Comparison of Oedipus Rex and King LearOedipus Rex and King Lear both speak, as their titles indicate, of kings. These two plays are similar in theme and in the questions they pose to the audience. The kings of each piece both fall from the pinnacle of power to become the most hated class in society; Oedipus discovers that he is a murderer and an incestist, and Lear becomes a mad beggar. Errors of judgment occur in both plays, and the same questions about gods, fate, and free will are asked. Despite these similarities, however, the final effects of these two pieces differ greatly. For me, rereading Oedipus the King this fall, I experienced a sensation close to agony. Because I had already known the myth and read the play, I was in the Greek's position of prescience. This made me feel acutely the irony of Oedipus's confident declarations that Laius' murderer should be "cast out of every house, / being, as he is, corruption itself to us", and again on the next page, As for the criminal, I pray to God - whether it be a hidden thief or one of many - I pray that this man's life may be consumed by the evil and misery. And as for me, this curse applies no less if it turns out that the culprit is my guest here, I share my home. (13-14) Oedipus has absolutely no idea that the murderer he so vehemently denounces is in fact himself. The fact that the reader knows this, even though he does not, becomes more and more painful, especially in the line where Oedipus says: "And as for me, this curse applies no less..." Oedipus only means that he will not protect the culprit, even under the constraints of hospitality; he has absolutely no... middle of paper ......n that has already happened, he focuses entirely on them. King Lear achieves a much more acceptable resolution. At the end of Oedipus Rex, I felt nothing but relief that the worst was finally over. King Lear also made me sigh deeply 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 problems, Shakespeare, without resolving them, makes them less cumbersome. In this way, King Lear, although no less tragic than Oedipus Rex, seems less heavy and less sad. Works Cited: Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Russell Fraser. Ed. recently revised. New York: Penguin Group, 1998. Sophocles. “Oedipus the King.” Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. The Oedipus cycle. New York: Harcourt Brace and company, 1939.