Sophocles’ drama Oedipus the King (or Oedipus Rex) can be usefully analyzed as an exemplary instance of the purpose of tragedy (as defined by the Greek philosopher Aristotle) because it powerfully evokes the tragic emotions of fear and pity in the audience, thus effecting what Aristotle called the “purgation” of those emotions. To achieve this end Sophocles makes use of two kinds of irony: dramatic irony and situational irony. Your job is to work your way through the key scenes of the play, demonstrating how the use of irony serves to arose in the audience’s (or reader’s) fear for Oedipus as he blindly pursues his investigation of the murder of the former king Laius. Your focus will be primarily on the purgation of fear, but at the end of your essay, you should also take a brief look at the purgation of pity (which is aroused by several techniques but not by irony). The key scenes are as follows: 1) Oedipus’ address to the people of Thebes; 2) His confrontations with Tiresias and Creon (in separate paragraphs); 3) The arrival of the messenger from Corinth; 4) The interrogation of the old shepherd; and 5) The final scene when Oedipus, self-blinded, appears again before the Chorus and the people prior to his exile.
support your analysis with a minimum of four external sources, which may include books, database articles, and no more than one regular Internet source.