Ignorance In Sophocles Oedipus The King

The theme of sight and blindness is undoubtedly important to notice while reading Oedipus the King. The number of times the words “see” or “blind” are in the play make it make it undeniably obvious that they are significant. The theme is developed throughout the dialogue, through characters such as Tiresias and Oedipus, and also directly in the irony of the play. It is important in a play about the truth because almost every character was “blind” to the truth. All of the characters, except one, can physically see, but mentally cannot see the truth.

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Another aspect of the theme that was observed through references of blindness and sight is guilt and disgrace. From the beginning of the play, Sophocles establishes the theme of guilt which can be seen throughout the play, as Oedipus tries to find the person who was guilty for the murder of King Laius. His search to find the guilty individual leads him to the truth which is that he murdered King Laius, who was his father, and that he married his mother Jocaste. After finding this out, he enters an epiphany of guilt and shame as he recognizes this morbid fact. He says after blinding himself “If I had eyes, I do not know how I could bear the sight of my father, when I came to the house of Death,

He is consumed in hubris as he disbelieved the oracles, and sealed his fate. Although he was cursed at birth for his father's misdeeds, his godlessness paired with vain pride leads him deeper into tragedy. Prophecy foretold that Oedipus would kill his father, and marry his mother. Jocasta, without belief in the gods, prays to them. She only prays to them at her own convenience. She prays to the altar of Apollo requesting that Oedipus doesn't learn the truth of the situation. Jocasta thinks that her prayer has come true. A messenger walks in, and reveals that Oedipus' dad has died. She doesn't want Oedipus to find out who his true parents are. Polybus was believed to be Oedipus' father. He was relieved to hear of Polybus' dying a natural death as a sign that the oracles are false. “PAGE 26/40 OEDIPUS...the oracles are dead-- Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus. JOCASTA “Tell me Oedipus, didn't I tell you this would happen a long time ago?” But Jocasta was just praying to those same 'powerless' gods. Despite the brief relief of his dead father, he refused to visit his mother. He feared the other half of the prophecy, for he was scared of scorn from the Gods. He constantly questions if it can be true, and wavers on the line of deception and truth. Oedipus lives in deception. He lives in constant sorrow and unease, for he is sacrilegious and hypocritical. “PAGE 26/40 OEDIPUS If only my mother

Oedipus doesn’t realize the personal consequences his hunt for the murderer will have for him, and his loyalty to the truth is based on his ignorance. His pride, ignorance and unrelenting quest for the truth ultimately contributed to his destruction. An example is when Oedipus was told [after threatening Tiresias], that he was responsible for the murder of Laius. He became enraged and called the old oracle a liar. However, Oedipus thought he could outsmart the gods, but in fact, his every action moved him closer to the prophesy becoming a reality. Upon discovery of the truth of his birth from the herdsman, Oedipus cries, “O god all come true, all burst to light!/O light now let me look my last on you!/I stand revealed at last cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands”. (631). Oedipus knew that his fate had indeed come to pass and feels cursed by it. Oedipus was guilt, of killing his father and marrying his mother. He punishes himself for the sins he committed by gouging out his eyes. The true sin is when he attempts to raise himself to the level of the gods by trying to escape his fate. Oedipus is accepting the full burden of his acts and knows that he must be punished for his sins. Therefore, this last act of gouging out his eyes was the result of Oedipus’ free will and his tragic fate came about because every sin must

King Oedipus’ problem is that he is too arrogant. His arrogance is what causes him to be “blind”. Not knowing he was the killer of Laius made him blind. He was also blind to the fact that Jocasta, his wife, who actually his mom, and Laius was his dad. Although people kept dropping hints to him, but his ignorance and his overbearing attitude didn’t allow him to see the truth. For instance, a blind prophet named Tiresias tried to point out to Oedipus who the killer was, hoping he’d catch on. While having a conversation about the killer with the seer Tiresias, Oedipus states, “All right King, you mock my blindness…You think you know your parents, but you are blind to the fact that you are their worst enemy!” (Oedipus the King 46). Even though the blind prophet basically told him everything, his arrogance got in his way. Therefore, Oedipus is torn when he finds out about his parents.

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

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

Although the Greek meaning of Oedipus is to see or know, Oedipus was a blinded man both figuratively and later, literally. Oedipus’ whole life seemed to be a lie, as a great deal of information about himself was kept away from his knowledge. In Sophocles’ Oedipus The King, the motifs of blindness and sight reveal the universal theme of while having sight, we can also be blinded of the truth. Oedipus’ denial of the truth, while having sight, shows that his blindness was both non intentional and intentional.

A symbol shown in the play was the idea of sight versus blindness. Sight means knowledge but blindness means a lack of knowledge. In lines 389 to 399, Teiresias says, “ You mock my blindness, do you? But I say that you, with both eyes, are blind,” which was directed to Oedipus. Teiresias is a blind-seer who holds all the knowledge about everything.

Another example is when Oedipus said to Tiresias, "You've lost your power, stone-blind, stone-deaf - senses, eyes blind as stone!”. By the end of the story, Oedipus was almost exactly that. This play also has multiple themes including fate. One can not overcome their own fate no matter what precautions they try to take because ultimately their life is dictated by events beyond anybody’s control. An example from the play is when Oedipus is told by an astrologer that he will marry his mother and kill his father. To prevent this from happening he leaves the country as a precaution, but little did he know that he did not actually know his true identity and actually returned to his home country. Oedipus does end up killing his father and marrying his mother just as the astrologer predicted, because even though he tried to run away from his own fate, destiny always has a way of working things out and placed him where he was supposed to be. Another example of theme is sight and blindness, there are references to eyesight throughout the play. Although clear-eyed Oedipus is blind to the truth about his real identity and crimes, the prophet Tiresias who is literally blind, sees the truth and relays what is revealed to him. This theme proves a point that although Tiresias is blind, he sees more than Oedipus

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.

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

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.

In the play Oedipus The King written by Sophocles, it is the blind man who can see the truth of Oedipus and Jocasta’s relationship and it is those that see, Oedipus and Jocasta, who are blind to the truth. When Oedipus finally sees the truth of his actions, he blinds himself in horror. The irony here is that only the blind see things clearly, while the seeing blind themselves to the reality in front of them. While believing himself to be living in the light, Oedipus is actually living in darkness. The story of Oedipus begins as a murder mystery in a village that is suffering from a plague that is threatening to destroy the village. The author continues to use prophets and messengers as well as irony to follow the main character. Sophocles uses the motif of blindness and sight, the contrasting imagery of darkness and light, along with dramatic irony to bring a huge impact to the meaning of the story. A motif is a symbol which can take on a figurative meaning. In this case the author uses blindness and sight as the motif. Imagery is used as a descriptive language. In this story the author uses light and dark as imagery. Dramatic irony is an irony that happened when the meaning of a situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters. An example of dramatic irony is shown when the old soothsayer visits the King. Oedipus did not listen to the man because he's blind, and Teiresias is full of anger tells the Oedipus that though he might be able to see he is "blind" to the truth. When Oedipus finally becomes blind at the end of the play, Oedipus realizes the truth of the soothsayer’s words. Irony is also showing that the only person that can see the truth is the blind man.