Examples Of Blindness In Oedipus The King

Deep in the forest lived a blind man named Carl. Once a week Carl would travel to the nearest city to buy supplies and food. One day, a young boy decided to play a trick on Carl, the boy would catch a bug, and then ask if the bug was alive or dead. If Carl said “alive” the boy would crush the bug and show Carl the bug was dead. If Carl answered “dead” the boy would let the bug fly away, alive. The next time Carl visited the city, the boy executed his plan and asked Carl if the bug was alive or dead. Carl’s simple response was, “It is what you choose it to be.” Wisdom does not require literal sight as shown throughout both

What does blindness exactly mean? If we speak literally, it means to be unable to see because of injury, disease, or a congenital condition. If the term is to be used in a figurative way, its means to have a lack of perception, awareness, or judgment to a situation. Unfortunately for the main character, Oedipus, in the tragedy Oedipus the King by Sophocles, he had fallen under the two categories of blindness. From the moment Oedipus takes the throne at Thebes, he wants to figure out how to end the plague there to which it is announced that the only way to end the plague at Thebes is to find and punish the murderer of King Laius, Thebes’ former king. The problem is King Laius is also Oedipus’s biological father whom he had unknowingly killed on the crossroads on his way to Thebes. Although Oedipus was completely oblivious to it, the motif of blindness in Oedipus the King is used to reveal his stubbornness, how it enhances the main conflict of Oedipus’ ignorance to his current situation, and expresses how Sophocles views fate as a crucial and unchangeable part in a person’s life.

Blindness and Sight Motifs in Oedipus the King In life, there are numerous situations in which people can be "blind to reality" and in Oedipus the King, it is very distinctive. One character greatly exemplifies the concept of blindness and sight and that is Tiresias. When he says, “You are murderer, you are the unholy defilement of this land,” (21) it shows how Tiresias sees the prophecy’s truth. Though physically blind, he is able to see what Oedipus' truth to his origin is, and metaphorically sees what Oedipus cannot.

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.

“The god's design is open, all his oracle is clear: kill the impious one, the parricide, kill me. (page 260, Oedipus The King)” He stabs his eyes because he wanted to”gaze upon [his] father's face in Hades or [his] unhappy mother's (page 258, Oedipus)” Oedipus is overreacting to the extreme. Even his newly-realized brother, Creon, agrees, “It's not to scoff or scorn for past behavior Oedipus...show some reverence for the dignity of man… (page 260, Oedipus)” This is where Oedipus could have behaved differently – he should have seen the fulfilling of his prophecy coming, and just dealt with it.

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.

After reading the play it is clear that there are few different themes, though the one which will be discussed in this essay is the theme of blindness. Blindness appears in all people; because there is not anyone who can predict his/her future or fate, even if they have the ability to "see’’. they tend avoid "seeing" the truth or trying to understand it clearly and perfectly with a way which the fate had choosen for them, this state can supported with a famous quote;"A blind man knows he cannot see and he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide". Throughout the story Oedipus is "blind" by his inability to understand that the prophecy

Typically, a disability is seen as a limitation and an impairment. Oedipus’s figurative blindness is indeed an impairment that shrouds him from piecing the truths of the prophecy together. It cast him into the world of the unknown in which he had no authority over his life. He was in the palm of the gods’ hands, walking in line with the destiny fated to him. But at the realization of the truth, he is unclouded from the figurative blindness.

One of the many symbols Sophocles portrays throughout the play is sight and blindness. Sight represents how Oedipus had eyesight, but was still “blind” to the truth of himself throughout most of the play. He was both hesitant and unaware of the events that built up to

The Blindness Motif The role of blindness can be found in ancient Greek plays with both scenarios of literal and figurative blindness. Some plays use the blindness motif with irony, to sometimes create a theme in the plays. Instances in the Greek play written by Sophocles shows the theme of curiosity through eyes, and it can reflect on today’s culture. The blindness motif in Oedipus the King has been proven by Oedipus himself and can also be seen in today’s culture, with the 45th president, Donald Trump.

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.

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” (Helen Keller, n.d.)

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.

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.

After it is revealed that Oedipus blinded himself with two pins from his wife’s dress, the Chorus is in disarray and says, “O the terror- the suffering, for all the world to see, the worst terror that ever met my eyes. What madness swept over you? What god, what dark power leapt beyond all bounds, beyond belief, to crush your wretched life?- godforsaken, cursed by the gods!” (Sophocles 1434-1440). Oedipus himself begins to seek answers within himself for these very questions and the irony becomes very clear. While ultimately it was up to the gods, what really makes Oedipus a tragic hero is that he had a choice to live happily or make it worse for himself and very simply could’ve just accepted and supported the gods’ decision. The Chorus’ questioning is