A Deep Dive into Irony, Fate, and Tragedy in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, focusing on the pervasive dramatic irony and the inescapable nature of fate. It delves into the prophecy surrounding Oedipus, his unwitting fulfillment of it through patricide and incest, and the tragic consequences that follow. The essay highlights key ironies, such as Oedipus's quest to find Laius's killer while unknowingly being the culprit himself, and his self-inflicted punishment upon discovering the truth. The analysis also touches on the characters of Tiresias and Jocasta, and their roles in revealing the horrifying reality. Ultimately, the essay underscores how Oedipus Rex serves as a powerful exploration of human fallibility, the limitations of free will, and the crushing weight of destiny. Find more essays and study resources on Desklib.

Running head: HUMANITIES - OEDIPUS REX
HUMANITIES - OEDIPUS REX
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Author Note

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Summary
The Oracle of Delphi had prophesized that Laius, the king of Thebes would be the father
of a male child. The Oracle has also prophesized on the fact that the child of King Laius and his
wife Queen Jocasta would be the reason of the death of the king. The prophesy further stated that
the child would also be involved in a sexual relationship with the Queen. The King had thus left
his own son to die at the mountains after he was born in order to avoid the horrendous future.
However, the child was saved by a shepherd who had handed the baby over to the royal family
of Corinth who had brought the baby up as their own. The baby grows up and visits the Oracle to
gather information about his own birth which he is unable to recover. The Oracle just reveals to
him the same fact that she had revealed to his father, King Laius. Oedipus tries to flee his fate
but however ends up delving right into his fate. Oedipus engages in a scuffle with King Laius at
the crossroads and ends up killing the King without the slightest knowledge that he had killed his
own father as prophesized by the Oracle. Oedipus wins the throne of Thebes by solving the
riddles that were formulated by the Sphinx and thereafter marries his own mother Jocasta
without knowing the truth. King Oedipus was thereafter involved in sexual relations with his
Jocasta and had fathered a number of children as well. Tiresias, after a long duration of several
years reveals the truth to Oedipus. Tiresias was a seer who had known of the several crimes that
were undertaken by Oedipus in the process of ascension to the throne of country (Yeats, Clark,
and Clark). The seer had access to the knowledge of the fact that Oedipus had been responsible
for the death of his real father and had further been engaged in the immoral act of being sexually
involved with his own mother as well as fathered her children. On the revelation of this fact, the
present king of Thebes was observed to have been punishing himself by stabbing himself in the
eyes. This rendered him blind and thereafter he condemned himself to exile. The queen, on the

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other hand, had hung herself to death on gaining knowledge of the fact that she had been
involved in sexual relationships with her own son. The news of the killer of King Laius had been
revealed to the people of the country which in turn resulted in the revolts and eventually led up to
the exile of the old king Oedipus. The king had thereafter moved out from the country with his
daughter Antigone who had taken up the responsibility to guide the king during his blindness and
accompany him in his daily activities (Walsh 368). The old king Oedipus is observed to have
been spending his last years in the state of exile in the peaceful groves that were dedicated to the
Erinyes, wherein he was prophesized to die.
Irony in Oedipus Rex
The dramatic irony refers to the situation within the play that discusses the conditions
wherein the concerned character is unaware of the reality which is conveyed to the audience of
the play through the various devices like the chorus, monologues, asides and other such devices
(Stravinsky). The character is observed to have been acting towards the doom or his worse fate
in an unknowing manner and thereby helps in the development of the sympathy on the part of the
audience of the play. The play Oedipus Rex is known to have been demonstrating a huge irony in
the fact that the murderer whom the king had been seeking out had been himself (Waggoner 86).
The king has been observed to have run into the same fate that he had been running away from
all his life. The major irony that has been discussed within the play refers to the fact that the king
had unknowingly committed the acts of murdering his own father and maintaining the sexual
relationships with his own mother. The irony further extends to discuss the ways in which the
brave king had dedicated all his life to the avoidance of his fate but had through his actions run
right in to the conditions which led up to the death of his own father at his own hands (Steiner

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438). He had also committed the heinous crime of marrying his own mother and thereafter
maintaining the sexual relationships with her as well as father her children.
The irony of fate was revealed to him in the later years of his life when he had already
committed the heinous crimes that he had tried to avoid. The realization of the irony had
perplexed the King to such an extent that he had blinded himself with the use of his own dagger
(Armstrong 77). The central irony of the play had led to the development of the other ironical
situations within the play as well. The major example of the dramatic irony within the play is
revealed when the king had been asking the country men to reveal and hand over the killer of the
old king Laius. The present King, Oedipus had till then been unaware of the fact that the
murderer whom he had been seeking to award exile and restore peace in the kingdom was none
other than Oedipus himself (Glassberg 205). This was finally revealed through the much
reluctant help from the seer Tiresias. The seer is observed to be telling the king that he might not
be blind physically but is unable to see the truth with his eyes present. The seer further says that
Oedipus would be able to understand the situation without his eyesight and thereafter realize the
truth. The self-confidence that is demonstrated by Oedipus in the first half of the play is equally
ironic (Fear). The arrogance of the king is lost with the revelation of the truth which h also
bestows upon his own head the innumerable number of curses that he had been dedicating to the
murderer of King Laius.

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References and Bibliography
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Hamlet." Codex: Revista de Estudos Clássicos 6.2 (2018): 71-81.
Fear, Rhona M. The Oedipus Complex: Solutions Or Resolutions?. Routledge, 2018.
Glassberg, Roy. "Uses of Hamartia, Flaw, and Irony in Oedipus Tyrannus and King
Lear." Philosophy and Literature41.1 (2017): 201-206.
Steiner, John. "Illusion, disillusion, and irony in psychoanalysis." The Psychoanalytic
Quarterly 85.2 (2016): 427-447.
Stravinsky, Igor. Oedipus Rex/The Rake's Progress. Alma Books, 2018.
Waggoner, Joshua. "One Voice Too Many: Echoes of Irony and Trauma in Oedipus the
King." Humanities 6.4 (2017): 86.
Walsh, Joseph M. "The Genesis of WB Yeats’s King Oedipus, 1904–1912: Irish Nationalism,
British Censorship and the Race to Stage the Oedipus Rex." International Journal of the
Classical Tradition 25.4 (2018): 362-383.
Yeats, William Butler, David R. Clark, and Rosalind E. Clark. "The Collected Works of WB
Yeats, Volume II: The Plays." Ed. David R. Clark and Rosalind E. Clark. New York:
Scribner(2001).