Ans:
“King Oedipus” is a masterpiece of Greek dramatist Sophocles, one of the three great tragedians of ancient Greece. In the play, Sophocles very skillfully used dramatic irony to add a new grandeur in the play. The very play is replete with dramatic irony from beginning to end.
In literature, dramatic irony is a literary device that reveals the contrast between what the audience knows and what the character thinks he knows.
The very beginning of the play marks Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony when Oedipus, king of Thebes, declares — “I, Oedipus /whose name is known afar.”
But the spectators know that he is the man who has done the most abominable crime of patricide and incest. Again Oedipus in reply to his people’s supplication promises that he will do whatever requires to remove their distress. He says —
“I will start afresh and bring everything into the light ….. Against me.”
But little he knows that he is the ‘unclean thing’ that is polluting the very soil of Thebes. Another brilliant example of dramatic irony is revealed through the following lines where he unconsciously cursed himself —
“No matter who he may be he is forbidden
Shelter or intercourse with any man
In all this country over which I rule.”
The encounter between Oedipus and Teiresias is replete with irony. The first irony is that Oedipus calls Teiresias to help him find out the murderer of Laius but he finds himself as the “cursed polluter”. In fury, he calls the blind prophet a “Shameless and brainless, sightless, senseless sot!”
This comment is totally ironic because it is Oedipus, not Teiresias who has eyes but cannot see his own damnation.
Sophocles also uses dramatic irony when Oedipus blindly accuses Creon of treachery. The irony lies in the fact that Oedipus who thinks he is right is proved wrong in the end. Again, it is Oedipus who has to seek forgiveness from Creon when he becomes the king of Thebes. Moreover, Jocasta also contributes to the dramatic irony of the play. When she hears the death of King Polybus whom Oedipus thinks is his real father and leaves to avoid the Oracle’s prediction of patricide and incest, she exclaims — “Where are you now, divine prognostications!”
The irony is that Oracle is right all time and the audiences know it.
The entire play is a striking example of irony. After all, throughout the play, Oedipus does not know of the fate that awaits him. But the viewers who have the foreknowledge about the myth are intensely conscious that “ Oedipus the king of Thebes will become Oedipus the Beggar.”
In conclusion, we can say that in “Oedipus Rex” Sophocles used dramatic irony profusely almost in every dialogue, situation, and character of the play. Indeed, dramatic irony plays a pivotal role to intensify the tragic doom of Oedipus.
