The purpose of this research is to examine speeche

What must be understood above all about Oedipus the King is that it is a play permeated with irony of incident, character behavior, and plot resolution. It appears that it is on that basis that in the Poetics Aristotle considers Oedipus the King to be the world's greatest tragedy, fulfilling and then going beyond his basic conditions of a tragedy, that it be an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with every kind of artistic ornament; the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play, in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions (Aristotle 939).

The form of action in Oedipus the King is of course the language and behavior of the characters. The irony that emerges in the course of the play is a function of the discrepancy between what they say and do and what eventually happens to them and to others around them as events unfold. In that regard, it is particularly in Aristotle's disc

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but he sees truth in a way that Oedipus only thinks he wants to see. Only later will Oedipus have this second sight of the blind, when he blinds himself. Or again, in a declaration that is ironic not least because from one point of view it is without irony: "If misfortune must befall me / for having saved the city, I say I do not care" (38). Later in the play, he declares that he "shall never be found ashamed / and falter in searching into my birth" (47). In fact, of course, not faltering exposes the cosmic shame of both birth and adult fortune. Compounding the irony, misfortune will befall because he does save the city, because he does find out who he is--and by the way, he will care a good deal. áA third speech that reveals Oedipus's character is one that exposes the bare facts of his personal history, when he is rather casually explaining to Jocasta how he came to kill the cowardly fellow at the banquetboard who "in his cups / said I was no true son of my mother and father. . . . I was fated, he said, to defile my mother's bed / and bring forth a progeny intolerable to the light" (42). The casual mention of the prophecy and the account of the encounter at the crossroads turns out to be rather crucial, with Jocasta putting ev
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2792
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)