Hamlet and King Henry IV pt 1

Though I wrote about it for my paper I still feel compelled to blog about it. I was not able to ignore the vast similarities between these two plays. Both Hamlet and Henry are faced with the same "birth role" issue of not knowing of they are living up to what they are supposed to be or what the were destined to be from birth. They both have father issues and are struggling with protecting their kingdoms from military attacks. Similarities even go as far as the most famous line from Hamlet "To be or not to be," when Henry says "To be or not to be king". The reason why I mention this is because it confuses me why someone with the amount of intellect that Shakespeare has, why would he feel the need to make two plays of such similarity. Was it an intentional method that William was using to test his reader?