Even though I have read Oedipus Rex a few times before, my reading of it this time was different in that I had a more heightened awareness to the rhetorical devices Sophocles uses. For instance, dramatic irony is used almost excessively, for the reader or the audience know Oedipus’ fate, even before Oedipus becomes suspicious of his past. Whether it is the Chorus, Tiresias, or another character foreshadowing the impending agony truth brings to Oedipus and Thebes, the reader is fully aware of the course of events, which makes it more effective. I felt a sense of dread that continued to build throughout the play because I knew that something terrible would follow after Oedipus learns he has killed his father and slept with his mother. I could not even imagine what it must be like to experience such a thing-it is a shame beyond shame.
Oedipus’ ignorance reminded me of an Italian short story called “Una Voce,” or “A Voice” by Luigi Pirandello. In the story, there is a blind man, Silvio, who falls in love with Lydia, or more like his idea of her. Because he cannot see her, he just imagines her as a stunningly beautiful woman, which hurts Lydia and makes her run away in the end before Silvio receives his sight. I just thought that it was similar to Oedipus’ ignorance because Silvio is so blinded (not only physically but metaphorically) by his own design of Lydia that he fails to accept the possibility that she is just an “average” but kindhearted lady. Likewise, Oedipus fails to accept the truth in the beginning because he is blinded by his pursuit to find the person guilty for Thebes’ calamity, when it is himself.
One thing that confused me a little were the references to people or gods on p. 114, when the text mentions Cyllene’s lord, Pan, and Dionysus, because I do not have enough background to grasp the connection to further the ambiguity and anxiousness of knowing Oedipus’ origins.
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