How Does Sophocles Use Dramatic Irony In Oedipus Rex

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

Oedipus implies that the blind prophet should have no discernment because he is physically blind, thus Oedipus remains obstinate in his close-minded outlook. Teiresias, can see the truth and Oedipus, ironically, is becoming a blind man. Oedipus wanted to get rid of Teiresias, “so long as you are here, you’ll be a stumbling block and a vexation” (494-495). Closing your eyes to the truth makes it a stumbling block. Oedipus does not have site required to see the truth, his lack of true sight consequently caused ensuing vexation. The irony is that he is making pronouncements to get rid of the stumbling block, not recognizing that he himself is the stumbling block because of his failure to see the truth. Dramatic irony is present when Oedipus pledges to punish and drive Laius’s murderer out of this land, ignorant of his own actions, resulting in eventual self-indictment (160-165). Foreshadowing is evident as he pronounces judgment on himself prophetically, through his pursuit to “drive out [the] pollution from [his] land” (109). Furthermore, Oedipus becomes annoyed at Teiresias’s because he is speaking in riddles (487). When Teiresias stated, “but it is in the riddle answering you are strongest” he is simply voicing the fact that Oedipus is unable to see the truth (488). When we choose to ignore or cover up the truth it becomes a riddle.

To the reader, it is revealed that what you physically se, may not be what you may see mentally. Irony is also shown in Oedipus Rex in relation to blindness. Teiresias’ is also the character who depicts irony throughout

When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.

The story of Oedipus is full of irony such as verbal, tragic, and situational irony. For example, verbal irony appears in Oedipus’ speeches. When Oedipus orders for the man who killed Laius to be punished, he is unaware that he is in fact the murder. Verbal irony appears again when Oedipus ridicules Teiresias for his blindness when Oedipus is also blind, witless and senseless to his own actions. An example of situational irony is: Oedipus is an adopted son; he hears the prophecy; he escapes the city to avoid fulfilling the prophecy only to escape to his real parents.

Oedipus intelligence could not see the truth, but the blind man, Teiresias, saw it plainly. Sophocles uses blindness as a theme in the play. Oedipus was uninformed and as a result blind to the truth about himself and his past. Yet, when Teiresias exposes the truth he is in denial. It is left to Oedipus to conquer his blindness, accept the truth, and realize fate. But instead Oedipus ridicules Terirsias blindness and accuses him of being on the side of Kreon and helping him become King. He accuses Teiresias for being paid to tell a fraudulent prophecy to him. Quickly Teiresias answers him back and tells him he is BLIND, and tells him about his past of who his actual mother and father was.

Tiresias, the blind prophet, develops irony with the motif of sight, which is prevalent in both the plots of Oedipus the King and Antigone. In Oedipus the King, Tiresias enters tremulously with the knowledge of Oedipus’ family lineage, actions, and fate, that Oedipus doesn’t possess. After insisting, Tiresias reveals that Oedipus is the cause of the plague in Thebes, which results in his denial, as he says Tiresias has “eyes blind as stones”(181). Ironically, Oedipus “with your [his] precious eyes,/... [is] blind to the corruption of your [his] life”(183). In Antigone, Tiresias enters with similar news, that it’s Creon’s “high resolve that sets this plague in Thebes.”(111) Despite the fact that Creon is not blind to this information anymore, he still does not heed Tiresias’ warning, as he is blinded by his determination to preserve his image and maintain his control. Tiresias, the blind prophet, comes to both Oedipus and Creon with the intent of warning them about their fate,

One of the many symbols Sophocles portrays throughout the play is sight and blindness. Sight represents how Oedipus had eyesight, but was still “blind” to the truth of himself throughout most of the play. He was both hesitant and unaware of the events that built up to

Another instance in the play where sight and blindness become an issue is when Oedipus sends to see the prophet Teiresias, second only to Apollo. Teiresias is physically blind and Oedipus holds this against Teiresias. He goes so far as to state, "Your ears are deaf, your eyes are blind, your mind—your mind is crippled!" (p.10). This nonetheless is quite ironic for Oedipus is mentally blind. He is unaware of who he is. Oedipus is the murderer of his father, husband and lover to his mother, and brother to his children. Teiresias responds to Oedipus’ accusation. "I tell you this, since you mock my blindness. You have eyes, Oedipus, and do not see your own destruction. You have eyes and do not see what lives with you… Then darkness will shroud those eyes that now can see the light," (p.11). Here Teiresias warns Oedipus of what his mental blindness has hidden from. He warns Oedipus of the doom and suffering in darkness that awaits him in the future. Finally, Teiresias ends the scene saying, "And if you find the words I speak are lies, then say that I am blind," (p.12). Teiresias knows that his prophet is infallible, and that Oedipus will soon realize who he is. Then, and only then, would Oedipus be aware of his mental blindness.

Irony is all around us, and it is what makes any form of literature interesting. Oedipus’s ignorance and blindness to his identity and the irony throughout the story emphasizes the twist that is his fate. The oracle told his parents, King Laius and Jocasta that he would kill his father and marry his mother. This leads them to the decision of leaving him on a hill to die, but a servant takes pity on the baby and gives him away. He then runs away from his family once he gets older to avoid his fate, which was once again, was told to him by the oracle.

Oedipus was arrogant enough to believe that he could see better than servants of the gods, but his sight was blind ignorance. In the end, Oedipus blinds himself, but he still tells his daughters that “I had neither sight nor knowledge then,” (Exodus. 253). Ultimately, Oedipus' fall from grace is an illustration of dramatic irony since Oedipus' heroics ruin his fate and he thus discovers that he was a truly a cursed villain rather than

What would you do if the same woman that gave you away is the same woman you end up marrying and have kids with? You would be disgusted with yourself because you did this. In Oedipus the King by Sophocles shows irony like the example given above throughout this play. In this play, is a perfect example that presents different types of irony. Irony is defined as, “a literary device that uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true.”

Sophocles uses irony in the play Oedipus the King to teach a lesson and to emphasize the truth. Irony is used throughout the story to show who Oedipus is versus who he thinks he is with double meaningful lines that give key information as to what will happen next to him. Sophocles demonstrates all three forms of irony in the play with Oedipus’ past, Oedipus’ future and the character Tiresias. The use of verbal, dramatic and situational irony contributes to the theme of truth versus falsehood because of what the audience knows compared to what the characters believes the truth is.

Sophocles was born a hundred years before Aristotle and perhaps was not aware that he wrote a near-perfect representation of the tragic form. Almost certainly, however, he was conscious of the dramatic irony he carefully intertwined throughout the plot. Dramatic irony was a tool for Sophocles to advance the notion of the tragic one step beyond the simple fate of the main character. Dramatic irony is a literary technique allowing the audience to know of the character's fate well before such fate occurs. The difference between the audience's knowledge of the tragic circumstances and that of the ignorant characters heightens the depth of the tragedy. The more significant the ultimate sacrifice which the innocent hero makes, the more powerful the message sent to those in

The play, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, bases its plot around dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a literary device in which the audience is aware of a series of events or characteristics that the characters themselves are not yet aware of. This device was used to shape the tone of the work and furthermore the reader’s reaction to it. In the play, dramatic irony is used to tell the story and affects the reader's perception of the protagonists. These characters especially include Oedipus and Queen Jocasta. The writer depends on dramatic irony to set up the tragedy.