Oedipus the Tyrant

Oedipus the Tyrant

To understand much of this play, one must understand that he is simply a folktale

continued through Homers Odyssey, where Oedipus is told his dreadful prophecy that he

will marry his mother and slay his father. Even the name Oedipus is a brilliantly put

together pun by Sophocles, which Oida means "to know" and plays a big part in his play.

When he first arrives to Thebes there is a dreadful sphinx attacking the city, Sophocles

wrote, and anyone who approached would be asked a riddle and if they answered

correctly the sphinx would leave. The riddle was "What goes on four legs in the morning,

two at noon, and three at evening?". Oedipus with his knowledge and his natural ability so

solve problems, answered "Man", which was right and therefore got the throne to

Thebes.(1365) Of course, Oedipus's knowing and solving every mystery he came across

would play a huge roll in this play, and there are several reasons why.

In the passage in lines 280 to about 315 is a perfect example of Oedipus's

ignorance and being detached from the world around him. In this passage Oedipus is a

making a speech to the people of Thebes, begging them to join him on his quest to find the

murderer of the previous king, Laius. Oedipus then goes on to put a curse on everyone

involved in the killing, wishing that his life be dragged out in agony and pain. The weirdest

and probably the most ignorant thing about his curse is that he goes on to curse himself as

well, just incase this man is one among his own, that lives in his city still and could possibly be in the audience. He is hoping by letting it be known that they are going to start

searching for the killer and might scare him out into the open, or that anyone is holding

back any information about the murderer would come forth and save himself from any

misfortunes.

The most severe case of dramatic irony in this passage seems to be the cursing of

the murderer. Of course he later finds out that he is indeed the killer, and the curse

becomes completely true while he wanders around blind and with completely agony about

what he has done. Again Oedipus's natural ability to solve mysteries comes out in this

passage, questioning the people of Thebes why they did not search for the murderer when

they learned that king has been killed. Oedipus also blindly says, and I quote:

"I hold the throne that he held then, possess his bed, why our seed might be the

same, children born from the same mother, might have created blood-bonds

between us if his hope of offspring hadn't met disaster- but fate swept in and cut

him short. So I will fight for him as if here my father, stop at nothing, search the

world." (Sophocles 295-302)

This short snippet of his speech brings out many things into the spotlight, mainly and most

importantly how he says that he will fight for him like his own father, and would stop at

nothing. Ironically of course he wouldn't have to search far at all and he turns out to

actually be fighting for his own father, instead of only acting like it.

This passage blatantly shows off one of the most important themes of the entire

play,