How Does Sophocles Use Irony In Oedipus Rex

Homer’s Odyssey is an epic poem that, despite its length, keeps the readers or listeners engaged and interested until the end. One way this bard keeps his audience absorbed in his tale is by the use of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a literary technique by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions, that are clear to the audience or reader, is unknown to the characters. Another concept of irony is the state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. Homer uses both types of irony in The Odyssey to enhance his story and amuse his audience.

Authors use many literary devices in order to heighten and enhance their works. Dramatic irony, expressions to complementary attitudes understood by the audience but not the characters, can make the emotions stronger in literature. Homer is one of many authors who used this technique well. In The Odyssey, Homer uses dramatic irony in order to enhance the emotional effect of crucial moments in the storyline, especially during the journey of Telemachus, the initial return of Odysseus, and the restoration of Odysseus to his rightful place in the kingdom.

In the play Othello, Shakespeare uses many literary devices to help the reader understand the theme of the story. One of those many literary devices used in the play, is the wide range of irony. Throughout the pages of the book the reader will see the use of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony. Shakespeare does not use irony in an understated way, it is very direct, and can be found on almost every page of the book. The use of irony creates suspense, and adds interest as to what will happen.

The tragic play Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, demonstrated the portrayal of irony through characters’ lacking knowledge. Oedipus solves a riddle forma sphinx; leading to the throne of Thebes, and a plague following it. Oedipus later finds out that his life is a world with misleading stories, misery, and a life of despair. Sophocles uses irony effectively, but especially when Jocasta tries to comfort Oedipus. She tries to convince Oedipus that the oracles and prophets are not always right.

Dramatic irony in Oedipus the King is evident throughout, which is similar to the latter play, but in a different form. In here, the irony is evident. Oedipus the King revolves around characters' attempts to change their destiny (which fails) - Jocasta and Laius's killing of Oedipus and Oedipus's flight from Corinth. Each time somebody tries to avert the future, the audience knows

Oedipus thinks that the only way he could even be the least bit related to King Laius is because of his children, and because they were born of the woman that the king was once married to. Oedipus knows that the king wasn’t supposed to have children, because of the king's own fate. His fate that his son would kill him and take his wife. But the king, as we know, was much to stubborn to listen to his own fate, and instead decided to pass his fate off to his offspring, but with a little bit of a twist. But Oedipus doesn’t know about this, he’s only aware of the fact that the king had a curse of his own, not that they did indeed have a child, and that he is the child that wasn’t supposed to happen.

The most obvious use of dramatic irony is in the prologue. The chorus summarizes the entire play in a fourteen line

Oedipus had no fault in believing that Laius was not his

Dramatic irony depends on the audience’s knowing something that the character does not, and in this play the audience knows Oedipus faith before he knows it himself. In this play there are several parts where Sophocles conveys his plot through dramatic irony. Dramatic irony underlines how partial human perceptive can be even when it is most reasonable and how agonizing it can be to be the costs of the misinterpretation, in some sense foreseeable. Dramatic irony is also use by Sophocles to make the audience feel their taken part of the play knowing the fate of the main character, making the audience wait in suspense wanting to know how Oedipus would react to his fate. The other use of the dramatic irony was to foreshadow which is a key

The entire play comes to a tragic end. And with dramatic irony is clearly seen in the entire play. Oedipus killed his father and murdered his mother, but Oedipus and Jocasta did not find out until the end, Tieresias ' warnings and prophecy clearly portray the use of irony. Rhetorical questions are seen questioning himself or fate. What, born as mine were born?”

A well-written tragedy is filled with irony. Oedipus The King is a great representation of a dramatic irony play. When reading the play the audience is very much aware of the outcome of the hero’s action far before the hero

Often the past will present answers to questions about the future as well as questions of the now, and in Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’ past plays an integral role in his pursuit of righting the wrongs that are affecting him in the present. In the play, Oedipus must identify who has killed Laius in order to exile them to solve the qualms of his people, and in a dialogue with Jocasta, who happens to be his wife as well as his mother, she reveals to him details of the death of Laius that seem far too familiar for his comfort (Sophocles 27). This revelation of information acts as a catalyst that forces Oedipus to make the connection between his past and what Jocasta is telling him. This realization that he may have been responsible for Laius’ death exposes him to the weight of the pursuit of justice sometimes hold for humans. Through this dialogue, Oedipus comes to fear that he is the culprit of the scandal that is plaguing the situation, thus putting him in the position of a criminal who will face the due punishment for the crime. This internal conflict that Oedipus experiences creates and

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

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 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.