Oedipus The King Irony

Neil Gaiman once said, “There’s none so blind as those who will not listen.” This quote relates to the theme of sight and blindness in “The Tragedy of Oedipus Rex”. King Oedipus was a man who would not accept the truth about himself. Physically he was not blind but in truth he was. There are three examples of Oedipus’s metaphysical condition of blindness which will be listed as follows. First his denial of being the source of the plague. Second, his egotistical abilities that will form his plot to change his fate. And lastly, the consequences of his denial that will lead him to his physical and emotional destruction. It would seem that in this case, Oedipus’s fate is his own enemy.

In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles showed his feelings of irreverence towards the Gods. He was living in a time when people were starting to turn away from the gods, and this play shows his feeling’s of agreement. Oedipus Rex also demonstrates his feelings of how the gods thoughts can change on whim, destroying the lives of nobles and those around them. This is demonstrated by his showing of how the gods being spontaneous and non caring, in how the cure of oedipus’ family traveled down many generations before finally being fulfilled by oedipus.

It is often said that pride comes before a down fall, but pride must first trip over the truth The downfall of Oedipus is due to flaws in his character. Throughout the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, Oedipus’s character has led him to make judgements that were not in his best interest. These flaws are pride, leading to overconfidence and having poor judgement. Oedipus character also show determination which throughout the play also became a flaw as well. The character of Oedipus is ruled by fate. The tragic hero is unable to escape his fate that was spoken over his life to happen. Even though Oedipus has chosen his own actions, the consequences he is sure to face have become undeniable and cannot be changed. Due to the flaws in his character, the king will fall from the good graces of those who once believed in him.

Throughout both plays, dramatic irony is used to portray the protagonists as tragic heroes and deliver their meanings as a whole. The heroes are not necasarilly aware of these events of dramatic irony, but they are apparent to the audience. One example is when Oedipus refused to believe Teiresias the blind prophet about the truth of his actions and the prophecy. Oedipus called him a “… sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man,” when ironically Oedipus , “with both [his] eyes”, was the one blind to the prophecy and the severity of his actions (Act1. ll 154, 196) . Afterwards when Oedipus’ parenthood was questioned, he had not yet realised or accepted his biological parents as Iocastê and King Laïus, and the truth of his actions towards them. The audience had inferred the truth long before Oedipus, thus giving them a sense of suspense, waiting for the truth to be revealed. This conveys

Irony can be many different things and situational irony stood out when Jack sets the fire to roust Ralph from the forest. This is a violent seen, Ralph and jack go at it, they were always in competition with each other. Not knowing that this was the scene that was going to get them rescued, it turned the book around. "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away." pg. 82 Nothing is the same now that they have witnessed all these things from the island, they’re scared and never going to be the

For example Oedipus says, “ For whoever he was who killed that man would as soon kill me with that same violent hand.” although he is the killer. Another example of irony is when Oedipus declares no one is allowed to speak to the person responsible for the curse of thebes, he says “ I decree no one shall receive him or speak to him nor make him partner in prayers to the gods or sacrifices.” although he is the one who brought the curse upon them.

The play displays Oedipus two encounters of blindness. The blindness of having the eyesight but cannot see and the blindness of poking his eyes so as not to see again the social evils that he had done (Calame, 1996). His metaphorical blindness came out of pride, ignorance and as a result of the people who knows the truth and hide it from him. The second bit of his blindness comes out of shame that makes him want to avoid seeing the cause of his actions.

Our pride often hinders us from taking other’s opinion into account despite good or bad. Nevertheless, sometimes it is better to listen to others for own well being. Oedipus, the protagonist, takes pride in his wisdom due to his belief of escaping fate, and solving a riddle to become a king. As a result,he embarks upon a dark journey by willing to unmask the culprit behind King Laois’ murderer to free his people from the plague. However, during the process, the Prophet alerts him to not investigate further and reminds him of his awful prophecy, where he kills his own father. Because of his wisdom Oedipus wants to escape his fate; he neglects the Prophet’s words and pursues further to approach a shepherd, who alike the Prophet has an unpreferable

Henry Rollins once stated, “Weakness is what brings ignorance, cruelty, and pride, all these things that will keep a society chained to the ground, one foot nailed to the floor.” In Sophocles play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, weakness is his fate. Throughout the play, Oedipus is trying to outrun his fate because he feels the gods are subordinate to his powerful figure. Oedipus is seen as a god throughout Thebes because he defeated the mighty Sphinx, who was once haunting over the city. After defeating the Sphinx, Oedipus took over as king by killing his father and coupling his mother as his hubris blinded him from reality. Sophocles uses dramatic irony to show the ignorance of Oedipus Rex as he cannot see the truth. Oedipus cannot see the truth because his hubris is encouraged by the people and himself. Oedipus’ ignorance is also clearly displayed after an effort to save his city. Although Oedipus is a fictional character created thousands of years ago, his actions can easily connect to many people in today 's society. The theme conveyed in Sophocles play Oedipus Rex is hubris often results in one 's ignorance.

The ignorance of political leaders and people in general is an astonishing large problem just as it has been in the past. This problem is clearly reflected in literature, and nowhere is this problem more evident than in Sophocles’ Greek drama Oedipus. The ignorance of one often has an effect on many and it's last for generations. Ignorance is a lethal condition in one form of another, it harms many, and it seems to be genetic; all of these aspects apply to the stories of Oedipus.

Blindness is also a motif recited numerously during the story, from times before the story right down to the end, reflecting the wise and ignorance in the characters of Oedipus Rex. Sophocles, interestingly, seems to have grouped the characters of the play into two distinctive groups, the ones who can “see” and the ones who can’t “see”. This contrast of seeing and not seeing is becomes overt when the prophet Tiresias enters the stage. Tiresias is literally blind, but he can see clearly of not only Oedipus ' past, present, but also the horror in his future. Oedipus ' eyes works fine, but he 's completely blind of the ugly fate that gods have placed upon him. This blindness towards doom is made even more ironic by the fact that he was made king by his knowledge and insight. Oedipus was known as the person who solved the famous riddle of the Sphinx, a monster which terrorized the citizens. As the play proceed, we can see how much of a contrast between the two groups of character there is, even the messengers knows stuff that the king doesn’t. Sentences like “My son, it is clear that you don’t know what you are doing” (Sophocles 55) salutes to the ignorance of the supposedly “wise” king. Using words like “son”, Sophocles gives an sign that even the messenger It illustrates the flaws that exist in Oedipus, amplifies it by comparing him to other who are supposedly

Brilliantly conceived and written, Oedipus Rex is a drama of self-discovery. Achieved by amazing compression and force by limiting the dramatic action to the day on which Oedipus learns the truth of his birth and his destiny is quite the thriller. The fact that the audience knows the dark secret that Oedipus unwittingly slew his true father and married his mother does nothing to destroy the suspense. Oedipus’s search for the truth has all the tautness of a detective tale, and yet because audiences already know the truth they are aware of all the ironies in which Oedipus is enmeshed. That knowledge enables them to fear the final revelation at the same time that they pity the man whose past is gradually and relentlessly uncovered to him.

The story of Oedipus the king is gloomy, yet captivating. Going from a child bond around the feet and abandon by the mountainside, to marrying his mother, his story is intriguing. In search of the truth about the prophecy and putting an end to a plague Oedipus, search for king Laius’s killer, did somethings inadvertently, making him a tragic hero. His search for truth in the death of Laius the king, as well as his birth led to the ultimate destruction and downfall of his life.

Oedipus the King is one of the most ironic plays ever written. Sophocles, the author, is a famous philosopher of the ancient times The Play is about Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who kills his father and marries his mother. An oracle warned Laius, the king of Thebes prior to Oedipus, that his son would murder him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta, had a son, he exposed the baby by first pinning his ankles together. The infant, who was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife was then brought up as their very own. In the earlier years Oedipus visits Delphi and learns that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. He then planned to never return to Corinth.

Sophocles was a prolific writer and his long life enabled him to have a prodigious literary output. There is always a deep philosophic content at the back of Sophocles’ plays. Men suffer in the tragedies of Sophocles, characterisation always charged with emotion and poetry guesstimates the growth and development of his dramatic genius.