Oedipus the King
Literary Features
Irony
A conflict between appearance and reality…
A person or situation may appear one way, but in reality it is another.
Foreshadowing
The use of clues by the author to prepare readers for events that will happen later in the story.
…banish this manwhoever he may be—never shelter him, never
speak a word to him, never make him partner
to your prayers, your victims burned to the gods.
Never let the holy water touch his hands.
Drive him out, each of you, from every home.
He is the plague, the heart of our corruption,
as Apollos’s oracle has revealed to me
just now. So I honor my obligations:
I fight for the god and for the murdered man.
Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is,
a lone man unknown in his crime
or one among many, let that man drag out
his life in agony, step by painful step—
I curse myself as well . . . if by any chance
he proves to be an intimate of our house,
here at my hearth, with my full knowledge,
may the curse I just called down on him strike me!
How is this passage ironic?
How does this passage foreshadow the ending of
the play?
You’re the detective!! Find an example of irony on page 274.
Explain the irony in this example.
Before Tiresias accuses Oedipus of murder, what hints does he give that foreshadow the truth
about Oedipus? Oedipus just can’t take a hint. Pages 276-277
How does the play end?
You’re the detective!!
Find an example of foreshadowing on page 278.
Find an example of foreshadowing on page 280.
Find an example of foreshadowing on page 281.
Find an example of foreshadowing on page 282.
Why do you think Oedipus ignores the clues given to him by Tiresias?
Metaphor
a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things without using
the words like or as
Page 265
Our cityUnderline the two things being compared.
look around you, see with your own eyesour ship pitches wildly, cannot lift her head
from the depths, the red waves of death…
Page 291
My king,
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it time and again-I’d be insane, you know it,
senseless, ever to turn my back on you.
You who set our beloved land--storm-tossed, shattered-straight on course. Now again, good helmsman,
steer us through the storm!
What is the land?
Who is the helmsman?
What do you think is the significance of these comparisons? Why make these comparisons?
Part III Page 306
How is this passage an example of foreshadowing?
Where’s she gone, Oedipus?
Rushing off, such wild grief…
I’m afraid that from this silence
Something monstrous may come bursting forth.
Part III Page 306
I must know my birth, no matter how common
It may be—must see my origins face-to-face.
She perhaps, she with her woman’s pride
may well be mortified by my birth,
How is this passage ironic?
Detective Image
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