The Use of Irony in Sophocles's King Oedipus.

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

James Moran 01/11/2001

The Use of Irony in Sophocles’s King Oedipus

Irony has many forms or definitions depending upon the situations in which it used, and the effect it achieves. We will discuss Sophocles’s extensive use of irony in his play King Oedipus.

The central character Oedipus is introduced as egotistical, separating himself from the masses with the constant use of the pronoun ‘I’. He feels pretty pleased with himself, after all he has altered the destiny of the people of Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, or so he believes. Now they come to him again for help, but in doing so they begin a process in which his own arrogance leads to his downfall. Throughout the play we see Oedipus deluded by his high opinion of himself, and his ability to change the fate mapped out for him by the Gods. He had left his ‘home’ in Corinth because of a prophecy he relates in lines 792 to794.

How I must marry my mother,

And become the parent of a misbegotten brood,

An offence to all mankind - and kill my father.

Although Oedipus learns that a similar prophecy is attributed to the son of Laius, the previous king of Thebes and the former husband of Oedipus’s wife, Jocasta, his unstinting faith in his version of the ‘truth’ does not allow alarm bells to ring in his mind. This situation where the main character is deluded and ignorant of the real circumstances in which he or she finds himself or herself is called ‘Structural Irony’. When it is used it gives the audience a feeling of superiority at the expense of the character. We as onlookers can clearly see that which seems beyond the wit of Oedipus. Is this use effective, it may lead us to think that the character is naïve or unintelligent. Can we be sympathetic to a character that appears this way, and if we are not sympathetic could we become apathetic to the play as a whole. There is a danger that this could be so, unless the characters’ credentials are paraded for all to see, and Sophocles does this with Oedipus’s solving of the riddle of the Sphinx.

Oedipus expects to bring the killer of Laius to justice, and sets out the punishment the perpetrator will receive in lines 235 to 238.

I here pronounce my sentence upon his head:

No matter who he may be, he is forbidden

Shelter or intercourse with any man.

In all this country over which I rule.

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Oedipus expects to bring the killer of Laius to justice, and sets out the punishment the perpetrator will receive in lines 235 to 238.

I here pronounce my sentence upon his head:

No matter who he may be, he is forbidden

Shelter or intercourse with any man.

In all this country over which I rule.

We of course realise that Oedipus is unwittingly pronouncing judgement upon himself. This is a situation where the audience and the character can have paradoxically different perceptions of the same statement. We call this ‘Dramatic Irony’ and it has subtle differences with Structural Irony in the sense that it covers individual situations rather than the play as a whole. It also occurs when the audience is aware of an outcome contrary to that expected by the character involved.

There are a number of instances of Dramatic Irony in King Oedipus that Sophocles uses to great effect, for example in lines138 to 143.

In the cause of God and our country. My own cause too –

Not merely from a fellow-creature will I clear this taint,

But from myself. The killer of Laius,

whoever he was, might think to turn his hand

Against me; thus serving Laius, I serve myself.

The Irony of this passage is twofold, firstly Oedipus vows to catch Laius’s killer, which of course we know to be himself, but it is reinforced by Oedipus’s fear that the perpetrator may also attack him. The act of seeking the murderer instigates the attack that he fears, he is attacking himself. In the context of the Greek plays this is also called ‘Tragic Irony’, giving the title ‘Greek Tragedies’ to the genre as a whole. Reinforcing the theme of fate and Tragic Irony, Jocasta denounces the fates in lines 978 and 980, ‘Fear? What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown.’ Again a situation where the outcome expected by the character is diametrically opposed to the actual turn of events.

There are instances of sarcasm within the play, and although today we would not recognise sarcastic remarks as ironic, this cruder form of the ironic is given the term ‘Verbal Irony’. An excellent example of this is given in lines 398 to 342 of the play.

From you; bird-lore and god-craft all were silent.

Until I came- I, ignorant Oedipus, came-

And stopped the riddler’s mouth, guessing the truth

By mother-wit not bird-lore.

Here Sophocles cleverly intertwines Verbal and Tragic irony, we know that Oedipus is lambasting the prophet Teiresius with the very thought of the great Oedipus being ignorant. However the audience knows that although not intellectually ignorant, Oedipus is ignorant to events which are of great importance to him.

The anagnorisis is reached at lines 726 and 727 where Oedipus reflects, ‘My wife, what you have said has troubled me. My mind goes back … and something in me moves …’ Slowly but surely he realises that he has already fulfilled the prophecy he had tried so hard to evade. A pitiful victim of fate, Oedipus pierces his eyes with a brooch pin because he could not bear to see all that he has brought about. The conclusion appointed for Oedipus has been reached, and he is now aware of all his misconceptions. Where a character such as Oedipus has cruelly and mockingly been unable to avoid his fate, despite all his attempts, it is sometimes known as ‘Cosmic Irony’. The use of the blind seeing circumstances more clearly than the sighted is an ironic tool that has been used in subsequent works, most notably in Shakespeare’s King Lear, when Gloucester, after having his eyes plucked out, realises the true nature of his sons, Edmund and Edgar. The act of mutilation is abhorrent and therefore a very dramatic way of emphasising a particular point in a play.

Why does Sophocles use irony in its many forms? We may feel that an audience, fully aware of events that are to unfold, needs another viewpoint from which to examine the play. Irony gives an observational standpoint different to that of the characters, and therefore should make for a more fulfilling experience, flattering the audience with feelings of being the enlightened onlooker.