Tragic Irony
Irony is the reversal of action and situation. Irony may be
verbal or situational. Tragic irony was used firstly in ancient Greek tragedy
and later almost in all tragedies. Irony comprises essentially in the contrast
of the two aspects of the same remark or situation. A declaration made by a
character in a play may have one meaning for him and another meaning for other
character and the audience. In the same way, a situation may have a double significance in the sense
that the audience may foresee a disaster while the characters may be ignorant
of it. Irony increases the tragic effect.
Sophocles has used irony effectively in his plays.
"Oedipus Rex" is full of tragic irony and is found in most of the
speeches and situations. There are many situations on which the audience is
aware of the facts while the speaker is ignorant of those facts and some other
characters, on the other hand, present a contrast which lends an increased
emphasis to a tragic fact or to the final tragic outcome. The announcement of
Oedipus that he will make a determined effort to trace the murderer of Laius
and the curse that Oedipus utters upon the killer and upon those sheltering the
criminal, possess a tragic irony in view of the audience's knowledge that Oedipus
himself will finally prove to be Laius' killer.
Oedipus proclaims that no house in Thebes is to provide
shelter to the wretched man and that the gods will curse those who disobey his
command. In that way, without knowing the true meaning of his words, Oedipus
announces the sentences of exile against the murderer and heightens the tragic
effect of the discovery, which comes towards the end of the play. Oedipus does
not know that he himself will become the victim of the punishment, which he is
proclaiming, but the audience knows it.
The scene between Oedipus and Teiresias is replete with
tragic irony throughout. Teiresias is the prophet who knows everything while Oedipus
does not know himself as much. Teiresias would not like to reveal the secret
but Oedipus quickly loses his temperament thus provoking the prophet to say
what he never wanted to say. Teiresias tells Oedipus that he himself is the
guilty man he is looking for and that he is living in a sinful union with the
one he loves. The impact of these words is entirely lost upon Oedipus. The
charges of Teiresias enrage him and he insults the prophet by calling him a
sightless not showing his own inner blindness.
Irony lies in the fact
that Teiresias, physically blind, knows the truth while Oedipus who has normal
eyesight, is totally blind to that truth. There is irony in the
contrast between what Oedipus truly is and what he thinks himself to be. To
Teiresias he brags of his intelligence quoting his past victory over the
Sphinx. The terrible prophesies which Teiresias makes relating the fate in
store for Oedipus also possess irony. We know their tragic impacts but Oedipus
treats them as the rambling of a madman. These predictions become more
disgusting when we realize that they will prove to be true and valid.
Teiresias foretells Oedipus that the killer of Laius will
ultimately find himself blind, an exile, a brother and a father at a same time
to the children he loves, a husband a son to the woman who bore him. Even the
Chorus, unaware of the facts, refuses to believe what Teiresias has said about
Oedipus. Thus both Chorus and Oedipus are unaware of the truth while Teiresias
and the audience is fully aware of it.
Tragic irony is also found in the scene with Creon. Creon
begs Oedipus not to think him a traitor or disloyal and not to pass the
sentence of death or exile against him. But the power drunk Oedipus shows
himself relentless. This situation is ironical of the final scene where the
roles are reversed. There Oedipus begs Creon to look after his daughters, and
pleads him to pass the order of exile against him. Creon, being a moderate man,
does not show himself unrelenting in that scene. The pathos of the final scene
is intensified.
Then there is the scene with Jocasta. Oedipus and Jocasta are
not aware of the true facts. The audience, aware of the facts, experiences a
deep sorrow at the fate, which is going to overcome these characters. Jocasta
is sceptical and doubtful of oracles. She thinks no man can possess the secret
of divination and as a proof she tells what she and her husband did to the
child, who, according to the oracle, was to kill his father. There is vivid
irony in Jocasta s’ unbelief in oracles and her citing as proof the very case
which is to prove the truth of one oracle received by her and the late Laius.
This irony deepens Jocasta's tragedy.
There is irony in the scene in which Oedipus gives an account
of his life to Jocasta, which Oedipus gives to Jocasta. Oedipus thinks himself
to be the son of Polybus and Merope: he escaped from Corinth after the oracle
had told him of the crimes he would commit: he has all along been under the impression
that he has avoided committing the crimes predicted by the oracles. But all the
time Oedipus has been unknowingly performing many actions leading to the
fulfillment of those very prophecies which he had been striving to belie, just
as King Laius had earlier taken desperate but in vain measures to prevent the
fulfillment of the prophecy which has been communicated to him by the oracle.
When the messenger from Corinth brings the news of Polybus'
death, Jocasta gets another chance to make fun of the oracles without realizing
that her mockery will turn against herself. "Where are you now, divine
prognostication?" Jocasta tells Oedipus that this news shows the shallowness
of oracles because Polybus Oedipus’ father has died a natural death. There is
irony also in the simple remark of the messenger that Jocasta is the "true
consort" of Oedipus. Neither messenger nor Jocasta knows the awful meaning
of these words. Jocasta makes a triumphant speech on the desirability of living
at random and on mother marrying as merely a creation of the imagination.
Jocasta makes this speech only a few moments before the truth reveals upon her.
The Corinthian messenger, who wants to free Oedipus of his
fear of marrying his mother, ends by revealing unknowingly, the fact that
Jocasta's husband, Oedipus, is really her son, although this revelation is at
this stage confined to Jocasta. The tragic irony of this situation and in what
is said by the Corinthian messenger and Jocasta in this scene is evident.
The song of the Chorus, after Jocasta has left in a fit of sorrow
and grief, is full of tragic irony. The Chorus thereby pays a salute to what it
thinks to be the divine parentage of Oedipus. There is a big contrast between
this assumption of the Chorus and the actual reality. The Theban shepherd s’
arrival is the point at which the tragedy reaches its climax. After the discovery
there is scarcely any room for tragic irony. The final part consists of a long
narration of the self-murder and the self-blinding, a dialogue between Oedipus
and the Chorus, and a scene between Oedipus and Creon including the brief
lament by Oedipus on the wretched condition of his daughters.
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