The Device of Irony in Sophocles Play - Essay Example

?The Device of Irony in Sophocles’ Play Oedipus, the King Introduction: “Oedipus the King,” a ic play written by Sophocles around 420 AD, is onef the greatest examples of effective deployment of dramatic irony. In this play, the author uses the library device of tragic irony to present the plight of Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who, despite being enlightened, falls an unwitting victim to his doom. On the other hand, the oracle, despite lacking the faulty of vision, is capable of understanding the reality and forsee Oedipus’ destiny. Sophocles, while on one hand projects Oedipus as an intelligent man, with all the faculties to make him an enlightened individual, relies on his protagonist’s ignorance about the murder of his father and his own complicity in it, on the other hand, to move forth with the narration of the saga of this king. Because of this technique, as Francis P Donnelly righty puts it, the play contains more elements of tragic irony than any other dramatic aspects due to the complexity of Oedipus’ character. Body Passage-I: Oedipus is an honest person, driven by his will power and with a good sense of what is just. However, this does not elevate him any higher from the status of an ordinary man. These virtues are considered necessary for every human being. Oedipus, being a king, is expected to show the virtues and values of a higher order. His nobility and royal bloodline, on the other hand, does distinguish him. But, despite these traits, he becomes unable to escape his destiny, and falls prey to the fate that is predetermined. Oedipus remains one among everymen because he, like others, is often wise, but sometimes foolish. He relies on his observation skills like any ordinary man does. He too has experienced things, which an ordinary man confronts in his life. Oedipus, again, is a victim of limited self-knowledge just like any other person. Therefore, he assumes his own identity and takes decisions based on those assumptions. In the end he gives up by blinding himself, surrendering to his own incapability to have realized the truth, his real identity and his real parents. He understands that there are certain things that are beyond the comprehension of humans. The “everyman” also is the same and comes across the truth of limited self-knowledge one day or the other. Thus, his royal bloodline and nobility only make him different from the others in physical aspects or in the mater of status. But emotionally and psychologically he is an ordinary man as he has no superhuman powers and faces problems and difficulties just like any other human being. He has to make sacrifices and even admit defeat in the end, which makes him all the more ordinary than he actually is. The pride he derives from solving various mysteries like the riddle of the Sphinx forces him to believe that if he puts his mind to it, he can find out the reason for the sufferings of his subjects. Pride is a common feeling in everyman and as this feeling has blinded Oedipus, to the fact that his knowledge is limited, it points to the obvious fact that he is one of them. But in the end, it can be seen that Oedipus holds the highest rank among everyman as he has done something which most humans will not even think of doing. He dares to leave behind all the luxuries and materialistic elements as well as the power which is his, by his own free will. Destiny cannot and never will be changed depending on the social status or any such factors a person acquires along the path of his or her life. Whether it is a king or a poor soul, both have their own destiny written down and it is impossible to escape that destiny, which is in store for them with mere rank and position in the society. The irony here is that one becomes compelled to embrace his destiny, right through the exercise of one’s free will, as has happened in the case of Oedipus. This is exactly why the theory that the strongest element in the story is tragic irony stands sustained. Body Passage-II: The exercise of his free will, due to which he seeks to find out the details of his father’s murder, and not merely his destiny, plays the crucial part in deciding the fate of Oedipus. He thinks he knows everything that is to be known about himself and the people concerned with him, just from the facts that are laid in front of him. He believes anything that he hears and sees. Therefore, he takes his own decisions regardless of what other people think or might tell him. He leaves his parents whom he takes to be his birth parents in the hopes of changing his destiny by going away on “perpetual exile to avoid the very crimes which he commits” (Donnelly 1948, p. 228). Every person has his own free will and acts according to that. Being a king, it provides a bigger scope for Oedipus to exercise his free will. Thus, he resolves to find out what the true reason behind the plague was and why the gods decided to let Thebes suffer. He also strives hard to find out who murdered King Laius. Oedipus undertakes these investigations to satiate the call of his free will. No one forces or coerces him to embark on a mission like this. Though destiny is already decided for a person, he or she makes choices. However, the tragic irony as revealed through the plight of Oedipus is that the quirk of fate will force humans to choose by their freewill, what is already destined. Even if he or she thinks of changing the destiny, it is impossible as the person only follows what is decided by fate. Thus, the feeling that they get something because they are making some changes, is also already destined by fate. This is exactly what happened with Oedipus. Though he tries to fight the forces of destiny, he ends up doing things, which led him to it, thus proving that no one can change their destiny even if they have the free will to make their choices. Body Passage-III: The destiny of Oedipus has been decided even when he is a child, as in the case of other humans. However, the final doom that befell on him is not merely due to his destiny but greatly because of his actions that followed due his exercise of free will. Many people do not believe in prophesies and this holds true in the case of Oedipus, although later on he suspects it to becoming true. Oedipus hears a prophecy about him that he would kill his father and marry is mother. Though he does believe it fully, not wanting to take any chances he leaves Corinth at once, thinking that the couple who raised him there were his biological mother and biological father. He decides to leave Corinth all by himself and does not want to stay there any longer. This is the first course of action that draws him close to his inevitable destiny. As he moves away from Corinth, he meets Lauis on the way, unaware that he is his own father, the fight they wee engaged in turns into a murder when Oedipus kills Lauis. The first part of the prophecy is thus fulfilled. He then marries his birth mother, Jocasta, the prophecy is made completely a reality. Jocasta learns about the real identity of Oedipus and asks him to not go further with his search for truth. But, again due to his free will, he does not pay heed to her and he continues until he finds out the truth himself. He realizes that he himself is the person whom he had been searching for so long, whom he had cursed and wished so badly for his exile. All of this starts with a quite ironic thing that is “Oedipus pities others more than himself” (Best Answers This Week: Oedipus n.d., p. 1) and this is what leads him on the quest for acknowledging the truth. He is unaware of the pitiful situation and truth that he is yet to experience and unravel. Body Passage-IV: When Oedipus is driven out of Corinth, it sort of appears that this attempt is futile in reversing his fate. However, more importantly, this needs to be perceived as being an event that leads to his fulfilling the prophecy. Upon learning the dreadful prophecy that was nearing to come into existence, Oedipus leaves Corinth. The readers immediately understand that this attempt undertaken by Oedipus to escape his horibble fate is in vain. They can then easily imagine all that is going to happen in the near future that awaits Oedipus. Though in the from the point of view of Oedipus, this attempt is futile, in the point of view of fate or destiny this is the most important step. Everything happens for a reason and his reason to leave Corinth was in the perspective to keep his father and mother safe. But destiny had other plans for him and it was winning, with him on the path of fulfilling the long told prophecy. Body Passage-V: Acquiring foreknowledge of one’s fate is significant in controlling the life of that person as he will be led every moment by the driving force that this awareness creates in the back of his mind. The many encounters that Oedipus has in his life and his reaction to each of the situation underline this fact. Acquiring foreknowledge of one’s fate is significant in controlling the life of that person as he will be led every moment by the driving force that this awareness creates in the back of his mind. The many encounters that Oedipus has in his life and his reaction to each of the situation underline this fact. He comes to know of his fate through the oracle and although he discounts it initially, it may be lingering in his subconscious mind. This further becomes the leading force that guides his actions. Oedipus, in several contexts, can be perceived as an embodiment of a “combination of historical boundlessness and prideful human rationality that describes the tyrant” (Rocco 1997, p. 40-41). This explains, to a great extent, his stubbornness and why he does not listen to the reasoning by others. His adamant behaviour may also have stemmed from his fierce yearning to defy his destiny by choosing his free will rather than relying on the advice from others. But the enlightened Oedipus fails to understand that “no matter how much we believe ourselves to be, forces beyond our power circumscribe our lives and direct our destinies, even as we desperately, sometimes madly attempt to shape the forces that shape us” (Rocco 1997, p.41). Again, here the tragic irony is played out in the context that the very destiny that Oedipus determines to avert makes him exercise his free will, which ultimately leads him to that very destiny, and “dooms himself to eternal blindness, unworthy even to look at father and mother” (Donnelly 1948, p.228). This utter tragedy, which occurs due to the exercise of free will, is the crux of the play, which makes it a work abundant in tragic irony. Body Passage-VI: Like all other Greek heroes, Oedipus also has a hamarita, a tragic flaw, of pride. The honorable King of Thebes, who happens to be “a father and brother, son and husband and savior and murderer,” takes it upon himself that he be punished for the wrong he has done, the fratricide and incest of which he is guilty. In other words, a king chooses to exercise his free will to punish himself. The play of irony here can be seen on several layers. It is his flaw, his pride that initially breeds in him the desire to track down his father’s murderer, which ultimately proves to be the key to his undoing. Again, after he becomes aware of his sin, he could have remained quiet but his sense of pride prevents him from doing so. Being the king, no one would have questioned him but his pride forces him to bring upon him his doom. Here, again, the play’s tragic irony becomes accentuated as the exercise of his free will causes the ultimate fall of Oedipus, which is to be his destiny. Reference List Best Answers This Week: Oedipus n.d. Available at [Accessed 17 April 2012] Donnelly, FP 1948. The Protagonist in “Oedipus Rex”. The Classical Weekly. Vol. 41. Available at [Accessed 17 April 2012] Rocco, C 1997. Tragedy and Enlightenment: Athenian Political Thought and the Dilemmas of Modernity. University of California Press. Available at [Accessed 17 April 2012] Read More