Irony in the drama Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Irony in the drama - Essay Example Sophocles makes use of both of the mentioned ironies in order to present the story of Oedipus while on the other hand, Shakespeare also takes support of both of the mentioned ironies in the lieu of literary techniques. Both the protagonists of the plays are destined to their downfall. Even if they make decisions, they make it in order to support the prophecies made. In addition, the playwrights were interested to take their heroes towards tragic endings due to which, they enabled them to make their decisions that were in the interest of the tragic ending. If they had decided differently, still they were to meet their prophecies as structured by both the playwrights. In Oedipus the king, dramatic irony is employed at various locations such as the prophecy about Oedipus that he will murder his own father and marry his own mother is revealed at the beginning of the play and the audiences of the play are aware of the prophecy and the ending of the play. On the other hand, Oedipus is quite ignorant about the prophecy and its implications. Even, when he gains knowledge about this prophecy, he tries to change the prediction by moving away from the parents who adopted him (Knox 1998). Oedipus thinks that he will change the prediction by means of getting away from his parents and by leaving his state but in actuality, he moves towards his real parents and kills his father ignorantly. Later on in the play, Oedipus tries to find the murderer of Laios, his real father, unknowingly that he, himself is the murderer (Knox 1998). Oedipus ironically announces that he will avenge the murderer by saying: The example of verbal irony can be seen when Oedipus promises that he will avenge Laios like his own father and will take his murderer in chains. Here, Oedipus is not aware that he is the murderer for whom he is searching. Also in the above mentioned quotation, Oedipus not knowingly announces that he will avenge the murdered king as he would have avenged his father, which is a