Oedipus the King: Journal #3

The gap between the knowledge of the audience and the knowledge of the characters create situational irony. The effect of this gap gives the audience more knowledge of the fate of the character or the scheming of one character towards another.

In Oedipus the King, Socrates uses prophesies as well as the general public's outside knowledge to provide a way for the audience to obtain knowledge of the true birth of Oedipus. In the beginning of the text Oedipus declares he suffers more than his people because he has to suffer for them and for himself as well. Which is ironic because in the end he does indeed suffer more than they do because Tiresias' prophesy comes true. The entire book leading up to when Oedipus finds out that he has killed his father and slept with his mother, Oedipus digs himself deeper and deeper condemning the murderer of Laius, "He is the plague, the heart of our corruption" and in the end this is said about Oedipus himself "I'd never have never come to this my father's murderer". Oedipus first criticizes the murderer and then finds he is the murderer himself which is ironic because he threatens the murderer with exile or death if he found them. The effect of dramatic irony is to express the lack of knowledge is power if one does something for no reason or for the wrong reasons using assumptions they will pay for this terrible deed they have done on a whim.

Othello is another tragic play that has situational irony however it is conveyed in a different way. Iago is scheming to make Othello look terrible because he supposedly slept with his wife. Iago does this in the form of Apostrophes talking to the audience and scheming with other characters who fall to their ruin because of this fatal friend. The audience knows that Iago is scheming but Othello does not. Othello listens to Iago and believes Desdemona is being unfaithful to him by having an affair with Cassio because she thinks it was wrong of her husband to have stripped him of his rank. In the end he kills innocent Desdemona to find that she was indeed innocent then kills himself. The effect of using dramatic irony is to create a sense that what Othello is doing is wrong but see him as a misguided character and not as a hero or a villain.