Oedipus the King Sophocles' Play Oedipus the

Oedipus the King Sophocles' play Oedipus the King is filled with irony; in fact, irony makes the play's narrative so compelling. Oedipus vows to end the plague that besieged the people of Thebes but fails to realize that to end it, he must essentially oust himself from power. He vehemently curses the murderer in a passionate speech to the chorus at the beginning of the play without realizing that he delivers the curses upon himself.

Oedipus unwittingly hunts for himself; unaware that he killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus claims to find and exile the murderer even if "If in my house, I knowing it, he dwells," (265). At times, Oedipus seems so close to uttering the truth or unknowingly does speak the truth that the audience is gripped by suspense and frustration.

For example, when Oedipus is first confronted with the news that for the plague to stop Laius' murderer must be found, he immediately swells with pride and thus utters statements that are saturated with dramatic irony. For example, he states, "Not for the sake of friends, or near or far, / But for mine own, will I dispel this curse; / For he that slew him, whosoe'er he be, / Will wish, perchance, with such a blow to smite / Me also. Helping him, I help myself," (143-147).

When Oedipus says "helping him, I help myself," he has no idea how close to the truth he is. Moreover, when he notes that whoever killed Laius might eventually come after him, he presages his own self-destruction at the end of the play. Interestingly, Oedipus was crowned King precisely because he proved his mental prowess to the people of Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx. However, he can't fathom the simpler mystery of who killed Laius, even in spite of possessing overwhelming evidence that it was he.

Creon utters an ironic message regarding the import of the Sphinx's riddle: "The Sphinx, with her dark riddle, bade us look / At nearer facts, and leave the dim obscure," (136-7). The Sphinx's riddle pointed to dark, obscure, cosmic truths, which Oedipus could fathom, whereas he can't understand the "nearer facts," those that are simple, mundane, and immediate. Oedipus' blindness to the truth is mimicked by Tiresias's actual physical blindness. The King is sighted but cannot see the truth; the prophet is blind but has the gift of second sight.

Tiresias's presence in the play augments its ironies. In fact, Oedipus and Tiresias exchange ironic insults over this very matter: at first Oedipus lauds Tiresias, "whose mind embraceth all," but later accuses him of lying and being a false prophet (317). Creon's refusal to listen to the one man who he had felt possessed the truth is ironic, as his rapid dismissal of Tiresias in spite of having previously hailed the prophet.

Moreover, Jocasta later tells Oedipus that she doesn't believe in prophets because precisely because one had predicted that Laius' son would murder him. Because Jocasta believes that an anonymous band of thieves totally unassociated with Oedipus committed the crime, she feels that the prophet's words never came to pass. "There came to Laius once an oracle.. that his fate was fixed / By his son's hand to fall -- his own and mine," (738-741). Jocasta.