Dramatic Irony In Oedipus The King By Sophocles

Dramatic irony is a commonly used literary device where the audience understands something that some of the characters may be oblivious to. Among the many playwrights who have employed dramatic irony in their plays, Sophocles is highly popularized for his use of it in his tragedy Oedipus the King. When using this literary device, Sophocles does so to highlight Oedipus’ tragic flaw of ignorance. Throughout the entire play, Oedipus is trying to figure out mysteries such as who his real parents are and who killed Laius. The audience, due to the dramatic irony, knew that in continuing his searches, Oedipus would lead to his own downfall. Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony in his drama not only effects how the audience reacts to his tragedy, but

If focusing on the play’s plot, much of the dramatic irony is based on lacking and searching for knowledge. This constant hunt for the truth, which only the audience knows and understands, causes the creation of mass disorder in Thebes. Not only are people already dying from the plague, but now they have this hunt for Laius’ killer. Fights and tension-filled discussions are occurring between all different characters from Oedipus to Tiresias to Creon, and chaos is continuing to spread in order to uncover the truth. Dramatic irony affects the audience by filling them with anticipation. They know the background knowledge of the play and are just waiting to see when Oedipus’ downfall will occur as each event happens. Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony also helped to portray a central theme that no single human can contain all of life’s knowledge without dealing with major chaos and consequences. If Oedipus stopped trying to learn everything about himself and the people of Thebes, he would not have had such a tragic ending to his life. Most of the things that the audience knows, Oedipus would have been better off without knowing. Since he digs deep to uncover every truth, he has to deal with the fact that he killed his father and married his mother. Jocasta kills herself upon hearing the news and Oedipus claws his eyes out, blinding himself. If he had just minded his business and went on with his life without needing to know every fact of it, it would have been much better than how it turned out to be. Dramatic irony plays a major role in driving the plot of Oedipus the King, conveying its theme, and leading to the tragic downfall of Oedipus