Sight And Blindness In Sophocles Oedipus The King

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,

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.

    Oedipus Rex (the King), written by Sophocles, is the tragic play depicting the disastrous existence to which Oedipus, an Athenian, is 'fated' to endure. With a little help from the gods and the 'fated' actions and decisions of Oedipus, an almost unthinkable misfortune unfolds. Athenian perfection can consist of intelligence, self-confidence, and a strong will. Oedipus, the embodiment of such perfection, and his tragedy are common place to Athenians. Ironically, the very same exact characteristics that bring about the ominous discovery of Oedipus' fate: to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus' 'fated' decisions entangle everyone whom is of any significance to him

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.

Actually figurative blindness can be harder to deal with then literal blindness. A person who is physically blind knows that he will probably be blind the rest of his life. He is aware of the fact that he cannot see the visual things, he accept this condition and learns to live with that. However, if a person is blind to a situation, there is nothing that person can do until they figure out the truth because they are do not even have the awareness of their disability. It creates more complex problems in ‘’real life’’ which can not be solved easily or maybe totally can not be solved just like it can not in the story. All of them find a way out accordingly. Oedipus learned the truth, his way of dealing with his figurative blindness was to blind himself. When Jocasta learned the truth, her way of dealing with her figurative blindness was to kill herself. In this play, in every situation, blindness led to the truth, and the truh led to the blindness. Oedipus, Teiresias, and Jocasta were all blind, yet all found the truth. Sophocles real aim was to show this contrast between blindness and the truth but also proved that they can both turn into each

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

In the play Oedipus the King, Sophocles use the blindness of Teiresias to point out the great power behind wisdom and understand. "Teiresias, by your art you read signs and secrets of the earth and the sky; therefore you know, although you cannot see" (Sophicles 58). "Teiresias, although he had

In a way he was similar to a child, blind to the world around him and carefree. As his story progressed, he began to mature into a teenage stage and become more aware of his surroundings. When Oedipus arrived at the end of his story, he finally began to grow into adulthood, fully conscious of his deeds and able to carry their weight. Oedipus, now visionless, possessed metaphorical sight, no longer blind to the fate the gods had decreed for him. Clearly, Sophocles used vision and blindness to illustrate that wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are not attributes limited to only those with

The theme of blindness vs. sight is clearly shown throughout this passage. Up until this point in the play Oedipus was able to see but was blind to the truth that he is the killer of Laius and that he married his mother, but in this passage, Oedipus is now blind and unable to see, but he can finally see the truth. This passage also has multiple words related to sight, “Could I want eyes to see that pretty sight?... To see the tower of Thebes… Have forbidden myself to see… Could I want sight to face this people’s stare?” which emphasizes the fact that Oedipus can no longer see and that he does not want to see because he does not want to face all those that he has affected by not being able to see the truth in this life and in the afterlife.

Thus, Sophocles took Jocasta’s life in a painless way by a simple hanging, but he chooses Oedipus to blind himself with Jocasta’s brooch. Therefore, the writer reveals the moral of the play, as Oedipus cries that he “would not have to come to kill [his] father and marry [his] mother infamously. Now [he deems as] godless and child of impurity, begetter in the same seed that created my wretched self. If there any ill worse than ill, that [shows] the lot of Oedipus” (Sophocles 1539-1545). Then Oedipus resumes to reveal that he partly understands that he will not die because of his fate at the end of the play by asking Creon to “give [him] a life wherever the [opportunity considers available] to love, and better than [his] father’s”

The eyes exist as important organs in shaping the human experience. As such, it is unsurprising that they are often used as symbolic objects in many cultures along with literary and artistic works. As the eyes literally provide humans and most other creatures with sight, many often use their function as a metaphor for a greater understanding of truth. In fact, a common phrase for describing someone who cannot find the truth is referring to such a person as “blind.” In the tragedy Oedipus Rex, the playwright Sophocles both plays into this common notion and turns it on its head simultaneously, using blindness as a symbol of both knowledge and ignorance.

In the play, “Oedipus Rex”, many ironies took place, as well as fate playing a huge part in the story. “Oedipus Rex” is a story about a man that tries to overcome adversity but cannot escape his prophecy. His parents took him to a hillside as an infant, sliced his Achilles tendons and left him there. A shepherd soon came to his rescue. “King and Queen of Thebes, gave their infant to a shepherd in with orders that he be left on the side of the mountainside to die” (Johnson 1205). As he grew older and much wiser, he went to see the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle informed him that his destiny was to kill his father and marry his mother. The main ironies in the play are the killing of Oedipus’s biological father, the odd relationship with his mother, and the inability of Oedipus to avoid his fate.

In Sophocles' play, "Oedipus The King," the continuous references to eyes and sight possess a much deeper meaning than the literal message. These allusions are united with several basic underlying themes. The story contains common Ancient Greek philosophies, including those of Plato and Parmenides, which are often discussed and explained during such references. A third notion is the punishment of those who violate the law of the Gods. The repeated mentioning of sight and eyes signify the numerous ancient Greek beliefs present in the story.

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