Creon's Use Of Dramatic Irony In Oedipus The King

• The person speaking here is Oedipus. Oedipus is the main character, whose story will unravel within the play. He is the king of Thebes, after having killed his father, whom he did not know was his father and freed the land from the Sphinx. As the prophecy stated, he would come to kill his father and marry his mother.

• Oedipus addresses the entire city of Thebes in hopes that his words spread and reach the murderer, which he must either kill or exile in order to save the city from the plague.

• He curses the murderer of the previous king, Laius, whom Oedipus killed not knowing he has both the king and his father. This is a good example of dramatic irony in the play, as he starts by curing the murderer, who is himself, then continues to curse himself in case that the murderer is someone within the walls of his palace. In the end, he places a curse on himself, which said curse will take effect towards the end of this play.

• The speaker

Creon is Jocasta’s brother, Oedipus’s brother-in-law, and is shown to serve Oedipus when needed.

• Creon is addressing Oedipus after Oedipus accuses him of planning the murder of Laius to become king. Oedipus suspects that Creon planned everything to become king, and Creon speaks out in his defense.

• Creon wants to make it clear to Oedipus that he has no intention of being the king, and has never had the desire to. He says that he would rather sleep in peace without the many responsibilities of a king than to live as a ruler filled with anxieties about his kingdom, like Oedipus is. In a way, he’s trying to make Oedipus realize that that same anxiety has caused him to thing unreasonably, as when he starts to dispute with Tiresias and accuses them of having planned the murder of Laius.

• The speaker here is Jocasta. Jocasta is Oedipus wife, which he will discover later that she’s also his mother.

• Jocasta is addressing Oedipus. Oedipus had asked her about a servant who served for