Theme Of Ignorance In Oedipus The King

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.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles’ is intertwined with many powerful themes and messages, establishing what real vision and real sight are. Sophocles’ play also demonstrates that sometimes in life we have to experience great loss in order to rediscover our true selves. In Oedipus’s quest for truth, lack of self-control, ignorance and tragic self-discovery prevail. Physical vision does not necessarily guarantee insight, nor impart truth. Intertwined with dramatic and cosmic irony, all of these elements contribute to the major theme of blindness and sight, depicting wisdom

Oedipus has been told that he would kill his father and marry his mother. When Oedipus heard this statement he refused to believe it. After hearing this Oedipus went to Corinth to figure out the truth. Oedipus gets caught in road rage with King Laius and little did he know that this was his father. Sight and blindness is seen through this scene because Oedipus is blind and does not see that he killed his father. Oedipus is denying the fact that he killed King Laius, also known as his father. Oedipus also shows ignorance by thinking he knows for a fact that he did not kill King Laius. Creon

Oedipus intelligence could not see the truth, but the blind man, Teiresias, saw it plainly. Sophocles uses blindness as a theme in the play. Oedipus was uninformed and as a result blind to the truth about himself and his past. Yet, when Teiresias exposes the truth he is in denial. It is left to Oedipus to conquer his blindness, accept the truth, and realize fate. But instead Oedipus ridicules Terirsias blindness and accuses him of being on the side of Kreon and helping him become King. He accuses Teiresias for being paid to tell a fraudulent prophecy to him. Quickly Teiresias answers him back and tells him he is BLIND, and tells him about his past of who his actual mother and father was.

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.

Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, stresses the idea of who is blind and who can see by demonstrating that one cannot simply just run away from their mistakes and issues. As the story unfolds, each character makes several attempts to hide from the truth. Though the foul truths may seem to be masked within the darkness, they are eventually brought into the light, shining over the devious lies placed before it. Nevertheless, the real question lies within whether or not the person receiving the truth can endure it. By coping with the truth, one sees, but by denying it, one stays blind. One way or another, however, problems arise, secrets come out, and chaos ensues because one cannot stay blinded from the truth forever.

He, not Teresias, can see what is good and what is bad, who is innocent and who is guilty, which is the correct answer and which answer contradicts itself. Of course, all of these beliefs will come to haunt Oedipus. In arguing with Teresias, Oedipus claims that the truth "has no strength / for you because you are blind in mind and ears / as well as in your eyes . . . [unlike] me or any other who sees the light" (26). Oedipus believes that his powers of insight will lead him to the truth and guide him down the correct path, but in fact, he is like a man who studies the ground so intensely right in front of him that he never bothers to look up. The actions that he thought were good will turn out to be bad. He professes his innocence only to discover his guilt. And, in what might be the greatest piece of irony, his cleverness and insight lead him to a contradictory truth—that he, with all his intelligence, is a fool. Oedipus has spent a lifetime looking out, garnishing cognitive power and insight, but now it is time for Oedipus to look inward. We are all blind to the truth until we have the strength to blind ourselves, to start over by seeing the world in whole new way.

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.

murder. He tells Creon "you will find me a firm ally, and together we shall exact vengeance for our land and for the god?And with the help of God, we shall find success ? or ruin" (5) He knew what his duty was and that was what he wanted to follow. He needed to save thousands of people and Oedipus would go to any means to save them. This is an innocent person and a trustworthy King. "My words are uttered as a stranger to the act, a stranger to its tale"(7). He tells us that he cannot solve the "riddle the very skill that proved him great" (11). He cannot do it alone. Why is this? If he is so guilty of this crime and he is the "murderer that he seeks" then why does he go on with the search? (10). The reason is that he does not know that he has caused the grief for his people. He does not know that he is the murderer. "Ask what you wish. I am not the murderer.", is what he uttered to Creon because he believed that he was not the murderer (14). The fault behind Oedipus? fate lies partly on Apollo and on the prophecy that he was told. Had he been blind to that prophecy he would have remained in Corinth and ruled as a true ruler. He would not have wed his mother nor murdered his father. But why do these things happen to Oedipus? Why when he tries to be the best does he get the worst? His fate led him there. He was doomed to follow the prophecy at

Because he had deciphered the Sphinx’s riddle, the intelligent Oedipus was classified as “the best at guessing riddles,” yet he could not see the truth that was staring him in the face (Sophocles 30). He had killed the previous king. Although Tiresias had told him plainly that he was the murderer, Oedipus did not believe him and went even further to blame Creon for the murder. How could he have been so blind? When the king began to finally realize his misconception, he exclaimed, “Oh God! I think I have just called down on myself a dreadful curse-not knowing what I did” (Sophocles 53). The ruler of Thebes enjoyed an abundance of knowledge; however he experienced a severe deficit in his ability to understand the reality right in front of

At the beginning, Oedipus is ignorant and is constantly avoids and ignores the truth in order to protect his reputation. Oedipus’ unwillingness to open his ears to the truth develops when Tiresias reveals that he killed Laius and one of his responses is, “Your words are nothing-- / futile” (416-417). Although Oedipus begged to hear Tiresias’ words, he was not willing to pay attention or open his eyes to the unfortunate idea. Oedipus pushes aside the words Tiresias says, refusing to believe that he could be the one who killed Laius, the one who must be cursed. Later, Tiresias brings up Oedipus’ ignorance saying “you’re blind to the corruption of your life” (471), and telling him a few lines later that “No man will ever / be rooted from the earth as brutally as you” (488-489). Oedipus was put in his place and blatantly told that he is ignorant but his rise to knowledge will also bring his demise. Sophocles foreshadowed using Tiresias in that way, but Oedipus was so into avoiding any confrontation with the truth at the beginning that he would respond calling Tiresias’ visions “absurdities” (494). Therefore, even though the truth has been revealed to him, Oedipus still chooses to remain blind to the truth in order to remain good in the eyes of his people.

Oedipus Rex is a story that can be interpreted on many different levels of thinking. The ancient tale has existed for centuries and has been subjected to countless forms of analysis. What is it that makes Oedipus the King such a fascinating story? Is it the suspense of a developing mystery that captivates the audience? Or perhaps the wonderful feeling the readers get after vicariously experiencing the horror Oedipus feels? And if not that, could it be that the reader is intrigued at Sophocles' description of one man's disbelief in the gods? Whichever way one looks at it, Oedipus Tyrannus was, and remains, one of the "most highly admired plays of all time" (Wood, et al, 163).

Ignorance may be bliss, but people cannot choose to unlearn a piece of knowledge. Throughout Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, many references are made to who is blind and who can see. Oedipus himself suffers through being ‘blind’ in the sense of always being the last one to accept his fate. He is in a state of ignorance throughout most of the tragedy, which leads to his demise. Accordingly, in the greek tragedy Oedipus the King, Sophocles informs the readers that those who cannot see are gifted with sight in some instances, and those who see possess a burden that cannot be carried by just anyone.

The famed tragedian Sophocles is known for his unique ideas and intellect. Sophocles carefully utilizes of all of his intelligence and creative ability in order to make use of illuminating moments throughout the play which allow his audience to draw conclusions about free will, fate, knowledge, and power throughout perhaps his most iconic play, Oedipus Rex. the main character Oedipus experiences an illuminating moment when he gouges his eyes out at the discovery of the truth about his actions. This illumination is expressed in order to express Sophocles’ idea that fate overpowers free will.

“Oedipus the King” contains many characters with differing characteristics. Some of these characteristics go hand-in-hand with the two main themes in the play.Tiresias and Oedipus in the play “Oedipus the King” are conflicting characters. These two characters illustrate the contrasting the differences of blindness & sight and knowledge & ignorance, and different interpretations of these ideas. The themes blindness & sight and knowledge & ignorance are similar in how they relate to each character.