How Does Homer Use Dramatic Irony In The Odyssey

‘Cyclops you ask my noble name, and I will tell it; but do you give the stranger’s gift, just as you promised. My name is Noman. Noman I am called by mother, father, and by all my comrades’” (86). Odysseus tells Polyphemus his name is Noman to ruse him. Odysseus soon gets Polyphemus drunk. Odysseus takes the staff and blinds Polyphemus. Polyphemus removes the boulder and asks for help from the other Cyclops. “Then in his turn from out the cave big Polyphemus answered: ‘Friends Noman is murdering me by craft. Force there is none.’

Elizabeth Minchin’s “The Expression of Sarcasm in the ‘Odyssey’”, published in 2010, analyzes Homer’s usage of sarcasm in the “Odyssey” and explains its significance. Minchin’s critical analysis peaked my interest specifically because it studies not only the expression, but the reception of sarcasm as seen in the “Odyssey”.

Irony, a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. Throughout Night there is use of situational and verbal irony. This use of irony keeps the reader interested. The use of irony causes the reader to know things that the characters often are not aware of.

Each of the suitors attempts to accomplish this feat, but none of the suitors could even string the bow, much less shoot it. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, sees that they cannot achieve it, and he asks to be allowed to attempt the test as well. The suitors disagree, but Telemakhos allows it. Now that Odysseus has a bow, he is able to kill the suitors much more easily. This hints to the fact that Penelope may have had a slight suspicion that the beggar was really Odysseus. She would have known that no one but Odysseus himself would know how to string the bow, and only one man, Philoktetes, is capable of shooting better than Odysseus.

He asks Odysseus what his name is, and Odysseus replies, “My name is Nobody: mother,father and friends, everyone calls me Nobody”(book 9, line 274-275) (also another smart act). When he falls into sleep, Odysseus takes a wooden spear, heats it in the fire, and stabs it into Polyphemus’ eye. Polyphemus screams out in pain and his fellow Cyclopes come for help, but Polyphemus say’s “No One is hurting me!” so the other Cyclopes’ ignore Polyphemus and

Contrast to the modern American view of evil, Odysseus' blinding of Polyphemus is not an evil act, but rather one that is praised for its cleverness.  Odysseus' "nobody" trick has proved to save his life.  Although his goal was to survive, Odysseus abandoned his morals of honesty to accomplish the feat.  By identifying himself as "nobody", he fooled Polyphemus, but he also hid his true identity, which is lying and deceiving.  He actually degraded his manhood by disguising himself mentally.  Ironically, Odysseus escapes not as a manly warrior, but rather as a sheep.  After leaving the cave, he wants to redeem himself and his manhood.  Revealing his name to Polyphemus almost cost the crew members their lives, but the fame that Odysseus would obtain from tricking Polyphemus will be everlasting and was worthwhile to him.  Showing a lack of good judgement, Odysseus again reveals his position in the water, but luckily, they do escape

Without doubt, Edgar Allan Poe’s story is one of the author’s masterpiece. The story is an exhibit of artistic genius with various literary features well incorporated. Among them, irony, defined as, “A figure of speech which is a contradiction or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs”, is the most evident. Allan Poe demonstrates the use of various types of irony throughout the play, which he uses to pass the intended message to the audience.

When Odysseus becomes trapped in the Cyclops, Polyphemus’s, cave, he realizes that now is the time to use his strategy rather than strength. It all starts with his ‘libations’ to the Cyclops. Odysseus consistently gives Polyphemus wine “to top off the banquet of human flesh [he has] bolted down!” which is the crew members that Cyclops has eaten ( 9. 222). The most crucial part of Odysseus’s plan is when he tells Polyphemus his name is “Nobody- so my mother and father call me” (9. 223). This particular name that he tells Cyclops helps him escape the other cyclops on the island. Once they stab Polyphemus’s eye with a burning hot stick, the other cyclops wake up to ask him if anyone else is in there with him. Polyphemus, thinking that Odysseus’s name is actually ‘Nobody’, tells them that ‘Nobody’ is in there with him, While escaping death from the cyclops, Odysseus also blinds the cyclops, and saves the rest of his crew. Odysseus chose to use his strategy in place of trying to use his strength which would not have helped him escape. In this situation, strength is no use, seeing as the cyclops is ten times as strong as him.

-Dramatic Irony is when the words and actions of the characters in a work of literature are known to the audience or reader, but they are not known to certain characters in the story. The reader or audience has a greater knowledge of many of the characters themselves.

Odysseus’s most known trait of an epic hero is his intelligence. He is always thinking and he is usually one step ahead of everyone else. He was also the one to come up with the idea of the wooden horse to finally end the Trojan war. On his long journey home, he encountered some obstacles that could not be overcome with just fighting and strength, like Polyphemus the cyclops. When Odysseus and his crew came upon Polyphemus’ island they helped themselves to his sheep, they then established a plan to blind the cyclops by stabbing him in the eye. Odysseus called himself Noman so that Polyphemus wouldn’t know his real name and tell his brothers who hurt him (Homer 104-108). But Odysseus didn’t show his intelligence for long. When him and his men got away from the cyclops and were on their ship, Odysseus yelled, “I say, Cyclops! if ever anyone asks you who put our your

Odysseus is disguised as an old man and must prove that he can win back his wife, Penelope. The task is to be able to pull back the bow of Odysseus. All of the other suitors have failed. It is now Odysseus' turn. No one believes he can do it because he is old. He has tricked all of them into believing he is old and not up to the task. Odysseus has all knowledge of how this bow works. He is not old, but fiercely intelligent and physically strong as well. “But the man skilled in all ways of contending, satisfied by the great bow's look and heft, like a musician, like a harper, when with a quiet hand upon his instrument he draws between his thumb and forefinger a sweet new string upon a peg: so effortlessly Odysseus in one motion strung the bow.” (page 953)An epic simile shows how Odysseus was not just a normal person, but that he was gifted with other skills to get the job done. He knew exactly what he was doing, he had the knowledge of the bow because it was his and he was the only one able to pull the bow back, therefore claiming his wife. He will soon reap the rewards he so dreamed of for all those years gone from his wife. Now his task would be to convince Penelope that it was truly Odysseus himself.

He pulls back the bow and aims, he shoots and with a thud and the first suitor was dead. Now it was time for the rest, so Odysseus began to fire and fight along with Telemachus till every suitor was no more. Why did Odysseus kill all the suitors, that's a good question also a good reason to read the Odyssey.     Odysseus finally returns home after a 20-year journey, only to see suitors who are trying to take his wife by doing a task and giving gifts. One big and final task Penelope gives the suitors is to try and pull back Odysseus bow and shoot an arrow through 15 axes.

My name is Nohbdy'"("The Cyclops" lines 312-315). Odysseus' astuteness is apparent in this situation because he refused to reveal his identity to Polyphemus while he was vulnerable. His decision prevented the other Cyclops from coming to aid of Polyphemus. By precluding this beforehand, he demonstrated his heroic quality of wiliness. The ingenuity established by these actions personifies Odysseus as a hero.

Chapter 21- Penelope gets Odysseus’s bow, to check if any suitor was capable of stringing it and shooting it through the line of 12 axes. Meanwhile, Odysseus reveals his identity to Eumaeus and Philoetius. No one can string or shoot Odysseus’s bow so Odysseus, still disguised, shoots the bow effortlessly and flawlessly.

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