Oedipus Rex. A play that stages the story of a man who, due to ignorance, struggles with destiny for his free will and his blindness towards the truth; lead him to his death. With so many critical elements in a single play, there must be a climax where all these elements come together and culminate in a key passage. The passage in lines 350-450 accomplishes this. There are several elements in this passage, but there are five significant ones: character development, the theme of ignorance, fate versus free will, and blindness to the truth are revealed; and there is also a foreshadowing of Oedipus' death as a result of these elements. The purpose of this essay will be to investigate these elements and establish this passage as a key passage in Oedipus Rex. In this key passage, Sophocles develops the character of Oedipus through the use of dramatic irony; which then leads to a relationship with the theme of blindness towards the truth. The purpose of dramatic irony is to attract attention and emphasize the limited nature of the human condition. Dramatic irony causes the reader to stop and reflect on a particular moment. Dramatic irony can be seen in the speech between Oedipus and Teiresias: “OEDIPUS: What say you? / You know it and you won't say it? Do you intend / to betray me and destroy the city?" (Ln. 396-398). This is a perfect example of dramatic irony because Oedipus is inciting Tiresias to reveal the knowledge that Tiresias refuses to bequeath to Oedipus by accusing him of treachery and treachery. The dramatic irony is that Tiresias would not betray Oedipus by telling him; rather, knowledge itself ends up betraying Oedipus. When Tiresias conveys to Oedipus the knowledge that Oedipus himself is the "accursed polluter of this earth... middle of paper... g the gods. All elements considered: the inclusion of the play's central themes, which serve as a tool for character development and to display all three types of arrogance; this culmination would clearly indicate that this is a key passage. However, there is much more to a key passage than simple literary devices and character development; there is also context. In the context of the rest of the work, if one were to think of this work as a road, one might in turn see this passage as a fork in that road. This step is a crossroads because different outcomes could occur at this point in the game. Without this step, many events happen; don't do it. Therefore, lines 350-450 are an example of a key passage that is significant to the entire work as a whole because it not only demonstrates the use of significant literary devices and themes, but is also vital to the plot as well..