Ironies are of basically three types; dramatic, situational, and verbal. In dramatic irony the audience knows more about the plot, than the characters acting on stage. In situational irony, there is an event that will turn out to be the opposite of what had been expected. Whereas in verbal the expression of a certain attitude or an intention has an opposite meaning, of what it actually meant.
In Oedipus the whole dramatic irony situation was created from the beginning, us as the audience was aware of the fact that Oedipus had assassinated his father and had wedded his mother. The whole play is based on this situation, and Oedipus was not aware of all this, and was trying to figure it out throughout the entire play. Dramatic irony was used in Oedipus the king as a vital device to grow the play. Dramatic irony involves the audience knowing what is happening in the plot, whereas the characters are not aware of it. This makes the audience feel privileged, as they know more than the main characters in the story. In Oedipus the king the use of dramatic irony also develops the play through pathos towards Oedipus, creating suspense and foreshadowing the outcome of the play.
Situational irony is used a couple of dozen times in this play. But there were just small events which might’ve had a big impact on the whole plot. Irony of a situation is the difference between the expected result and actual results when enhanced by relevance. Some of the examples are, when he ran away from his parents because he thought he would end up killing his father? Because he left, he actually ran towards his real parents. Another situation would be Oedipus promises to get rid of whoever killed King Laius; however, he was the one who unknowingly did it. He also curses whoever killed the king, and wishes them a miserable and painful life. This meant that he jinxed himself.
Irony has its significance in every writing. In Oedipus, the significance was that the whole play was based on an irony; about how Oedipus was not sure of whom he has killed and who he has married. This situation led out to more miniscule events which again contained irony, and the Greek tragedy turned out to be glorious.
