In Sophocles' “Oedipus Rex”, the theme of irony plays an important part throughout the play. In the play, Oedipus Rex believes that if he leaves Corinth he will be able to avoid his fate. The oracle says the Oedipus will kill his father and bear children with his mother. Eventually, he unknowingly kills his father in a chance meeting and married his mother. Oedipus remains clueless that the oracle’s prediction has come to pass. The play is a tragedy, and Oedipus is a tragic hero because he has an act of injustice, because his downfall is the result of his own fault, because he gains and as well as loses.
In the first section, lines 1315-1339, we know that Oedipus’ downfall is the result of his own fault and his own edict. He blinds himself and faces to be expelled to his country because of murdering his father. “If I had eyes, I do not know how I could hear the sight” (1317-1318). The word “sight” means the ability to see, and here it implies having the courage to face his people and his family. “How could I look men frankly in the eyes?”(1332). It is a visual image means he feels shameful to face this world, and figurative language is also used in this section to refer to Oedipus’ sadness and compunction “A tight cell of misery, blank to light and sound:/ So I should have been safe in my dark mind / Beyond external evil” (1336-1338). He would rather stay along and become a blind man than expose to the public.
In the second section, lines 1340-1351, Oedipus states his committing and feels miserable about his birth. The word “cancerous” means malignant, and it implies his crime is serious and unforgivable. “For I am sick, / In my own being, sick in my origin” (1345-1346). It is a figurative language means Oedipus’s wretched fate is destined and nobody can help or stop it. “O three roads, dark ravine, woodland and way / Where three roads met: you, drinking my father’s blood,” (1347-1348). It states a quite clear visual image where Oedipus kills his father.
In the third section, lines 1352-1361, the play shows although Oedipus loses his throne, his eyes and his family, he knows who he is. “Al, the net / of incest, mingling fathers, brothers, sons, / With brides, wives, mothers: the last evil” (1354-1356).
The selfishness that Oedipus possesses causes him to have abundance of ignorance. This combination is what leads to his father’s death. After fleeing Corinth and his foster family, Oedipus gets into a skirmish with an older man. The reason for the fight was because, “The groom leading the horses forced me off the road at his lord’s command” (1336). Oedipus is filled with a rage after being insulted by the lord and feels the need to act. The two men fight, but Oedipus ends up being too much for the older man, and he kills him. What Oedipus is unaware of is that the man was actually his birth father and by killing him, Oedipus has started on the path of his own destruction. Not only does Oedipus kill his father, but also everyone else, “I killed them all” (1336). The other men had no part in the scuffle, but in his rage, he did not care who he was killing.
The first part of the passage shows how Oedipus, ashamed of his crime, is losing all his power, yet still clinging on to it. Perhaps more important, the passage prompts the readers to pity Oedipus. Oedipus started of by describing his “guilt” as “horrendous”.
Initially Oedipus appears blind to the knowledge of his heritage, but, by the end of the play he gains the horrifying knowledge of his true identity and the information he has indeed fulfilled the prophecy. Once Oedipus realizes that he has fulfilled the oracle, he panics and cries out, "LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT / never again flood these eyes with your white radiance, oh gods, my eyes. All, all / the oracles have proven true" (ll. 1492-1494). Oedipus finally comes out of figurative blindness and into the "light," or knowledge, that he has indeed killed his father and married his mother. He essentially curses he new-found wisdom and begs that "light never again" reach his eyes because of its horrifying consequences. In addition, Oedipus recognizes the fact that he "knew nothing until now, saw nothing until now, and became / the husband of the woman who gave him birth" (ll. 1926-1927). He admits that that until his conversation with shepherd he "knew nothing until now," as he believed that he would not complete the prophecy by fleeing to Corinth. Unfortunately, this new i...
The great Sophoclean play, Oedipus Rex is an amazing play, and one of the first of its time to accurately portray the common tragic hero. Written in the time of ancient Greece, Sophocles perfected the use of character flaws in Greek drama with Oedipus Rex. Using Oedipus as his tragic hero, Sophocles’ plays forced the audience to experience a catharsis of emotions. Sophocles showed the play-watchers Oedipus’s life in the beginning as a “privileged, exalted [person] who [earned his] high repute and status by…intelligence.” Then, the great playwright reached in and violently pulled out the audience’s most sorrowful emotions, pity and fear, in showing Oedipus’s “crushing fall” from greatness.
“…they will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me!” These are the words Oedipus shouted as he blinds himself upon learning the truth of his past. It is ironic how a person blessed with perfect physical vision could in reality be blind to to matters of life and conscience. During his prime as King of Thebes, Oedipus is renowned for his lucidity and his ability to rule with a clear concept of justice and equality. The people loved him for his skill and wit, as he saved Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx. As a result, Oedipus became overly confident, and refuses to see that he may be the cause of the malady that is plaguing his kingdom. Although physically Oedipus has full use of his eyes, Sophocles uses sight to demonstrate how Oedipus is blind to the truth about his past what it might me for both him and his kingdom. Upon learning the truth, Oedipus gouges out his eyes, so he won’t have to look upon his children, or the misfortune that is his life. Once physically unable to see, Oedipus has clear vision as to his fate, and what must be done for his kingdom and his family
In the previous paragraph, he is opening up of what the problem is and now he is going to continue telling his wife about the situation that shows that he has a tragic flaw. He says, “… I can hear him cry, “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see — you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!” (Page 1146, lines 868- 882). While going to Delphi, Oedipus has a run in with an oracle that planned his life out for him. At this point of the Oedipus is going to tell her how his father died. He continues by
This is the foundation for why Oedipus was blinded to his fate. Though Tiresias, the blind prophet, lacks the ability to see with his natural eyes, he possesses an insight into the lives of others. Oedipus believes his act of self-blinding was a justification and payment for his actions. It required a blind man to show Oedipus his own blind state of the tragic fate that was set before him. Oedipus believes his act of self-blinding was a payment for his actions he did according to his destiny. Now, he is no longer in a state to inflict plagues and heartbreak on those around him. Oedipus the king, now Oedipus the commoner, pays the ultimate price for the deeds he has done, permanent exile from those he loves and holds
This then strikes a nerve in Tiresias and results him to cry out, "have you eyes, / And do not see your own damnation? Eyes, / And cannot see what company you keep?" (line 437). This line standouts in the since that it mentions the words “eyes” twice. Meaning that although Oedipus has perfectly useful eyes, he cannot see past his own beliefs; since he’s like a “God”. This line then relates later to show what Tiresias knows that Oedipus will blind himself. A few lines down he says: "those now clear-seeing eyes / Shall then be darkened" (456). The two lines relate to one another because they show the irony of sight in two different
The imagery of sight versus blindness lead to his ultimate downfall. He is transparent to the lie he has created. Also the contempt and torture he has just brought upon this city. Like the prophecy says his wife will kill herself first, then later his life will all go downhill from there. Later prophecy actually comes true. First with his wife killing herself, then Oedipus realizes that he has done wrong. He was blind when Teiresias told him the first time. He then actually saw the irony in what he has done wrong. He later then actually makes himself blind and stabs out his eyes so he cannot see anymore. This causes his downfall and later his
Aristotle is the most influential philosopher in the history of Western thought. A Greek drama by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, was praised in the Poetics of Aristotle as the model for classical tragedy and is still considered a principal example of the genre. In this essay I will analyze Oedipus Rex using Aristotle's concepts praxis, poiesis, theoria.
From the very beginning, Oedipus was “blind”. Oedipus has perfect physical vision. However, he is blind and ignorant to the truth about himself and his past. He desperately seeks to know about the death of his father. At this point, it is obvious what Oedipus's action must be, to overcome the blindness. All of his actions thereafter are to that end.
Poor Oedipus discovers that he had killed his father and married his mother at the climax of the play when the Shepard is questioned. He states "I stand revealed at last - cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!"³ He then finds his mother after she has committed suicide and proceeds to gouge out his own eyes with her brooches.
Oedipus is the main character in the play Oedipus the King. Oedipus is thought of as a tragic figure because he was doomed from birth. Tiresias, an old blind prophet, told Oedipus' parents about Oedipus' fate. He told them that Oedipus would kill his father and sleep with his mother. So, his parents decided to have him killed, only it did not happen that way. He was passed off by two shepherds and finally to the King and Queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope to raise him as their own. Oedipus finds his way back to Thebes and on the way kills his father, but Oedipus did not know that one of the men he killed was his real father. This is the beginning of the prophecy coming true. In short Oedipus obtains the throne, Marries his mother and has kids with her. Oedipus' fate has come together without him even realizing what is going on. Eventually he is told what has happened and asks to be banished by his uncle/brother-in-law Creon. The tragedy in Oedipus' life began with his birth and the realization by his parents that his whole life was doomed.
When Oedipus inquires “who is this man whose fate the god pronounces?” (1740) after this inquiry almost every statement made by Oedipus becomes ironic because he is referring to himself though he is yet to find out. The audience is aware that the more he looks into the murder of the former king Laius the worse it is going to be for him. Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony keeps the audience one step ahead of the protagonist so they are able to see the errors made by Oedipus. Because the audience has had time to figure what the mistakes are, they are more emotionally invested in how Oedipus will react when he finally understands all the mistakes he has made through the play. As the play progresses the audiences attitude about Oedipus starts to slowly shift; the emotions start to become deeper and we start to see that though he is guilty of murder empathize with
Oedipus is self-confident, intelligent and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his demise. Sophocles makes liberal use of irony throughout “Oedipus the King”. He creates various situations in which dramatic and verbal irony play key roles in the downfall of Oedipus. Dramatic irony depends on the audience’s knowing something that the character does not and verbal irony is presented when there is a contradiction between what a character says and what they mean. Both of these elements are used effectively to develop the tale of Oedipus.