Blindness In Oedipus The King

People equate ‘seeing’ to gaining knowledge. Expressions such as “I see” and “seeing truth” are used to express understanding of something, but is seeing really the same as knowing? In Oedipus the King, Oedipus’s inability to grasp the truth is despite the fact that he is physically able to see contrasts Teiresias’s knowledge of the truth even though he is blind. The irony of the blind man being knowledgeable, and the seer becoming blind to the truth suggests that the idea that knowledge is not related to physical sight. In the beginning of the play, Oedipus is able to see but does not know the truth about who killed Laius. At the conclusion of the play, Oedipus is

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

King Lear is the character who suffers the most from blindness in the play. His three daughters are most likely the main cause of his mental blindness. In the very first act of the play we see that Lear is easily fooled by his two eldest daughters Regan and Goneril, and we also see his inability to realize Cordelia’s true love for him when she tells him the truth. His blindness causes a rift in the family, and Lear banishes Cordelia from the kingdom saying “Thou hast her, France; let her be thine, for we / Have no such daughter, nor shall

In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, an honourable and admirable Greek king named Oedipus rules the town of Thebes. He is left in mental turmoil and decay as his unknown, corrupt and immoral past is slowly revealed during his quest to find the culprit who murdered King Laius. The newly exposed past suddenly transforms his glory and respect into shame and humiliation. After he learns about his wicked past he stabs his eyes, which lead to his blindness. During the course of the play, references to blindness and vision constantly recur, giving the reader an enhanced and more insightful look into the themes of the play. Some themes that are expressed through these references include truth and knowledge, guilt, and freewill versus

People may be blinded to truth, and may not realize what truth is, even if truth is standing in front of them. They will never see truth becase they are blind to it. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles it is easy to see how blindness affects the transition of the story. It is said that blind people see “in a different manner” because they sense the world in a totally diferent way, such as Teiresias in the play. Oedipus Rex is a tragedy due to the content the Sophocles, the playwright, decided to include, first, murdering his father, king Laius, then marrying his mother, Jocasta, and ending by blinding himself. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth all his life. Eventually, when he seeks the truth he intentionally loses his physical vision, and

In Oedipus his backstory is important because it is the basis for his uncertain vision. Oedipus the King was the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta, but because of a Prophecy that Laius would be killed by his son, he was ordered to be bound and left on the mountain to die by his parents a few days after his birth. Instead the shepherd who was given the duty gave the newborn to a shepherd from a nearby kingdom to rear as his own. That shepherd instead, gave him to Polybus, the King of Corinth who, unable to produce children of his own, raised Oedipus as his son. Years later Oedipus unknowingly killed Laius, and then solved the riddle of the Sphinx, becoming the King of Thebes and winning the hand of Jocasta (his birth mother) in marriage. Several years later, when told of his deeds, Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus tore his eyes out.

Oedipus Rex is a play about the way we blind ourselves to painful truths that we can’t bear to see. Physical sight and blindness are used throughout the play, often ironically, as a metaphor for mental sight and blindness. The play ends with the hero Oedipus literally blinding himself to avoid seeing the result of his terrible fate. But as the play demonstrates, Oedipus, the man who killed his father and impregnated his mother, has been blind all along, and is partly responsible for his own blindness.

Oedipus thought his life was great. Feeling powerful and almighty, Oedipus was wonderful at solving riddles, but did not like the answer to the riddle of who he really was. Although many told him to stop trying to figure out the answer, it was not in his nature to give up. Oedipus thought he could see everything, but he was actually blind of the truth about his life until the end.

In many countries around the world, ignorance carries a considerable weight in politics, households, between friends, and in other vicinities. This ignorance can be depicted as blindness of the mind. In the Greek philosopher Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King, Oedipus’ family and friends share their blindness in the fact that they love Oedipus and don’t have a desire to know the truth of his ruined past. They keep things from Oedipus and end up withholding the actualities of life from themselves in the process. Sophocles urges the reader that the love people clutch to can cause people to lose sight of the truth. He then expands on the blindness, demonstrating the idea that when the truth comes out, it pulls the love a person feels for another into darkness with it. Love is fragile, and can be easily destroyed by the opening of the eye, causing families to crumble underneath.

A simple process formed the backbone of most Greek philosophy.  The ancients thought that by combining two equally valid but opposite ideas, the thesis and the antithesis, a new, higher truth could be achieved.  That truth is called the synthesis.  This tactic of integrating two seemingly opposite halves into a greater whole was a tremendous advance in human logic.  This practice is illustrated throughout Oedipus at Colonus in regard to Sophocles’ portrayal of vision, sight, and the eye.  In Colonus, there are many and varied descriptions of the aspects of the eye, whether the eye be human or divine.  To Sophocles, the eye must have been a synthesis, both physical and spiritual, yet

The truth often comes as a gift, it comes at the most unexpected moments. It takes one by surprise, whether it’s good or bad. How can a gift be bad? Say someone gets an unexpected gift, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be something one would want. In Oedipus Rex, the truth manages to unravel, bringing havoc among the people of Thebes and Oedipus himself. Throughout the play, Sophocles reveals many symbols to help illustrate the theme that one cannot hide from the truth permanently.

Blindness plays a two-fold part in Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King.'; First, Sophocles presents blindness as a physical disability affecting the auger Teiresias, and later Oedipus; but later, blindness comes to mean an inability to see the evil in one’s actions and the consequences that ensue. The irony in this lies in the fact that Oedipus, while gifted with sight, is blind to himself, in contrast to Teiresias, blind physically, but able to see the evil to which Oedipus has fallen prey to. Tragically, as Oedipus gains the internal gift of sight, he discards his outward gift of sight. Sight, therefore, seems to be like good and evil, a person may only choose one.

If it was said that a blind man had perfect vision or that a man with eyesight was totally blind, that might be considered an oxymoron. Obviously, the blind man can’t see and the other can. But, is that really true? The play Oedipus the King incontrovertibly portrays how easily a person can enjoy eyesight whilst being oblivious to the truth. Tiresias and Oedipus, characters from the play, demonstrate a blind man seeing things clearly and a seeing man possessing obscured vision, even though he has perfect eyesight. The symbolism of vision, or the lack thereof, portrayed in this tragedy does not mean one has been endowed with wisdom, knowledge, or understanding.

In the play Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, a man named Oedipus is trying to figure out what is causing a plague in the city. Throughout the play, many people are trying to give him clues that he is the cause for marrying his mother. Realizing this, Oedipus stabs out his eyeballs and leaves the city. In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, Antigone buried Polyneices, and Creon wants to have her killed because of it. Tiresias, the blind prophet, tries to persuade Creon that the gods actually want Polyneices buried. Creon then wants to release Antigone, but she had already hung herself. The rest of the family then commits suicide. In the end of both plays, Creon and Oedipus both suffer due to blindness vs. sight.

What is sight? Is it just the ability to recognize one’s surroundings or is there more? Is it knowledge? Is it understanding? Can a blind man see? Can the sighted be blind? And beyond, when the truth is too terrible, do we choose not to see? The phrase "too see" has so very many connotations. One meaning is to know or to understand and the other is based on the physical aspects of things. As humans, we are distracted by the physical world, which causes us to be blinded by the most obvious of truths. Oedipus, the main character in Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, could not see the truth, but the blind man, Teiresias, "saw" it plainly. Sophocles’ uses blindness as a motif in the play Oedipus Rex.