Oedipus the Tyrant
Oedipus the Tyrant
Oedipus the Tyrant
To understand much of this play, one must understand that he is simply a folktale
continued through Homers Odyssey, where Oedipus is told his dreadful prophecy that he
will marry his mother and slay his father. Even the name Oedipus is a brilliantly put
together pun by Sophocles, which Oida means “to know” and plays a big part in his play.
When he first arrives to Thebes there is a dreadful sphinx attacking the city, Sophocles
wrote, and anyone who approached would be asked a riddle and if they answered
correctly the sphinx would leave. The riddle was “What goes on four legs in the morning,
two at noon, and three at evening?”. Oedipus with his knowledge and his natural ability so
solve problems, answered “Man”, which was right and therefore got the throne to
Thebes.(1365) Of course, Oedipuss knowing and solving every mystery he came across
would play a huge roll in this play, and there are several reasons why.
In the passage in lines 280 to about 315 is a perfect example of Oedipuss
ignorance and being detached from the world around him. In this passage Oedipus is a
making a speech to the people of Thebes, begging them to join him on his quest to find the
murderer of the previous king, Laius. Oedipus then goes on to put a curse on everyone
involved in the killing, wishing that his life be dragged out in agony and pain. The weirdest
and probably the most ignorant thing about his curse is that he goes on to curse himself as
well, just incase this man is one among his own, that lives in his city still and could possibly be in the audience. He is hoping by letting it be known that they are going to start
searching for the killer and might scare him out into the open, or that anyone is holding
back any information about the murderer would come forth and save himself from any
misfortunes.
The most severe case of dramatic irony in this passage seems to be the cursing of
the murderer. Of course he later finds out that he is indeed the killer, and the curse
becomes completely true while he wanders around blind and with completely agony about
what he has done. Again Oedipuss natural ability to solve mysteries comes out in this
passage, questioning the people of Thebes why they did not search for the murderer when
they learned that king has been killed. Oedipus also blindly says, and I quote:
“I hold the throne that he held then, possess his bed, why our seed might be the
same, children born from the same mother, might have created blood-bonds
between us if his hope of offspring hadnt met disaster- but fate swept in and cut
him short. So I will fight for him as if here my father, stop at nothing, search the
world.” (Sophocles 295-302)
This short snippet of his speech brings out many things into the spotlight, mainly and most
importantly how he says that he will fight for him like his own father, and would stop at
nothing. Ironically of course he wouldnt have to search far at all and he turns out to
actually be fighting for his own father, instead of only acting like it.
This passage blatantly shows off one of the most important themes of the entire
play,