Sight And Blindness In Oedipus Rex

“O, O, O, they will all come … with them I lived with, cursed in my killing”(1363-1368), Oedipus has now physically become the thing he’s symbolically been all this time: blind. Oedipus’ reason to do such an action is that he is unwilling to look on the horrors that his unwitting actions have created. "What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy”(1473-74), this quote furthers Sophocles metaphor of sight as Oedipus curses himself of not being able to see the truth while he had his eyes, so now that he is physically blind it make no difference. It can also mean that maybe he does not want to see anything as all that he loves will remind him of his horrible

The author, Sophocles, of the play Oedipus the King, portrays the word “blindness” in two ironic ways. Though before the reader learns about this they must understand the purpose of why Sophocles used “blindness”, the author is trying to teach his audience to see clearly more around them, rather than being ignorant around the world that is around them. Oedipus, the main focus of the play, is seen “blind” in an important part of the play, when his wife, Jocasta, or later to be found out as his mom, finds out that the person she married is her son, and that she had, had children with him, so in the end she hangs herself, his wife was blind at the start just like her son, but now she sees that the fate of Oedipus was to come true. In summation of Oedipus’ fate that the ancient Greeks believed in very well, once Oedipus was born his fate in his life was to kill

Most people believe eyes are the window to the soul, but in this ancient Greek tragedy, eyes can be an indicator to someone's intelligence level. The blind do not always have the power to see into the future just as those with sight are not always aware of their present day predicaments, but in Ancient Greek, both of those are accurate. Sight and ignorance go hand-in-hand as well as blindness and knowledge do in the story Oedipus by Sophocles. Sophocles uses irony to emphasize positives and negatives for two men, Oedipus, King of Thebes and Tiresias, local Oracle.

The motif of blindness is first shown when Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer. Tiresias didn’t want to tell Oedipus the

Sophocles uses blindness as a metaphor for Oedipus’ ignorance in the matter of his origin. The tragic hero Oedipus, blind to the veracity of his fate he sought to avoid, came about without his knowledge. Not long after Oedipus’ birth, his ankles were pinned together and taken away from his home of Thebes left to die on a barren mountain. An oracle expresses to his father, King Liaos, "that his doom would be at the hands of his own son"(188). Acting as his biological family, the royals of Corinth cuckolds Oedipus in order to raise him without strafe. In this instance, Oedipus’ ignorance and the deception put on by his parents’ supports his own afflictions.

Even those who acquire the physical ability to see may be blind to truth and the comprehension of it. Although humans have a large capacity for knowledge, even the smartest individual is prone to error and may be ultimately sightless to the obvious solution due to what they chose not to see. This theme of constant and initial blindness becomes recurring in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. This recurring theme seems to play an important role in the development of the events and characters in Oedipus the King.

This illustrates the pattern of blindness that is prevalent throughout Greek plays. Literal vision is clearly seen as not helpful unless you can actually see what is going on. Oedipus’s figurative sight comes from his understanding of his true parentage. And for him, receiving true sight necessitates shaking off the distractions of literal vision.

Blindness and sight were used to represent the amount of knowledge and lack thereof a character had of Oedipus's true identity and his faults. Blindness and sight is mentioned multiple times creating a motif, and this constant emphasis makes it a symbol. Oedipus had his literal sight but was oblivious to the truth, despite it being right in front of him. Tiresias on the other hand was a blind prophet and had the knowledge of Oedipus's true identity. Teiresias tried to tell Oedipus that he had been the one to kill king Laius, but Oedipus was quick to deny that he could have had anything to do with it. Tiresias comments on Oedipus oblivion, "You have you sight yet you cannot see" (Sophocles 62). Blindness as a symbol is repeated again, after Oedipus finally realizes that he was the one to have murdered the king, and that he had unknowingly married his mother. Oedipus, overwhelmed with this knowledge and his grief, gauged out his eyes with the brooches of Iocasta's dress after she had killed herself. Oedipus had gained the knowledge of his faults and was no longer figuratively blind to the truth, but as a result to this information he had literally blinded himself. Blindness as a symbol to represent a character's amount of knowledge is repeated multiple times, developing a key theme in Oedipus the King, knowledge vs

In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus remains blind throughout the play, both figuratively and literally. The play is about a man named Oedipus whose fate is to kill his father and marry his mother. His biological parents, knowing about the Oedipus’ prophecy, abandons him, and continue with their lives. However, Oedipus is saved, but spends his life running away from his adoptive parents (who he believed to be his biological parents), afraid that the prophecy may come true. As the audience knows, the prophecy has been fulfilled, however, Oedipus is oblivious to the truth. He often chooses to ignore the truth and remain figuratively blind to what everyone is trying to prove to him. He accuses Tiresias, the blind prophet, of being a liar, continuing to then unreasonably project his anger towards Creon . Once he finally opens his eyes to the truth, he decides to gouge out his eyes, becoming literally blind.

The whole idea of sight vs. blindness in Oedipus Rex points to the theme of fate and free will. For example, Tiresias points out that Oedipus “(has his) sight, and (does) not see,” referring to the fact that the king ignored his fate, instead, choosing to go out on his own (page 15). Oedipus is famously “blind” up until page 45, when he literally goes blind. Before he actually goes blind, the main character is “blind in (the) mind,” which means he is unable to see his fate that is right in front of him (page 14). By being blind to his own fate, Oedipus falls into the theme of illusion vs. reality. He lives in an illusion of perfection, being the king and married to a woman with whom he had four children (backstory). Reality hit Oedipus when it is made clear to him that he actually

Oedipus enters the play with the belief that his life was great. He felt powerful and honored by all of the townspeople, as they were relying on him to save the town from the plague. As the play begins, the motif of blindness is introduced to Oedipus as he embarks on his journey of ups and downs, mystery, and recurring blindness. He thinks he has the ability to see everything in terms of the murder mystery of King Laois, but he was actually blind of the truth. The appearance of blindness continues as Oedipus accuses Teiresias, the old blind man, of being blind, not only in vision, but in knowledge. “You sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man” (Sophocles 19). This scene is where the motif of blindness emerges and begins to take action.

You have blind eyes, blind ears, and a blind brain” (446-447). The wise man attempts to resist revealing the complete portentous truth but eventually gives warning: “And you are a desperate fool – throwing taunts at me that these men, very soon, will throw at you” (448-449). Even this remark fails to open the king’s eyes as he continues to insult and accuse Tiresias. The fortuneteller then describes the life that is to come for Oedipus the king: “A blind man who still has eyes, a beggar who is now rich, he’ll jab his stick, feeling the road to foreign lands” (551-553). When at last Oedipus realizes he is the murderer he set out to find, he cannot contain his rage.

Humans are constantly held back by a paucity of physical and metaphorical comprehension of their senses. Every day, people are blinded by fresh knowledge. What they hear or see is not always pleasant news, and often is disconcerting, thus resulting in a grueling pursuit of truth that has frustrated many in their advancement of knowledge, including with the eponymous character in Oedipus Rex. In Sophocles’ highly acclaimed play, blindness is repeated as a pivotal symbol ironically revealing the truth. Tiresias, a blind prophet foretells Oedipus of his prophecy: Oedipus is both brother and father to his children, and he killed his own father, King Laius (Sophocles 37). This initial conflict gives rise to the overarching struggle: to find the truth behind his fate. Oedipus can physically see, but his overarching hamartia is his mental

In many stories of the theme of a tragic hero, it is said that even when exposed to the truth, certain characters still cannot accept what is presented to them, disregarding the obviousness of the facts. Oedipus is a most definitely perfect example of this. His "blindness” played throughout the whole Greek play and that he was "blind" in several ways. Oedipus was "blind" to the truth about his own life. Oedipus has no idea that his real biological

From the very beginning of Oedipus, one can see that the main character of Oedipus is very sure about who he is and where he has come from. One of the most important motifs of the story is the idea of metaphorical blindness, and how Oedipus claims that everyone else around him is blind, and he is the only one that can see. However, what Oedipus soon finds out is that he has no idea who he is, and that all along he has been blind himself. Sophocles makes Oedipus suffer because of the fact that he actually has no idea who he is, and almost avoids figuring it out. It takes a defining moment for it to dawn on Oedipus that he is not who he thought he was. Oedipus’ blindness seems to have been his downfall, but the more prevalent question that