Examples Of Foreshadowing In Oedipus The King

Oedipus the King captures the audience’s attention through dramatic irony and foreshadowing. Many points of the play foreshadow what will happen in the end. Since the audience already knows what is going to happen, that alone is foreshadowing Oedipus’ life for us. Foreshadow is defined in dictionary.com, “to show or indicate beforehand.” The prophecy given to him at birth is what tells us, and him what is supposed to happen. He tries to avoid this fate by leaving, but because the audience knows that he is not actually leaving his true parents, he has already set his prophecy into action, he’s just unaware of this.
The biggest point of dramatic irony in the play is the audience knowing what happens in the play before it even begins. The audience knows that Oedipus’ prophecy was that he would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. This leads to him being taken out to die in the wild with his feet bound together. He is then adopted by King Polybus and Queen Merope. Oedipus learns of his prophecy and leaves home believing it’s the best thing to do so it won’t

come true. On his journey away from home, he unknowingly kills his true father, King Laius and goes to the city of Thebes where he is met with the Sphinx. He is given a riddle and when answered correctly, the city of Thebes is freed from the curse and he’s rewarded with the throne and the widowed Queen, who is known to be his mother. This alone is foreshadowing Oedipus’ life since it’s his prophecy and it beginning to come true, even without his knowledge.
The name Oedipus alone is foreshadowing. Oedipus means ‘swollen feet’ in Greek. When Oedipus was born and his parents learned of his prophecy, his mother bound his legs together and had a shepherd take the young baby out to the wild to die. Oedipus was known to walk with a limp because of his injury he sustained from that. This foreshadows his birth mark and his fate.
From the beginning of the play, Oedipus has foreshadowed his own downfall. Creon learns of what they must do to rid the city of the plague, which is getting rid of King Laius’ murderer; Who the audience knows to be Oedipus himself. Oedipus tells the citizens to ‘ban him from your homes’. Although Oedipus does not know the truth, it points towards him foreshadowing his own exile. He has told his citizens to not allow the murder into their homes, which only leaves exile for him.
Queen Jocasta’s death is foreshadowed when Oedipus is talking to a messenger. The messenger brought Oedipus the news of his ‘father’ King Polybus’ death and Oedipus tells the messenger of his prophecy and that he would be relieved to hear of his ‘father’s’ death, but is still afraid of marrying his mother. He expresses “But I fear the living women,” (1231). Even though Oedipus was implying this to Queen Merope, who he believes to be his mother; This ultimately foreshadows that Queen Jocasta will die sometime in the play. Her death, and Oedipus’s exile is also foreshadowed again by Creon, “By exile or death, blood for blood. It was murder that brought the plague-wind on the city,” (1210). By exile; Oedipus is exiled after stabbing himself in the eyes. By death; Queen Jocasta kills herself when discovering that Oedipus is the son she thought was killed long ago.
The end of the play leaves off with Oedipus blinding himself from grieve with the golden pins of Jocasta’s gown.

This is foreshadowed multiple times when he speaks with Teiresias, the blind prophet. Oedipus keeps pressing the prophet to tell him who the murderer is, and when he is told that he is the one who killed King Laius, he loses his temper because he refused to believe it. He begins to mock Teiresias telling him, “You sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man” (1216). This of course doesn’t phase Teiresias, who comes back to say “you mock my blindness, do you? But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind: You cannot see the wretchedness of your life,” (1217). Oedipus is mentally blind by not wanting to see the facts and accept the truth. He later physically blinds himself after finding out that Teiresias was telling the truth and stabs his eyes out with the pins from Jocasta’s

dress.
Although the audience is told in advance what’s going to happen, the foreshadowing in the play leaves just enough suspension to keep it exciting. Little by little, the end of the play is all foreshadowed. The prophecy of Oedipus is foreshadowing his life, but other elements in the play foreshadow the end of the play. The audience is told what Oedipus will do in his life, but are never told that he will blind himself, that his mother/wife will kill herself, or that he’s exiled. Those are all the little details foreshadowed throughout the play. The foreshadowing not only holds the play together, but it gives the audience enough suspension to want to keep reading.