Theme of Knowledge

1. Theme of Knowledge • In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is a seeker of knowledge and truth. He struggles to uncover Laius’s murder and his own identity, despite numerous warnings that he should leave the truth alone. • His pursuit of knowledge and truth, however, results in ruin as Oedipus uncovers his destiny, which he was better off not knowing.

2. Theme of Knowledge • This suggests that knowledge is limited in its ability to bring happiness to those who seek it. • Knowledge is a burden and ultimately a death threat to those who possess it or seek it out in the Oedipus the King.

3. Theme of Knowledge • If you had your future told to you, what might you do? • Effects of knowing the truth, mortals having too much knowledge

4. Dramatic Irony • A contradiction between what a character thinks and says, and what the audience or reader knows is true

5. Dramatic Irony • Biggest one in the play is the fact that we have the knowledge of what happened in the myth, before the play • We also know Oedipus’s ultimate fate

6. Dramatic Irony • Results in many characters being on different “pages” (some are more aware of things than others, some have false impressions, some are completely unaware) • Oedipus under a false pretense of what’s happening, the other citizens, his wife/mother

7. Dramatic Irony • The Oracle and the Chorus are the only ones exempt—omniscient, or “all knowing” • We see this from the foreshadowing of events to come (you can only foreshadow if you know the future)