Sophocles 'Irony In Oedipus The King'

In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, an honourable and admirable Greek king named Oedipus rules the town of Thebes. He is left in mental turmoil and decay as his unknown, corrupt and immoral past is slowly revealed during his quest to find the culprit who murdered King Laius. The newly exposed past suddenly transforms his glory and respect into shame and humiliation. After he learns about his wicked past he stabs his eyes, which lead to his blindness. During the course of the play, references to blindness and vision constantly recur, giving the reader an enhanced and more insightful look into the themes of the play. Some themes that are expressed through these references include truth and knowledge, guilt, and freewill versus

Oedipus has sight but lacks the ability to fully comprehend situations in multiple scenes. He is unable to interpret many clues given to him along the way, ultimately leading to his wife’s (and mother’s) death along with his own downfall as well. Oedipus requested Tiresias to help him stop the plague by figuring out who killed Laius, the past king of Thebes. When Tiresias was hesitant to tell Oedipus that he was the true murderer, he recanted all the praise he gave the prophet and said, “You will not explain / what you understand, but rather intend / to betray us and destroy the city. / … You worst of wicked men!” (Sophocles 348-350, 353). With this, the wise Tiresias said, “You have found fault with my anger, but your own, / living within you, you did not see, but blamed me” (Sophocles 356-357). His anger for not receiving what he asked of Tiresias was blinding, even though in the end it brings his Fate to the

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,

The murderer of the late King Laius is in Thebes and the curse will not be lifted until the killer is brought to justice. The problem is that no one knows who killed Laius so Oedipus goes to the prophet Tiresias to ask if Tiresias’s ability has revealed to him the identity of the killer. Tiresias knows that Oedipus himself is the killer and not wanting to cause Oedipus any pain Tiresias will not answer Oedipus.

In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus remains blind throughout the play, both figuratively and literally. The play is about a man named Oedipus whose fate is to kill his father and marry his mother. His biological parents, knowing about the Oedipus’ prophecy, abandons him, and continue with their lives. However, Oedipus is saved, but spends his life running away from his adoptive parents (who he believed to be his biological parents), afraid that the prophecy may come true. As the audience knows, the prophecy has been fulfilled, however, Oedipus is oblivious to the truth. He often chooses to ignore the truth and remain figuratively blind to what everyone is trying to prove to him. He accuses Tiresias, the blind prophet, of being a liar, continuing to then unreasonably project his anger towards Creon . Once he finally opens his eyes to the truth, he decides to gouge out his eyes, becoming literally blind.

The famed Greek tragedy assumes much of its appeal from Sophocles's use of dramatic, cosmic, and situational irony. In a prelude to the play, the audience is assumed aware of Oedipus’ fate. Before the play even begins, common spectators enter with the common knowledge that Oedipus killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. The aire of dramatic irony meets its peak when Oedipus desperately tries to find Laius’ murderer while the audience is aware that

You can’t hurt me or anyone else who sees the light-you can never touch me.” (10) Here Oedipus is suggesting that Teiresias is inferior to anyone who can see, including himself, and is not a threat to them. Oedipus is wrong because the fact that Oedipus has the advantage of sight over Teiresias is not comparable to the knowledge that Teiresias has. This is yet another example of dramatic irony. It may seem that Oedipus has the advantage over Teiresias because Teiresias is blind, but the knowledge of who Oedipus really is is far more important. A lot of the irony of Oedipus’ blindness also occurs at the end of the play, when Oedipus makes himself physically blind. “…, he digs them down the sockets of his eyes, crying, 'You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!'" (46) At this point, Oedipus is confirming a line said early by Teiresius that “to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!” (6). Oedipus is now in exactly the same position that Teiresius was when he mocked him, physically blind but seeing the truth.

The Blind Man Who could See Oedipus the king of Thebes is blinded from his true self by his own hubris. Not only does his pride blind him, but his metaphorical blindness eventually leads to his physical blindness as well. Oedipus starts of the play as the mighty king, who can do no wrong, accusing others of murder and treachery because he is paranoid that his fellow political figures are out for his crown. Sadly but inevitably we watch Oedipus metaphorically dig his own grave thinking it is for another man. Early on in the play Oedipus summons the seer Tiresias for guidance in healing his plagued land.

Oedipus rex is an exquisite play that features a tragic hero, Oedipus, WHo is cursed to do horrible deeds. Oedipus is completely unaware of how wrong he is about his entire life and how he lived thinking he’s innocent to all of his sinful deeds he does not recall which are killing his father, Laius, and mating with his mother, Jocosta.. Although the is wealthy and lives a seemingly good life as the king of thebes, he’s said by Tiresias as having the worst life of them all, which is living a life of lies. Tiresias’ then talks of how “blind” Oedipus is to the truth though he has his vision while Tiresias’ is physically blind but can see the truth clearly. Oedipus’s stubbornness kicks in and he refuses to believe these “conspiracies.”

Tiresias, a blind prophet, talks to Oedipus about his ignorance saying, “You with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life, to the house you live in, those you live with….” (Lines 470-472). Tiresias knows that Oedipus unknowingly carries out the prophecy foretold by the gods to his parents, King Laius and Jocasta, by killing his father and marrying his mother. In the play, Oedipus describes how he ignorantly kills a man at a crossroads because the man hits Oedipus, and being angered, Oedipus then reacts emotionally instead of with logical thinking. Oedipus tells Jocasta, “A man, just as you’ve described him, coming face-to-face, and one in the lead and the old man himself were about to thrust me off the road…. I strike him in

At the beginning of the play, Oedipus uses verbal violence to threaten Tiresias. A plague has struck the city of Thebes, and Oedipus learns from Kreon that the plague will only end when the murderer of Laius has been caught. When Oedipus asks Tiresias for help, Tiresias initially refuses to share what he knowns and instead comments about Oedipus’ inability to see the truth. However, Oedipus becomes infuriated and insults the blind prophet. “Now I see it all. You helped hatch the plot…with your own hands…Old man. You’ve lost your power, stone-blind, stone-deaf- senses, eyes blind as stone” (103-104). The quote is an example of verbal violence because Oedipus curses and insults Tiresias, accusing the prophet of conspiring against him with the help of Kreon. Tiresias then introduces another riddle, telling Oedipus that the murderer of Laius is both the father and sibling to his incestuous children, and also the son of his beloved wife. When Oedipus mocks Tiresias for answering only in riddles, Tiresias responds with, “Ah, but aren’t you the best man alive at solving riddles?” (105). As described here, Oedipus presents himself as extremely confident in his ability to untangle puzzles, but this ultimately leads to his own downfall. Given these examples, it is evident that Oedipus’ use of verbal violence against Kreon and Tiresias accurately illustrates his

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.

At the beginning of the play Oedipus is shown to be ignorant when he tells his “children” that, “My poor children, what you desire is known to me and not unknown, for I see well that everyone is sick” (4). This motif exemplifies ignorance because the fact that Oedipus is able to see his people's suffering is ironic when he is incapable to see that his own transgressions are actually the cause of their suffering. Ironically, when Oedipus killed Laius, unaware that he was his real father, he fulfilled the prophecy, proving that Oedipus is blind to his actions leading him to his fate. Like the first quote, when Oedipus calls Tiresias to him in order to find out who murdered Laius, he demonstrates ignorance by his statement, “Blind as you are in eyes, and ears, and mind”(14). In this motif Oedipus implies that he knows the truth and Tiresias does not due to

As king of Thebes, Oedipus is a very short-tempered leader who thinks, and sometimes even rules, by the seat of his pants. When Oedipus learns of the plague over Thebes, he chooses to root out the source and eliminate the scourge over his city. This is all well and good until Oedipus starts hearing things he does not like. When Creon sends for the blind prophet Tiresias, the same prophet who told Laius and

The fact that he didn’t even care that it was himself and still took his eyes out shows us that he has an extremely high sense of justice. This is significant to the play because it portrays the character of Oedipus as someone that is good and something that he didn’t deserve happened to him. That gives the play a sense of tragedy so it is very important. This breaks the readers hearts and even more when Oedipus's justice was taken upon himself. He is a man that thinks that justice is the most important thing and that no one should be above it, not even the