The Impact Of Irony In Oedipus The King
?Sons and daughters of Thebes, behold: this was Oedipus,
Greatest of men; he held the key to the deepest mysteries;
Was envied by all his fellow-men for his great prosperity;
Behold, what a full tide of misfortune swept over his head,
Then learn that mortal man must always look to his ending,
And none can be called happy until the day when he carries
His happiness down to the grave in peace.? (77)
The last lines in the Exedos presented here from Oedipus the King, which was written by the tragedian Sophocles, explicitly reveals the theme to be learned from this tragedy. Sophocles taught that the way to human happiness was through reverence and humiliation; he reminds the audience that the aim of man?s existence is to achieve the highest possible individual development within limits, which Oedipus does not. This theme can be applied universally to man today; everyone should strive to be the best that he can be and this is an idea portrayed in almost every society in the world. Oedipus believes that he is the best that he could ever be when in fact his destiny reveals the opposite. Irony is uniformly employed
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