Irony and it's types used in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles

1. Irony In ”Oedipus Rex”

2.  Unaiza Saeed
 Sabiha Aslam
 Tayyeba Ayyub
 Roohi Fatima
 Sabooha khan Tareen
 Afreen
 Zaid Bin Atta

3. A short introduction of “Oedipus
Rex”
 “Oedipus Rex” is a Greek
tragedy written by
“Sophocles”.
 “Oedipus Rex” tells the story
of a king Oedipus, a man who
becomes the king of Thebes,
while unwittingly fulfilling a
prophecy that he would kill his
father, Laius, and marry his
mother, Jocasta.
 “Fate” is a theme in “Oedipus
Rex”.

4. What Is Irony?

5. “The expression of one's meaning
by his language and actions that
normally signifies the opposite is
called Irony.”

6. 1. Dramatic Irony
2. Verbal Irony
3. Situational Irony
4. Cosmic Irony (Irony of
Fate)

7. Dramatic Irony:
“A situation where the audience
knows the reality but the
characters are unaware
themselves.”
 For example, in the film “Titanic”
audience are aware that the ship will
be drown but the characters are
unaware.

8.  Snow White’s Apple – Snow White and the
Seven Dwarves
 The apple that puts Snow White into a deep
sleep is dramatic irony, because the audience
knows that the Wicked Stepmother cursed the
apple, but Snow White does not.

9. Tayyeba Ayyub

10. Verbal Irony:
 A verbal irony involves the words one
says but actually does not mean it.
 When in response to a foolish idea,
we say, “what a great idea!”

11. Verbal Irony

12. Situational Irony:
 Situational irony occurs
when something happens that
is very different than what
was expected.

14.  “Cosmic Irony” stems from the
notion that the the Fates are
amusing themselves by toying
with the minds of mortals with
deliberate ironic intent.

15. “IN OEDIPUS REX”
 Oedipus, The King does not know what is
happening in his life. He is unaware that the
Oracle has come true and he has became the
victim of his fate.

17. Ironies used in “Oedipus Rex”

18. Dramatic Irony:
 The entire play could be said to be an
example of dramatic irony. The audience
becomes aware of Oedipus’ prophecy
from the very beginning of the play.
Although Oedipus is unaware of his fate,
the reader knows the tragic future of the
character.
 The reading from the Oracle stated that
Oedipus was destined to murder his
father and marry his mother. Oedipus
seeks to find the murderer which is but
himself. Ironically, his curse falls upon
himself.

19.  The play opens with a scene
already full of dramatic irony. The
city of Thebes is suffering from a
plague and the people have
turned to their king, Oedipus for
help. Of course, neither they nor
Oedipus himself realize that he is
the reason for the curse on the
city.
“Whoe'er he be, I order
That… all men from their houses
banish him;
Since it is he contaminates us all,
Even as the Pythian oracle divine
Revealed but now to me.''
-Oedipus.

20. In another scene Oedipus insists that he'll
make sure Laius's murderer is punished:
• ''On these accounts I, as for my own father,
Will fight this fight, and follow out every clue,
Seeking to seize the author of his murder.''
- Oedipus
 He says these lines unknowingly as the
audience knows who’s son he is but
Oedipus himself is unaware.

21. Oedipus addressing to Teiresias
 “Teiresias: seer: student of mysteries,
Of all that’s taught and all that no man tells,
Secret of heaven and secrets of the Earth:
Blind though you are”
-Oedipus
 But we all know who is blind in real.
 Oedipus is blind of the truth but he does not
know.

22. JOCASTA TO MAIDSERVANT
 In another scene when maidservant from Thebes
tells Jocasta about the death of their King. Jocasta
says:
 “O riddles of God’s will, where are you now!
This was the man whom Oedipus,, long ago.
Feared so, fled so, in dread of destroying him-
But it was another fate by which he died”

23.  Oedipus says on the death of the King of
Thebes:
“These (Oracles) are empty words”
 But we, as audience knows that oracle has
came true but Oedipus and the other characters
are unaware.

24. Afreen

26. VERBAL IRONY IN “OEDIPUS REX”

27.  At one point Oedipus declares,
“If someone knows the killer is a stranger,
from some other state, let him not stay mute.”
Oedipus, of course, was originally not from Thebes.

28. OEDIPUS HOPES THAT THE KILLER OF LAIUS WILL
SUFFER “THE WORST OF AGONIES” – A FATE, OF
COURSE, THAT WILL EVENTUALLY BE HIS OWN
 Oedipus says,
 “. . . I pray, too,
that, if he should become an honored guest
in my own home and with my
knowledge,
I may suffer all those things I’ve just called down
upon the killers.

29. Oedipus to Teiresias
 WhenTeiresias tell Oedipus that He is the one
who killed King Laius. Oedipus says:
 “Say what you will.Whatever you say is
worthless”.
-Oedipus
But in realityTeiresias is right.

30. Sabiha Aslam

31. These lines shows verbal irony in
novel:
 “I count myself the son of Chance, the
great goddess, giver of all good
things—I'll never see myself
disgraced”
- Oedipus
These lines are spoken by Oedipus before
he is aware that the prophecy he tried avoid
has come true

32.  Oedipus says these lines while pronouncing a
curse on the murderer of Laius. He hasn't yet
realized he is the murderer and is thus cursing
himself.
 “I curse myself as well…if by any chance he proves
to be an intimate of our house”
- Oedipus

33. Oedipus says these lines when he was
searching for King Laius’s murderer:
o “I say I take the son’s part, just as though I was
his son”
He is using the words “as I was his son”
shows his unawareness of the reality that he
is the son of King Laius.

34. Oedipus to Teiresias
 In another place, when Teiresias does not tell
Oedipus about the murderer. He says to
Teiresias:
 “You sightless, witless, senseless, man old man.”
 But in reality Oedipus is the one who is sightless
as he is unaware of the truth.

35. Unaiza Saeed

36.  In the start Oedipus says to his people about
King Laius:
 “Having the power that he held before me.
Having his bed, begetting his children there
Upon his wife, as he would have, had he lived
Their son would have been my children’s brother.”
 But the fate is that Oedipus unknowingly kill
his father, Laius, and marry his mother,
Jocasta.

37.  In the end of the novel, Chorus suggests in the
following speech which comes just after Oedipus
enters having blinded himself:
“What God,
What dark power lept beyond all bounds,
beyond belief, to crush your wretched life?”
 Cosmic irony is therefore shown in the way that Oedipus
has no idea whatsoever at the beginning of the play of
who he really is.

38.  In the end, the fate of Oedipus is shown to have
nothing to do with his own personal character:
there was nothing, after all, that he could do to
avoid it.
 The fate of Oedipus is an example of cosmic
irony because it depicts the gods to be cruel
individuals who use humans as playthings.

39.  This piece of literature by Sophocles is full of
Ironies.
 Dramatic Irony is the major Irony used in
“Oedipus Rex”
 It is all about the Oracles and fate of Oedipus.
Who himself was unaware of the truth but
audience and some characters were aware.