Dramatic Irony In Sophocles Oedipus The King

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Sophocles is a master at dramatic irony and in the story Oedipus The King, Oedipus thinks that he stopped the prophecy from happening but in the end completes the prophecy by actually running to his birth parents. “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no one can bear to see, you will kill your father, the one who gave you life”(285). Dramatic irony affects the reader by always putting the reader one step ahead of the main character or the hero of the story Oedipus. As the story goes on we get more and more information on Oedipus and his back story. At first Oedipus finds out a prophecy from Apollo that he would marry his mother and kill his father. So to prevent that from coming true he …show more content…
Dramatic Irony affects Oedipus because he was scared and persistent on finding out if the prophecy would come true or not, but in the end it would also affect and hurt others like his wife and mother Jocasta. “Stop, in the name of god, if you love your own life, call off the search,”(line 1163-1164). This shows irony because he was so scared of the prophecy coming true and finding out his true self and Jocasta is begging him not to keep on pursuing to find out the truth. Oedipus then finds out the truth and in the end Jocasta his wife and mother kills herself because she didn’t want Oedipus to find out the truth. Another way dramatic irony affected Oedipus was when he kills a man who he thought was lesser than him, but it turns out to be his biological father Laius. This all happens because Oedipus thought his birth parents were the ones in Corinth but in reality his birth parents were actually in Thebes. An example of this is when Jocasta says, ““He’s from Corinth, he’s come to tell you that your father is no more,”(line 1045-1046). In reality Oedipus screwed up because he believed that his parents are the leaders of Corinth when in reality they are from Thebes so when he ran away from Corinth, he caused the prophecy to become true. This was a huge impact to him because in the end he kills his own father and when the truth of who his mother is is revealed, it causes Jocasta to kill herself causing Oedipus much pain and suffering, not only as her son but also her
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