The Blindness Of Oedipus And Plato's The Republic

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

The word “blindness” can be used thematically and literally; thematically being someone can be ignorant or oblivious to see the truth or world around them, and in a literal sense it means that a person is physically blind. In Oedipus the King by Sophocles the role of “blindness” literally and thematically is used to show how the character Oedipus is oblivious to see the “truth” in his life is like Donald Trump, America’s forty-fifth president, on his views of climate change. Donald Trump is “blinded” by the fact that climate change is a real problem and in his mind the crazy weather is just the weather itself acting up.

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’s tragic flaw is gained once he obtained his greatness and became king. Oedipus’s knowledge contained arrogance, and a metaphorical blindness that fosters his urge for the truth. Hence, Oedipus’s tragic flaw was his own intelligence, which later became curiosity for the all the burdens that is be fallen over his kingdom. He had a troubling obsession for learning the truth, so he could not sit aside so he went on a menacing quest for answers. Oedipus stated a message that reveled his flaw, “Then once more I must bring what is dark to light, but for my own sake to be rid of evil” ( Sophocles 134; 140). His pride and determination clouded his judgment to see the surface of the whole truth. The truth is Oedipus wanted to avoid his fate, but instead his own tragic flaw walked him into it. Even after Oedipus learned of the truth from the prophecy, his mind continued to deny what was the actual truth. The prophet spoke these words to Oedipus, “I say that you, with your eyes, are blind / you can not see the wretchedness of your life” (Sophocles 196-197). He still ventured on to find the alternative to his fate and he only became worse. Soon Oedipus’s pride corrupted his intelligence increasing his flaw. He now accused anyone who restated the prophecy and told all they were only after his crown.

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.

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

Tragic and foreboding are some of the many tones that overlook “Oedipus the King”. Oedipus is a hero with mostly good intentions but because of his tragic flaw of ignorance ends himself in agony. The fact

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.

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.

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

Oedipus displayed his faulty character throughout the play by showing how he is filled with ill-temper and pride, especially during his confrontation with Apollo’s blind prophet, Tiresias. He allowed his own hubris to take over him, eventually leading to his disaster at the end of the story. Now, some critics may argue that Oedipus did not actually go through a downfall in the play, but when looking back at the definition of a tragic hero, it can be seen that there are evidence to prove that Oedipus is a tragic hero.

In the play Oedipus Rex, we get follow the story of current King Oedipus, and his struggle to discover who killed the King prior to himself, King Laius; but in the process of trying to discover the truth, he also leads to his own downfall. Oedipus is a perfect example of how “Ignorance is bliss”, if you don’t know something, do not try to look into it. Oedipus makes the mistake of looking into something too much, and he discovers that he wife is really his mother, and that he also murdered his father. Oedipus is a great example of a “Tragic Hero”, he has good intentions of trying to save Thebes by looking for the killer, but he ends up causing his own downfall. Oedipus Rex is a warning from Sophocles stating that you should not attempt to look

In Oedipus the king, he was a very intelligent man, who choose his fate and that led him to a tragedy later on throughout his years a king. A few factors that find their way into the