Comparison between Hamlet and Oblomov

Scientific Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Literature - Comparative Literature, , language: English, abstract: The aim of this research paper is to explore, by comparing and contrasting them, the two literary characters Hamlet and Oblomov and how they are exploited by William Shakespeare and Ivan Goncharov in different historical ages to project different visions of the human situation. Every author is influenced by his age to certain degrees and if the art of characterisation of William Shakespeare is set against that of Ivan Goncharov, it is because of the difference in ideological perspectives. William Shakespeare's character Hamlet comes from Renaissance England and Ivan Goncharov's character Oblomov comes from nineteenth century Russia. The former is in certain ways different from the latter despite the fact that some traits of both characters are the same, such as indecision and procrastination. The comparison and contrast will be highlighted in this paper in terms of Marxist hermeneutics, which is a scientific theory and method of analysing the social and literary types in the context of class milieu. Applying Marxist literary hermeneutics to the art of characterisation of both the authors, the present study tries to introduce new portrait and reevaluation of the personages of the two literary types in an innovative perspective.

Javed Akhtar was born in Quetta in 15th January, 1977. He did his Masters in English Literature from Punjab University Lahore. He is serving as an Assistant in Department of English Literature; Science College Quetta He is visiting Professor of Background to English Literature at University of Balochistan Quetta. His M.Phil. is in progress research. He focuses on the intersection of Marxist hermeneutics, Deconstructive criticism and Marxist Feminism. He has a background in Literary and linguistic studies, literary theory, Marxist literary criticism and Deconstruction and active in the fields of Marxist literary criticism, Deconstructive criticism, Comparative literature and socio-linguistics. Email: sangatjavedakhtar@gmail.com