What is dramatic irony? Besides the example given in Chapter 5, whatother instances of dramatic irony do you find in Oedipus the King? What do they contribute to the effectiveness of the play?
What will be an ideal response?
- Dramatic irony occurs when the speaker lacks understanding of a larger context or knowledge of some crucial piece of information, and his or her words take on an ironic significance that he or she is unaware of. An example takes place relatively early in the play, an instance so obvious that Teiresias is moved to point it out to Oedipus:
Teiresias: I say that with those you love best you live in foulest shame unconsciously and do not see where you are in calamity.
Oedipus: Do you imagine you can always talk like this, and live to laugh at it hereafter?
Teiresias: Yes, if the truth has anything of strength.
Oedipus: It has, but not for you; it has no strength for you because you are blind in mind and ears as well as in your eyes.
Teiresias: You are a poor wretch to taunt me with the very insults which every one soon will heap upon yourself. (lines 400–410)
When Oedipus has threatened Creon with death for supposedly plotting against him and the chorus asks him to spare Creon, Oedipus replies: “I would have you know that this request of yours / really requests my death or banishment” (lines 726–727).
A remarkable bit of dialogue occurs when the chorus introduces Jocasta to the messenger by saying “This lady is his wife and mother of his children” (lines 988–989). An alert director would instruct the actor(s) playing the chorus to pause ever so slightly after the word mother.
In the dialogue of the messenger with Oedipus and Jocasta (lines 1009–1108), dramatic irony abounds when he assures Oedipus several times that his news will free Oedipus from worry, not only because Polybus is dead but especially because Polybus and Merope were not his real parents.
Finally, after Jocasta, having divined the truth, rushes away from Oedipus in horror and pity, Oedipus makes the following speech, which, under the circumstances, is ghastly in its overtones:
Break out what will! I at least shall be willing to see my ancestry, though humble. Perhaps she is ashamed of my low birth, for she has all a woman’s high-flown pride. But I account myself a child of Fortune, beneficent Fortune, and I shall not be dishonored. She’s the mother from whom I spring; the months, my brothers, marked me, now as small, and now again as mighty. Such is my breeding,
and I shall never prove so false to it, as not to find the secret of my birth. (lines 1145–1155)
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In Italia, famosa per la sua cucina, esistono tantissimi prodotti di origine protetta (DOP). L’acronimo DOP viene riconosciuto a quei prodotti le cui caratteristiche dipendono, oltre che dalla lavorazione, dal luogo in cui sono prodotti. Per questo se al supermercato si vuole comprare un aceto balsamico autentico, e quindi prodotto a Modena, basterà cercare per il marchio DOP che ci assicura la provenienza di quel prodotto. Tra i prodotti DOP italiani si trovano tantissimi formaggi e, naturalmente, tanti salumi: il Salame Brianza della Lombardia, il Culatello di Zibello, il Prosciutto di Parma e quello di San Daniele, le Coppe di Piacenza e Ferrara, lo Speck dell’Alto Adige e la Bresaola della Valtellina ne sono solo un piccolo esempio. La Bresaola è un prodotto particolare, conosciuto e consumato principalmente in Italia e in Svizzera e, a differenza degli altri salumi qui elencati, non è fatto con carne di maiale ma con carne di manzo. Le prime notizie della Bresaola risalgono al quindicesimo secolo ma la sua origine è senza dubbio precedente. Alla fine del 1700 la produzione era limitata all’ambito familiare, ma già dai primi anni del 1800 era diventata una voce importante per l’economia della zona. Il miglior modo di gustarla è come antipasto, con un po’ di limone, sale, pepe e delle scaglie di parmigiano reggiano. La Bresaola sembra apparire in Italia _____. a. dal XV secolo b. dalla fine del 1700 c. dai primi anni del 1800
Write the correct pronoun in the blank. What kind of man would forget (his, their) promises to Danielle?
Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
Voy a comprar una _______________________ de huevos.
Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
An example of the type of emotional appeal known as association is
a. the use of an image of the Statue of Liberty in a campaign advertisement. b. a credit-card commercial featuring the cast of a popular television show. c. an ad for skin cream claiming to rejuvenate and restore sun-damaged skin. d. an editorial stating that most pediatricians recommend flu shots for children.