IRONY

The journal of Literature will always pay a golden tribute to Sophocles for his remarkable
dramatic genius and his contribution to the art of drama. Undoubtedly drama gets its
refined shape in the hand of the Greeks but Sophocles is the one to whom drama will
always indebted and thankful. Sophocles enrich the drama with his versatile genius and
lent it the granger as showpiece in form of Oedipus Rex with all its magnificent, which
forced the scholar like Aristotle to be an admirer of Sophocles

Sophocles is the greatest master of irony of all times. In his plays, irony has a great and
subtle role at all levels. In Oedipus Rex, the irony shown is much better than in the other
plays. Many of the lines spoken by Oedipus Rex, as well as, other characters are very
ironical. The passionate king struggles to discover the murderer of Laius, the previous
king, by a searching process that brings him nearer to the fact, unknown to him, that he
is the murderer of his own father and the husband of his own mother. The efforts of
Jocasta and the Messenger to console the king make him more miserable by making him
realize that the king and Queen of Corinth, whom he left to escape the crimes predicted
by the oracle, were in reality his foster-parents.

The story of Oedipus is full of irony. The comic theme is used in presenting a tragic story.
Oedipus Rex has irony at several levels, including irony in the inversion of the entire
action. In happy stories, the recognition of the foundling is an occasion of joy, but,
herews the discovery of identity is horrible and tragic. In the average story, some chance
adventure puts the foundling on the path of victory and prosperity. Here, also it does in
appearance, but in reality it makes him doomed.

Although the attempts to use “irony” as an all-purpose word must be discouraged, there
is scope for using the term in a legitimate manner in discussing Oedipus Rex. Perhaps
the most legitimate sense is that of a person managing to do exactly the reverse of what
he intends, in spite of his serious and most well-intentioned efforts. This is applicable to
both the events within the plot of the play and those outside it. Thus Oedipus’ decision
not to return to Corinth in order to escape the fate foretold for him by the oracle might
be termed misguided. But the circumstances that take him to Thebes, after he has
ignorantly killed his own father, and make him marry his own mother, without knowledge
or choice, are surely ironical. So is the proclamation which Oedipus makes about
including even himself within the jurisdiction of the punishment which he announces for
those who may harbour or have intercourse with the killer of Laius.

And it is my solemn prayer

That the unknown murderer, and his accomplices.
If such there be, may wear the brand of shame
For their shameful act, unfriended, to their life’s end.
Nor do I exempt myself from the imprecation

Here, still unaware that he is the killer, he curses himself.

“As for the criminal, I pray to God…

 Whether it be a lurking thief, or one of the number…
I pray that man’s life be consumed in evil and wretches.”

When Oedipus speaks of the dead king Laius, ironically, Oedipus has in fact seen him; he
saw him when he killed him. He just doesn’t know it yet.

“I learned of him from other: I never saw him”

“Yet whenever he comes back, I should do ill
To scant whatever him the god may give.”

Oedipus is saying that he shall be proved to be the bad guy if he doesn’t do something
about what the God says must be done to cleanse the city. The irony is that he doesn’t
know that he is going to be the subject of the God’s commands.
“To avenge the city and the city’s god
And not as though it were for some distant friend,
But for my own sake, to be rid of evil.”

Here, Oedipus is interested in saving his own life by banishing (or killing) a “king-killer”.
On the surface, that motive is very much in his interest. But, since he himself happens to
be the killer, he has no idea what he is saying. He eventually acts outside of his own
interest.

“Now I,
Having the power that he held before me.
Having his bed, begetting children there
Upon his wife, as he would have, had he lived…
Their son would have been my children’s brother,
If Laius had had luck in fatherhood!”

This could be interpreted to start as: “Since I have stolen my father’s kingdom and his
wife who is my mother…” Also, he says that he fights in Laius’ defense, making Oedipus
both the plaintiff and the defendant. Too bad he doesn’t know this at this point. Fate and
Oedipus’ own actions have combined to bring him down to the level of the soothsayer
when he derided for his blindness, calling him a blind old man.

Nor would any other word but irony be appropriate for describing one of the motives that
Oedipus gives for investigating the murder of Laius-namely, that it is as though he is
investigating the killing of his own father, and that the killer of Laius is his enemy as well.
Similarly, there is irony in the fact that all the well-intentioned attempts to soothe the
agitation of Oedipus’ mind- whether it is Jocasta causal mention of the phrase “where
three roads meet” or the shepherd’ assurance to Oedipus that he need not to afraid of
returning to Corinth because Polybus was not really his father- only aggravate his
worries. There is irony also in the fact that both Jocasta and Oedipus express their
jubilant indifference to oracles exactly when, unknown to them, they are faced with the
deadliest of oracles which have fulfilled and stare them in the face. The Oracles are
fulfilled just after both Jocasta and Oedipus have spoken in disregard of them. Nor it is
anything but ironical that Oedipus, the famed solver of Riddles, be almost the last person
in the play to put two and two together and infer the truth which has already become
manifest to Jocasta, the chorus and the Theban shepherd, and that unfounded suspicion
of conspiracy and intrigue should so constantly haunt his mind. There is irony in the
reversed intentions of helpers also. Sophocles provides at least one helper for every act
but all helpers push Oedipus to the edge of disaster.
Oedipus maybe humbled but he is not humiliated; nor have the gods lost any dignity and
gravity themselves. Moreover, the manipulator of the characters, the creator of all the
double meanings, is the author of the play, who also deserves only a qualified support.
Even if some readers get this impression in Sophocles, what is of considerably greater
importance is the steady vision that we get, behind all these double meanings, of the
demonic agency at work, in the action of the play as well as the discovery of the past of
the Oedipus and Jocasta. It is this demonic level of action that is played against the
sense Oedipus has of being his own master and his trust in the value of being intelligent
and good.

In conclusion, Oedipus Rex is a great example of a classical Greek tragedy, showing a

tragic hero with a tragic flaw, use of dramatic irony and a central theme. Sophocles
accomplished his purpose in writing this play. He used a well-known story and put it in a
drama, adding dramatic irony and chorus, creating an interesting and well put together
play. He also demonstrates the fall of the tragic hero and to evoke pity and fear into the
audience. This play has contributed to the development of the modern drama because it,
as one of the greatest tragedies of all time, has served as a model of other dramas to
work from. This means that this drama has influenced the development of many drama
creates after it. This play has remained popular today because it has universal theme
and is a classic murder mystery.