In the exodus of the tragedy of Oedipus, Oedipus blinds himself by “‘[Ripping] off [his wife’s] brooches, the long gold pins”’(OT 1402), and stabbing the object in his eyes. There are multiple reasons behind this madness. As stated above, Oedipus removes the brooches from his wife’s robe. This action results in allowing Oedipus to view Jocasta’s breast. The breast, especially in the time of Oedipus, were a symbol of life and nourishment. This not only reminds Oedipus of the times he has spent with his mother as an infant, but of the pleasurable times he has spent with his wife as a husband. Oedipus cannot bear the sight of his wife’s breast due to all the symbolism behind it. As a result, he digs the long pins into his eyes. In addition to this reason, Oedipus blinds himself because he cannot look his loved ones in the eyes. …show more content…
Or mother”’(OT 1501-1502). Additionally, Oedipus depicts, “‘Worse yet,/ the sight of my children”’(OT 1504-1505). Oedipus, man of agony, is so disappointed in his actions that he cannot bear to look at his own children in the eyes. Oedipus has experienced unimaginable misfortune. If only he understood that none of this was his doing. His fate was set the day of his birth. Oedipus’s life has been filled with only pain. Later, as Oedipus is speaking to Creon, he mentions, “‘ Nothing I could see could bring me joy”’(OT
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,
Although he is clever man, he is blind to the truth. Even though he did not know that Laius and Jocasta are his parents, He still kills a man old enough to be his father and marry a woman old enough to be his mother. One would think that a man with a disturbing prophesy over his head as Oedipus should be very careful about whom he marries or kills. The fact that a tragic hero is not perfect evokes both pity and fear. Oedipus although being a good father, husband, and son, he unwillingly destroys his parents, wife and children. Oedipus is human, regardless of his pride, his intelligence or his stubbornness and the audience recognize his humanity in his agonizing reaction to his sin. Watching this, the audience certainly moved to both pity and fear, pity for this broken man and fear that his tragedy can be their own.
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
Although Oedipus says he wants to know who he really is, Oedipus is still being "blind" during the whole situation. Oedipus is now thinking of what he feels could be the worst of who he really is. Thinking he is from a lower family and that his wife may be ashamed, Oedipus still wants to hear the truth. If Oedipus could actually see clearly, he would know that the blind prophet and his wife were right about him and that he would harm everyone by revealing the truth. Oedipus is far from the truth.
Despite Iocaste pleading and insisting him not to investigate further, Oedipus presses on and the truth of his past is at last clear to him. Knowing that he has killed his father and slept with his mother, Oedipus is unable to come to terms with his life and he stabs his eyes out. He cries, "'No more, no more shall you look on the misery about me, the horrors of my own doing! Too long have you known the faces of those whom I should never have seen, Too long been blind to those for whom I was searching! From this hour go in darkness!'"
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
Eyes, crossroads, and Oedipus’ ankles are symbols revealed to the reader throughout the story. Eyes are a very important symbol in the story, they indicate knowledge. In the story the character Tiresias is a wise, blind prophet that can ‘see’ the truth, while Oedipus can visually see but is ‘blind’ to the truth. Tiresias says to Oedipus, “So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this, with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life...”(468-471). The crossroads (which is the place Oedipus killed his father, King Laius) symbolizes Oedipus’ choices and paths he can take. The choices he makes seals his fate, “Making my way toward this triple crossroad… a man just as you described him… and the old man himself were about to thrust me off the road...the driver, I strike him in anger...with one blow of the staff… I knock him out… I killed them all-every mother’s son!”(884-894). Oedipus hot temperedness causes him to go down a painful, mortifying path, which caused his terrible fate to occur. The name Oedipus means swollen ankles, which was given to him because of his childhood ankle injury. It became a symbol of Oedipus' ignorance and a scar of his destined fate.
As Oedipus was born into royalty, he started his life in a condemned manner. At only a few days old, Oedipus’ family tried to stop the prophecy that was given by the oracle. Clearly worried about the message, the King took matters into his own hands trying to stop a per-determined fate. “He wasn’t three days old and the boy’s father fastened
Throughout the play Oedipus is given clues to his past and the fate that is to come, the moment that he gouges his eyes out shows these clues that he has missed. Jocasta says wildly, “In the name of heaven, don’t proceed! For your own life’s sake, stop! And I’ve been tortured long enough.” (59) This shows a moment of caution for Oedipus to not continue to seek the truth. The dramatic irony of this situation illuminates the horrors that are to come because of fate as well as Oedipus’ free will. Oedipus: “Laius was killed—I thought I caught the words—where three highways meet?” Jocasta: “So they said. That is how the story goes.” (41) Oedipus is first hearing the true story of the late king’s murder and seems to be beginning to realize that it was he who did the killing. Even though this could be his illuminating moment, Oedipus is unwilling to accept this fact and must hear
In addition, during this period female babies were much more likely to be abandoned at birth. Contrary to this, Oedipus was abandoned as an infant by Jocasta. In addition to the love that Oedipus has for the women in his life, in a monumental scene at the end of the play Oedipus cries out to his daughters and blindly embraces them. In this scene, Oedipus helplessly wails about the hardships that his daughters will soon face without once mentioning the fate of his two sons. Moreover, during this time men were known for having extramarital affairs by fulfilling their sexual desires while women were expected to remain faithful. In the play, there are no mentions of another lover of Oedipus. Additionally, it was not normal for men to socialize with their wives. Despite this being the norm, Oedipus finds comfort in talking to Jocasta. Oedipus confides in Jocasta, showing vulnerability towards a woman. Pietro Pucci states in his book Oedipus and the Fabrication of the Father, “Oedipus tells Jocasta how he was shaken by the rumor that he was illegitimate and how he secretly ran to Delphi to seek Apollo’s reassurance that he was the legitimate child of his parents, Polybus and Merope” (16). Scenes from the play reaffirm that Oedipus is humbled by the presence of Jocasta. Oedipus state, “I’ll tell you everything I fear. No one has more right than you do, to know the risks to which I’m now exposed” (Sophocles 898-890). Even after Oedipus finds Jocasta
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, on the other hand, was not given such an easy decision. While gifted with an outward sense of sight, he lacked the knowledge of his own sinful actions - his hamartia, so to speak. Oedipus was seeing to others, but blind to himself. As he fled from Corinth, fearing a prophecy he received from an oracle, Oedipus showed complete blindness to the inevitability of his fate. The murder of his father, Laius, and the subsequent marriage to this mother, Jocasta, further elucidate the extent of Oedipus’ blindness; blind in deed, reason, and consequence. Tragically, Oedipus’ anagnorisis occurs simultaneously with his mother’s/wife’s suicide. With a heart full of despair and a pair of newly opened eyes, Oedipus makes his transformation complete as he exchanges his limited physical eyesight for the spiritual sight possessed by Teiresias. With this being done, Oedipus also seals his fate – he no longer can serve evil,
During his life time, Oedipus was blind to truth, at first, he did not know that Jocasta and Laius were his actual parents. He even rebelled against anyone that would not give him the reason or someone that would contradict him. After so many attempts to evade the truth, he ends up giving up about what is the actual truth. He agrees and accepts that Liaus and Jocasta were his parents, and he ended up killing his father and marrying his mother; he was the one causing hopelessness in Thebes. After he starts to realize all these truths, he decided to blind himself, and become in Teiresias same position. “ And since you have reproached me with my blindness, I say – you have your sight, and do not see what evils are about you, nor with whom, nor in what home you are dwelling.” In this quote, a theme such as blindness is shown through Teiresias’ words to Oedipus, to whom he is telling that even with his physical sight, in the inside he is blind because he is unwilling to know the truth about his life. He also tells Oedipus that since he does not see the truth about his life, he doesn’t see the anguish of his life either.
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 this case, Oedipus has a certain prophecy that he needs to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Doing so, he can break the curse on Thebes and he will not be shamed upon for being a king and letting his city fall. Oedipus was trying to avoid the absurd prophecy by leaving his adopted parents and living a life on his own. But, on his journey, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus believed they were strangers until Creon explained everything. The love of his life Jocasta, was revealed to be his birth mother. He had fulfilled his prophecy without intention. Jocasta could not take the stressful humiliation and life she had just taken on, so she committed suicide. When Jocasta's death occurred, Oedipus was filled with sorrow and decided he couldn't dare show go out in the world knowing what he just did. So Oedipus unpinned the golden brooches from the robe Jocasta was hanging in, and stabbed his eyes repeatedly while pleading “they will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me! Dark eyes, now in the days to come look on forbidden faces, do not recognize those who those you long for.” On page 516 lines 192-196, this shows his unhappy fate from the hardships in life.