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Dramatic Irony In Oedipus The King

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Greek tragedies are known for their fateful plots and calamitous endings. Sophocles delivers such a dramatic play with his tragedy Oedipus Rex. Oedipus is a tragic hero with unusual origins. His actual origins are unknown to him at first, but when all is revealed, his tale ends in an inevitably tragic resolution. A prophecy that cannot be ignored or altered, no matter how much Oedipus tries, tells a twisted tale of Oedipus’ actions, and its fulfillment reveals Oedipus’ crooked relations with his mother and father. The dramatic irony in the play reveals how Oedipus’ unusual origins cause his ignorance and lead to the events that cause the destruction of his family. For much of his life, Oedipus’ true origins are not known to him. The beginning of the play reveals Oedipus to be the “powerful king of …show more content…

/ It is a deathly thing, beyond cure; / We must not let it feed upon us longer.” - Oedipus hastily that the defilement, which is revealed to be the murderer of the former leader of Thebes Laios, must be removed. Little does he know, he is the the murderer that killed Laios and married his wife, and his murder “brought the plague-wind on the city,” a fact that is known to the audience but lost on Oedipus. An oracle revealed to him long ago when he went searching for the truth about his parents: “I went to the shrine at Delphi… The god dismissed my question without reply; / He spoke of other things. Some were clear, / Full of wretchedness, dreadful, unbearable: / As, that I should lie with my own

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