The Tragic Characters Of Ahab Vs. Hamlet

Ahab and Hamlet were both great men who became driven by revenge after tragic events occurred. They had the potential to rule and lead, in heroic ways, but let their sorrow and pain engulf their entire being till it became their one and only focus. Ahab and Hamlet are both powerful men who possess influence and great abilities with the potential to be great men, but they have tragic ends due to being driven by their quests for revenge and allowing their madness to consume them in order to fulfil their goals.

“...that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so infusing, made him mad.” (Moby Dick, 41.180) There comes a point where emotional and physical pain become tied to one another. Ahab lost his leg, but to him, it becomes more than that. He loses his ability to fulfill his potential. He loses the ability to do the …show more content…
“O, that this too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me the uses of this world!” (Hamlet, 1.2.133-138) In agony over the death of his father and the recent marriage of his mother to his uncle, the man who murdered his father, Hamlet wishes he could end all the pain, in death. Similarly, in Moby Dick, Ahab contemplates whether the pain and sorrow he feels is worth it, whether it would be better to end it all. Both men deliberate suicide as an option. Eventually, both men decide against direct suicide, but allowing the pain to drive them to madness leads to a form of suicide through self-destruction. They fuel all the pain and rage into one single course of action in their quests for revenge, in order to avenge the loss they feel deep in their