Blindness And Sight In Oedipus By Sophocles

In some stories, like Oedipus Rex, blindness is ironic. The blind man is the one who sees the truth

Another revealing example of irony intertwining with sight deals with Polyneices. Antigone pleads, begs Polyneices to relent of his hatred of Thebes and call off the war that will destroy so many men, but Polyneices refuses. Antigone cries, “Sweet brother! You go with open eyes to death!” (154)  This is a powerful condemnation, for Polyneices lacks vision in the sense that he cannot discern what is proper.  The Greeks must have considered the act of seeing an the interplay of the mental, spiritual and the physical. Divine sight reveals another aspect of the conceptions of Sophocles and the Greeks.  The gods were thought to have perfect sight.  The analysis of divine sight, the type of vision Sophocles considered admirable, should shed light on his intentions.  The eyes of the gods are unlike those of men; they deal primarily with the spiritual.  “Think: their

The Aristotelian Tragedy, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, shows how fast a person can take a great fall. It really shows how someone can be at their highest point one day, but the next day be at their lowest. Oedipus is a wonderful king and ruler of Thebes, but he had a terrible fate that he couldn’t even save himself from. When the city is in need of finding the murderer of the previous king, Laius, every clue he finds brings him to the conclusion that he is the murderer. Through the use motif of blindness, Sophocles creates the cathartic effect on the audience that you cannot see the truth until it hurts you.

At the beginning of the story, Oedipus can physically see but is ignorant to the truth. While having a conversation Oedipus objects that he cannot be Laius’ murderer. Tiresias, a blind seer, is brought to Thebes on request by Oedipus to help find Laius’ killer, but he “sees” Oedipus’ fate and yells, “All of you are blind to the truth! You know nothing! You… you see nothing! (6) Tiresias’ literal blindness allows him to see the future whereas Oedipus’ figurative blindness doesn’t allow him to the truth. At the end of the conversation between the two men Tiresias declares, “ You

The play Oedipus Tyrannus, written by Sophocles, is a play filled with symbols and irony involving the aspect of both vision and blindness. This aspect of the novel takes on an important role in the life of Oedipus, the ruler of Thebes. He originally feels as though he knows and sees everything, nevertheless, as the motto of the Oracle at Delphi states, he does not "know thyself," as he will find out toward the end of the play. The notion of seeing and blindness becomes an important and ironic symbol in the tragic fall of Oedipus, a man who could not escape his lot or moira.

In the tragic story “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles emphasizes on the idea of sight and blindness. Sight or blindness can have more than just physical characteristics; a person can have mental insight or can ensue blindness in a situation. The blindness issue remains an effective contrasting method for Oedipus at many points in the drama. It breaks down into two components: Oedipus 's ability to physically see and his willingness to see the truth in what has transpired. Even people who have 20/20 vision, can still remain blind to the truth, facts, and the complete understanding of any situation. Within his writings, Sophocles ' frequently address the ideas of sight and blindness, using them as metaphors for insight and knowledge. This will be the focal point of this essay.

Humans will do anything they can to avoid or change a terrible fate if they have knowledge of it before hand. Oedipus Rex a tragedy written by Sophocles, depicts the main character’s, Oedipus’, struggle to escape his fate. Having grown up in Corinth, he believes that King Polybos and his wife are his true parents, but soon becomes burdened by prophecies claiming that he will sleep with his mother and will kill his father. After defeating the Sphinx, Oedipus becomes the king of Thebes, but a plague strikes the city soon after and can only be stopped once the killer of the former king, Laïos, is expelled. In his attempts to find the murderer, Oedipus discovers the truth of his past.

In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King, the main protagonist, Oedipus, suffers from great misfortune of which is caused by his blindness of the truth. At first, the city of Thebes is under the ruling of a punishment enforced by an evil creature; the Sphinx. In order to remove the curse, one must solve the riddle given by the demon. However, as time goes on, nobody can figure out what the answer is to this tricky puzzle. However, Oedipus finds the answer, and lets the city of Thebes become free of the Sphinx’s curse. In his succession, he becomes King of Thebes, and marries Queen Jocasta. Not knowing that she is actually his mother, he has intercourse with her and two live happily under Oedipus’ blindness. When Oedipus finds out what he has done,

He was completely oblivious the fact that he himself was the one who was guilty of bringing plague to the city of Thebes by murdering Laius, the former king. He had been told by a drunk man that his parents were not his real parents and he had the prophecy that he would kill his father and mate with his mother yet he did not connect the dots and was very naïve. Even when the truth began to be revealed Oedipus was still in complete denial of his role, and begins to point blame at Teiresias and make fun of his blindness, however Teiresias replies “You have your sight, an yet you cannot see” (62). This shows that while Oedipus has his sight he is still blind to the truths that lay right in front of

Oedipus Rex Essay They say that there is no real definition of what it is “to see” something. We have all become accustomed to seeing things that are right in front of us that we sometimes forget what we are truly seeing. We tend to forget about the beauty behind certain things and we forget how lucky we are to be able to see them. On the other hand, sometimes we try to close our eyes to the things we hate.

In the tragedy, Oedipus, there are characters who are physically blind, blind to the power of fate, and those who are blind to knowledge. In many instances, characters such as Oedipus, Laius, and Jocasta have many moments of blindness to the power of fate and knowledge, even though they can physically see. These characters are not insightful, although they can physically see, while one character, Tiresias, is physically blind, he is able to see others’ fate.

Sophocles indicates that the instinct to know ourselves makes up our decisions. A powerful man worries about what he does not know. Making it a struggle to break away from the unawareness of the situation. In the play Oedipus deals with this as he states, “I will speak out now as a stranger to the story,/ a stranger to the crime./ If one of you knows who murdered Laius,/ I order him to reveal/ the whole truth to me(Sophocles 247-261).” He must get the truth to stop the plague in Thebes and to save himself. Actions inevitably bring to light his fate after he “awakens” to the destruction. The image of blindness in the play is brought up later. The blind prophet Tiresias described blindness as an inability to see the truth. The king can not see and does not even know himself but still wants the truth. Tiresias implies that Oedipus is, “blind to the corruption of your life,/to the house you live in, those you live with(471-474).” Tiresias proves he is blind to his fate full of disaster. Warning him about the corrupt details of his life. It is because Oedipus lack of the knowledge of his fate limits him. He created his own path through searching and comes to realize this. His never ending search for truth is his destruction. Jocasta realizes this saying, “You’re doomedㅡ/ may you never fathom who you are(1172-73)!” Oedipus own wife knows his fate but he's still unaware. His self-recognition ruins his life. It

Many characters in stories can be "blinded” by the truth. The answer to their questions may have been clear to us, the audience, but not to the characters themselves. Most of the characters in the Greek play, Oedipus the King were "blind" to the truth, such as Jocasta, Creon, and Oedipus.

When the priest says, “You came to Thebes, you freed us from the tax we paid with our lives to that rasping Singer...we need now the great power men everywhere know you possess. Find some way to protect us”(41-50), it exhibits how great of a leader and hero he was to the city. The deeper he searched for the man to end this plague, however, the more horrid it got. The more information he received, he began to connect the pieces from his past. Not only did he figure out the man he killed on the path was king Laios, but it was his biological father. His fear of the prophecy that the oracle told him was becoming true. play gets even more tragic as he realizes that the queen he had four children with was his mother, who kill herself before he finds the truth. Oedipus gauged his eyes outs after seeing her dead body. Oedipus was blinded from the truth his entire life. When he finally learned the truth about himself, it blinds him.

Through the course of the play Oedipus is the detective, the judge, and the jury. He investigates, decides a verdict, and carries out his own punishment. When Tiresias arrives at Thebes Oedipus questions him looking for answers. Tiresias is a blind man, who ironically can see the future and truths of people’s lives. It is Tiresias who is the first person to tell Oedipus that he has killed his own father. He tells Oedipus “you do not see the evil in which you live.” Oedipus doubts Tiresias’ ability to see the truths because of his physical blindness and states, “ You