pancake paper- Oedipus

What if you didn’t know exactly what was going on in your own life? What if the one person who couldn’t see could see more than you? What if you knew there was a possibility that your life was what everybody was trying to figure out, and you were the murderer?
Sophocles uses Plot, Metaphor, and Irony to explain just how much “in the dark” Oedipus and his people are. When speaking of plot Sophocles creates a speech given by Oedipus to show that he has no clue that he is the true murderer of Laios. Sophocles explaining the metaphor about him literally being in the dark (blind) but he knows the true prophecy, as compared to Oedipus who can see but has no idea what he has done in the past few years of his life. In the end Oedipus figures it out and says “damned in his birth, in his marriage damned, damned in the blood he shed with his own hands!”
Oedipus states in his speech in the beginning of the play “If any man knows by whose hand Laios, son of labdakos , met his death, I direct this man to tell me anything” making it obvious that he either doesn’t know or he is putting on some huge façade. Sophocles almost literally makes Oedipus a puppet or play thing of the gods. Even though the gods don’t openly state what they are going to do in the life of Oedipus it becomes very clear when the blind seer tells the prophecy. Some say that the gods not only did this for their own twisted pleasure but because of inherited guilt. “Oedipus falls due to the act of an ancestor (laios’ rape of Chrysippus)” [Taken from homepage.usask.ca/coursenotes/oed.html].
It is also looked upon that Oedipus’ fate was because of his own arrogance and rashness. He comes off very headstrong and foolish. His “people” after encourage the way he acts by giving him the power of a god, almost worshipping him. The priest stated “you are not one of the immortal gods, we know; yet we have come to you make our prayer as to the man surest in mortal ways and wisest in the ways of God.” Oedipus also seems to get very paranoid when he thinks that Kreon is trying to get rid of him and take his throne. Oedipus claims “if for this power Kreon desires in secret to destroy me,” and “and this is the man you think can destroy, that you may be close to Kreon when he’s king!” He literally jumps to conclusions by saying that Teiresias is helping Kreon destroy him so that he can become king.
Later on in the play we find out that he doesn’t know what is really going on. He uses metaphor when he speaks of being “in the dark” when the blind seer Teiresias tells him the prophecy about his life. Teiresias plainly states “I say that you are the murderer whom you seek”; revealing that he knows more than Oedipus does about his own life. This simple fact really upsets Oedipus because he was just completely thrown by what was said to him. What he had been looking for was in him. That fact alone would make me rethink my life and all the events in it. Teiresias explains that he will live in shame and that his fate lies within Apollo’s (the god) competence. “I say you live in hideous shame with those most dear to you. You can not see the evil,” “True: it is not from you my fate will come. That lies within Apollo’s competence, as it is his concern.”
Sophocles uses extended Metaphor very well as far as the phrase “in the dark” was concerned. There also was another metaphor that wasn’t plainly stated but often shown in the play. Oedipus’ wife Jokaste was said to be his mother in the end. If you didn’t know that she was his mother from the earlier plays then you might have not noticed the fact that she acts very motherly throughout her parts in the play. She’s always trying to sway his mind/ideas because of her own personal experiences, which is something a wife often does also. For example she always says how she doesn’t really believe in gods or the prophecies. She was always reassuring Oedipus trying to change his mind by telling him her opinions. In Act 1, Scene 2 Jokaste says “I tell you that you will find no man whose craft gives knowledge of the unknowable, Here is proof; an oracle was reported to Laios once… That his doom would be death at the hands of his own son.” Obviously she didn’t believe this prophecy because to her own personal knowledge this had not happened.
Irony begins to tie all of this together when Oedipus speaks to the shepherd and he reveals that he gave the child of Laios away to another shepherd. The shepherd says “If you must be told, then… They say it was Laios’ child; but it is your wife who can tell you about that;” ultimately saying that his wife knows what is going on and unraveling more who the child may be. Throughout the entire play Oedipus is trying to prove that the prophecy is wrong and that he is not the one who killed Laios. But instead it turns out that he was the killer and he married his own mother. He says that his children were damned and cursed because of his fate. He had a very long argument with the seer about him not being blind to the world outside of his own and trying to explain his paranoia about Kreon stealing his throne.
Jokaste also serves a large part in the dramatic irony because she is determined to prove the god or the prophecy wrong. She continues to tell Oedipus that the seer was not correct in his prediction and that there was no way that it could have been true. She even gives an example where the prophecy failed. Ironically this is the same prophecy that will be proven correct at the conclusion of the play. What makes the irony so dramatic is the fact that Jokast kills herself and Oedipus blinds himself which brings back the extended metaphor. He blinds himself when he finally finds out the truth. Now he is in a way like the seer: blind and all knowing.
In the end you do see that Oedipus, Jokaste, and their people were all in the dark and suffer the horror of finally finding out what has really happened in their lives. It seems that in this play you have to literally be blind or dead to know the truth or once you know the truth you take your life or sight. The seer was physically blind but he knew everything. When Oedipus found out what he did he took his sight away and suffered with the truth for the rest of his life. Jokaste found out everything and eventually killed herself because of the realization of what she had let happen. This entire plays reminds me of a famous quote “you can’t handle the truth,” which is true for the main character in this play.