Oedipus Rex

Irony is an element of literature very well known in Greek epics. In Oedipus the King irony is well demonstrated in a series of events. Verbal, situational and dramatic irony are used in this play. The play itself is a classic dramatic irony at its finest and fullest, and inside it the different parts are full of irony, too. The play is about a prophecy in which Oedipus’ fate is to kill his father and marry his mother, his parents try to change this prophecy and so does he, but their acts to try to change the prophecy result in the prophecy becoming true.

The play starts when the old priest is praising the Gods for help and Oedipus, the king of Thebes, comes in and the priest reminds Oedipus of how he once saved the city, and asked him to do it again. Oedipus to maintain his reputation as the savior of Thebes is already working on it, for he had sent his brother in law to find out what was the cause of the plague. When he comes back he says that the killer of Laious needs to be found in order to stop the plague. Jocasta’s brother is suggests to Oedipus a blind prophet to help solve the problem. Teiresious, the blind poet, goes to Oedipus presence and tells him that it’d be better to let him know the answer to what he is asking for. He then tells him that he, Oedipus, will only see the truth when he is blind. Literally that sentence does not make sense at all, for you see with your eyes. However, that’s where irony comes in, what Sophocles is doing is he is using another meaning for the word “see.” In this case of verbal irony, the word “see” means to understand.

Oedipus however, does not believe anything that Teiresious told him. Instead he thinks it is a plot by his brother-in-law and the prophet to take him out of power. Oedipus gets mad at Jocasta’s brother and wanted to kill him, but the chorus convinces him not to. Then Jocasta tells him that he probably wasn’t the one who killed Laious, for Laious was killed by robbers; however Jocasta also tells him that he was killed at the crossroads and Oedipus remembers he killed someone there; still Jocasta assures him that it wasn’t him. Oedipus is a little confused but convinced he is not the cause of the plague, the story then heats up when the first messenger from comes. The messenger was also the one that got the baby and gave it to the King of Corinth, when Laious tried to kill Oedipus so that the prophecy didn’t become true. He tells them that the king of Corinth had died, and the Corinth city-state wanted Oedipus to be the next king, Oedipus is pleased he died by natural causes. However, the messenger also tells of how he wasn’t the biological son of the King, but he was given to him by someone else.

Oedipus is confused as to who he is and after some investigation Oedipus goes to the only survivor of the robbery in which Laious was killed. The survivor