15). Immediately, Oedipus uses a

. . .
ess-with-a-method way of speaking to Claudius and others) to try to make Claudius expose himself. Some critics argue that Hamlet truly suspected that the ghost may have been deceiving him, but the melancholic Hamlet merely uses that excuse as another reason to delay the inevitable act of revenge. Hamlet's doubt comes long after his first quick acceptance of the ghost's declaration of Claudius' guilt. Hamlet at that point exclaims, "O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!" (Shakespeare 742). His reliance on indirect methods of detective work have less to do with his doubt about Claudius than his desire to draw out Claudius and to make his own vengeful pleasure last as long as he can. Were he to directly confront Claudius with the charge, not only would the play be over, but Hamlet's life and/or Claudius' life would also be over, for an act of vengeance at that point could not be delayed and no further indirect methods of detection could be employed. In addition, as Humphreys notes, the indirect method of Hamlet allows him to take detours into his broader detective work into the meaning of human existence itself, "Seeking to know whether man, the paragon of animals, is more than the quintessence of dust and, if he is, what are
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hamlet Oedipus, Laius Sophocles, Laius Hamlet, Claudius Oedipus', Unlike Hamlet, Immediately Oedipus, Oedipus Rex, Laius Creon, Shakespeare Oedipus, Chelsea House, oedipus' detective, indirect methods, oedipus rex, sophocles' oedipus, hamlet oedipus, beginning play, sophocles' oedipus rex, detective protagonists, hamlet hand, rex ed harold, killer laius, house 1988, ed harold bloom, oedipus rex ed, detective hamlet oedipus,
Approximate Word count = 1498
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Detective Work in Famous Literature