Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, (as translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald), is replete with dramatic devices - one of which is known as Sophoclean Irony. Sophoclean Irony can be divided into two terms: unconscious and conscious irony. Unconscious irony occurs when a character speaks what he believes is the truth, but the audience (fore-armed with knowledge of the truth) knows that it is not. Conscious irony is evident when a character knows the truth but is reluctant to reveal it: thus, he speaks cryptic lines deliberately intended to be ironic. Both types of irony will be examined in this paper and passages from the text will be cited in support of this thesis.
At the moment of his birth, Oedipus received a reading from the Delphic Oracle which stated that the baby was destined to grow up to murder his father and marry his mother. Shocked, his parents (King Laios and Queen Locaste of Thebes) try to circumvent Hera's curse by turning the infant over to a loyal servant (The Theban Shepherd) to take to the top Mt. Cithaeron to be killed. After nailing his ankles together and leaving him to die of the elements, the old shepherd relents and hands the child over to a traveling shepherd from Corinth to take back to the childless King and Queen to raise as their own son. For the next twenty years, Laios and Locaste rule in Thebes believing their son to be dead. Unfortunately, Hera sends a drought associated with a sphinx to bedevil Thebes.
A desperate Laios travels back to the Delphic Oracle for a reading.Meanwhile, back in Corinth, Oedipus grows to manhood believing Polybos and Merope (the King and Queen of Corinth) are his real parents. Soon, he too learns of his horrible fate and seeking to avoid it, he flees hi supposed homeland. As fate would have it, along the road, Oedipus meets Laios and kills him in a fit of rage. Thus, he has unwittingly fulfilled the first half of the prophecy. Traveling on to Thebes, Oedipus saves the city from the drought by solving the riddle of the sphinx.
Declared the new King, he marries the widowed Queen (Locaste) - his mother. Thus, he has unknowingly fulfilled the second half of the prophecy. For the next two decades, Oedipus rules successfully in Thebes until Hera sends a second drought to plague the city.
In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is told that he will marry his mother and murder his father. He is told by the Delphic oracle this information but he wants to change his fate so he banishes himself from what he believes is place of birth. As he is wondering, he stumbles across a caravan. After some arguing, due to his hubris, he kills all the men in the caravan. One of the men in the caravan turned out to be his father, King Laios. Oedipus at the time did not know this. He then entered the city of Thebes and broke the plague of the sphinx by solving its riddle. Because of this he was awarded the recently widowed Queen Iocaste, who is actually his mother. He married Iocaste and had children with her.
Harriet Tubman was one of the most famous conductors who shepherded escaping slaves to safety through a series of safe houses along routes to the North. She was born into slavery and raised under harsh conditions yet she managed to free herself from it and returned to her birthplace, Maryland to rescue not only other members of her family, but also conducted approximately 300 persons to freedom in the North. Tubman participated in the anti-slavery resistance after meeting William Still, the Philadelphia Stationmaster on the Underground Railroad and understanding the workings of UGRR. One of the attributes that lead her to being a conductor is that she believed very firmly in god and she seeks to help others to escape from slavery too hence
When he does visit the prophet, Tiresias, he learned that he adopted. It comes out that Oedipus was the unknown man who killed Laius from the revelation that the old king was killed at the same crossroads Oedipus remembers from his fight. In addition, it is revealed that Oedipus was the child Jocas...
She was one that fought hard. She was a mighty unbelievable warrior. Some of Harriet Tubman’s greatest achievements was being a caregiver for the poor, a scout/spy, and taking part in the Underground Railroad. Tubman indeed had many undertaking accomplishments, but her greatest achievement was being a nurse for the wounded in the civil war.
...ark. It is her life that should be remembered, the women that had the courage to escape from a life she did not want and the selflessness to return to bequeath the same gift on others that were not as fortunate as her. Tubman knew that although she could achieve freedom in a legal sense, she herself would not feel free unless she had someone to share it with. After escaping from the South, Tubman stated "I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to freedom.... I was a stranger in a strange land." Many slaves had the courage to journey north on the Underground Railroad, however, few slaves had the courage to free themselves, and then plummet themselves back into danger. It is not the action of freeing slaves that Harriet Tubman should be remember for, but rather her fighting spirit and unwillingness to give up until she felt that what was wrong was set right.
A historic phenomenon known as the Underground Railroad left an immense impact on the history of slaves and abolitionists. A notorious woman by the name of Harriet Tubman had a paramount role in this audacious and venturesome event. She was even nicknamed Moses from the Bible! Multitudinous slaves had followed Harriet, trusting her as their leader to guide them through the routes of the Underground Railroad; therefore, it is suitable and appropriate to say Harriet Tubman was an extraordinary heroine. Her fervid and passionate determination made her capable of traveling to the Underground Railroad. Using that driven motivation, she assisted countless slaves to their freedom.
Continuing on his way, Oedipus found Thebes plagued by the Sphinx, who put a riddle to all passersby and destroyed those who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself. In reward, he received the throne of Thebes and the hand of the widowed queen, his mother, Jocasta. They had four children: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene. Later, when the truth became known, Jocasta committed suicide, and Oedipus, after blinding himself, went into exile, leaving his brother-in-law Creon as regent. The central theme in this work is that one cannot control his/her fate, whether the intentions are good or bad. Oedipus, the main character in this play is motivated to find the truth, and his intentions are good. The motivation is always followed by the intentions, just as the truth is followed by goodness. There are three critical parts to Oedipus's motivation. There is the prophecy, the realization, and the revelation. They will be discussed consecutively.
Oedipus Rex is a Greek play written by Sophocles. The play is set in Thebes; Thebes is infected with a plague that is killing its crops and unborn children. This plague is caused by the prophecy. The prophecy states that Oedipus would kill his father and wed his mother. Laius threw out Oedipus when he was a baby to avoid this fate, but he failed because Oedipus was not killed. Oedipus was raised as a prince in Corinth. One day he was told the prophecy and feared that he would kill his father Polybus. While running away from Corinth to escape the prophecy, Oedipus killed Laius. When Oedipus arrived in Thebes, he freed the people from the sphinx. He was named king and married Jocasta. Towards the end of the play, Oedipus finds out that he had fulfilled the prophecy and is exiled from Thebes.
Oedipus’ personality clearly reflects pride and determination throughout the play. When Oedipus heard the oracles’ prediction that he was to kill his father and marry his mother, he was determined to prevent the prophecy. Therefore he left his homeland of Corinth never to return. Then when he solved the Sphinx’s riddle, Oedipus’ pride rose to a new level. He was praised by the people of Thebes, resulting in his marriage to Jocasta, Queen of Thebes. Oedipus also shows his determination when in search of Laius’ murderer. He stated that he would avenge the King’s death as if Laius were his own father. He cursed the murderer, announcing “May he drag out an evil death-in-life in misery.” These characteristics of pride and determination, which Oedipus emanates throughout the play, may appear to be positive attributes to one’s personality. However, Oedipus’ actions, based on these characteristics, are what led him to his eventual downfall and suffrage.
Kind Oedipus started life with a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. In an attempt to avoid this fate, his parents, Laius and Jocasta, sent him into the mountains to die. However, a shepherd saved Oedipus. This shepherd gave Oedipus to Polybus and Merope. When Oedipus learned of his prophecy, he fled his home, thinking these people were his real parents. On his flight, he met Laius. He ended up killing Laius. He continued on, answered a riddle of the evil Sphinx, and ended up king of Thebes. With this kingdom, Oedipus married Jocasta. He had lived out the prophecy without even knowing he had. Thebes fell onto bad times, and a prophet put the blame on a polluter of the lands. Oedipus called on Teiresias, and Teiresias informed him that the polluter was the King. As Oedipus searched further and further, he discovered that he was the polluter and that the prophecy had come true. When Oedipus finally discovered the truth, he was so distressed that he ran pins into his eyes, blinding himself. He had been blinded to the truth for so long.
As the play progresses, Oedipus begins to slowly piece together the details of his birth rite. He informs Jocasta of his past and relays that he was once a prince in his hometown of Corinth. The king and queen of Corinth and Oedipus’ adoptive parents are Polybus and Merope. Oedipus tells how he heard of this adoption from the town drunk and curiously went to an oracle to confirm this. Yet, the oracle informs him other things. The prophecy is revealed to Oedipus and he tells that in an attempt to prevent this from happening he, “fled an exile. As I journeyed on I found myself upon the same spot, where you say, the king perished.” This quote originates from a part of the play that gives sufficient detail about this king’s life before Thebes.
To destroy Oedipus, the gods granted the power of prophecy to oracles that delivered these prophecies to Laius and Jocasta. As a result, they kill their child to get rid of him and his terrible prophecies. Unfortunately, these prophecies came true because Oedipus didn’t know his real parents. If he had known his real parents, he wouldn’t have killed his father and married his mother.
Oedipus discovers that the child of king Laius, and queen Jocasta was sent away to die as a child. As he seeks for the reason for this child being sent away he stumbles upon the fact that the child was prophesized to kill his father and he would lay with his mother. From this he became suspicious that the child may be him. He realized that while he had been considered a hero at the same time he had been doing what the oracle told him he would do.
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.