Motif Of Blindness In Oedipus

In the beginning of the play Oedipus seeks out a prophet, Teiresias, thinking that it would help him solve the murder of King Laius. During this conversation however Teiresias lets out more than what Oedipus wanted to hear. “…You are the murderer…,”and “... you are land’s pollution,” Oedipus at the time believes these are accusations, but to Teiresias its the future, past, present, and ultimately, Oedipus’ fulfilled destiny (Sophocles 400, 416). Reluctantly he goes on to reveal more of Oedipus’ prophecy of how he will marry the woman who once gave birth to him. The most intriguing revelation that Teiresias exposes during his conversation with Oedipus is how that he will soon meet the same fate that Teiresias has by becoming blind. “This day will show your birth and will destroy you” a quote from the play Oedipus Rex said by Teiresias to hint to the readers that this play will end in a tragic way, and it does. All the things that Teiresias warned Oedipus of came true, and because of his blindness in truth it leads him to be blind in sight as well just like the prophecy.

Blindness and sight appear all throughout “Oedipus the King”. Sophocles reveals the importance of blindness and sight through these lines, “...dashed them into his own eyeballs, shrieking out such things as: they will never see the crime they have committed or had done upon me.” After learning that he has fulfilled the prophecy given to him Oedipus no longer wants to see the world anymore. He maked a big deal about finding who is real parents are and the truth about his life, despite many warnings, because he

In the play, Teiresias has held the key linking between blindness and sight, as even though he has not sight, he has the ability of seeing and predicting the future. He also referred to the unknown incestuous relationship of Oedipus and his father murdered as well.

Blindness and sight were used to represent the amount of knowledge and lack thereof a character had of Oedipus's true identity and his faults. Blindness and sight is mentioned multiple times creating a motif, and this constant emphasis makes it a symbol. Oedipus had his literal sight but was oblivious to the truth, despite it being right in front of him. Tiresias on the other hand was a blind prophet and had the knowledge of Oedipus's true identity. Teiresias tried to tell Oedipus that he had been the one to kill king Laius, but Oedipus was quick to deny that he could have had anything to do with it. Tiresias comments on Oedipus oblivion, "You have you sight yet you cannot see" (Sophocles 62). Blindness as a symbol is repeated again, after Oedipus finally realizes that he was the one to have murdered the king, and that he had unknowingly married his mother. Oedipus, overwhelmed with this knowledge and his grief, gauged out his eyes with the brooches of Iocasta's dress after she had killed herself. Oedipus had gained the knowledge of his faults and was no longer figuratively blind to the truth, but as a result to this information he had literally blinded himself. Blindness as a symbol to represent a character's amount of knowledge is repeated multiple times, developing a key theme in Oedipus the King, knowledge vs

As the story continues on, it is as if Oedipus life is unraveling to him and to the audience. Throughout the remainder of the story, bits and pieces of Oedipus life are revealed to him, in some cases by

Oedipus Tyrannus is a tragic play, written by Sophocles. The play pivots on the prophecy given to Oedipus about his fate; he will kill his father and marry his mother. Despite his strong will, Oedipus cannot escape his fate, and must, in the end, accept that what he has been running away from his whole life, has become true without him even noticing. The play is heartbreaking, a struggle to escape the fate that ends in exactly the opposite, but I will argue that it is also a warning that to live in reality, one must choose to suffer. It is a story of truth, and the struggle to reach divine knowledge, and reality. The messenger Tiresias, who finally tells Oedipus the truth that the prophecy has come true, is blind. Once Oedipus learns the truth of what he has done, he thrusts pins into his eyes and causes himself to become blind. I will argue that the parallel of Oedipus and Tiresias both becoming blind is a metaphor for our inability to see the truth with our eyes, that our senses deceive us, and that the only way to enter reality is to move beyond trusting our sense perception.

The final way that the theme of blindness is portrayed in this play is through Oedipus becoming blind at the end of the story. When Oedipus finally realized the truth about his past, he rushed inside of his house, and did a horrendous thing. It is described in the play, stating that ?He tore off the brooches ? and lifting them high dashed them on his own eyeballs ? he struck his eyes again and yet again with the brooches.? It is ironic that in the

The representation of figurative blindness in Oedipus Rex was displayed by the main character, Oedipus. Oedipus was the King of Thebes and he wanted what was best for it. When bad omens started to happen all around Thebes, Oedipus wanted to know why. When he did learn the truth, he discarded it and said that it was a lie. He was foolish and impulsive because he

Oedipus asked to see Tiresias for evidence on the killer. Oedipus accuses Tiresias and Creon of treason then, Jocasta comes and says how Lauis died and Oedipus feels responsible for his death. Shepard says that it was a group that killed Lauis so it wasn’t Oedipus, but Oedipus turns out to be married to his mother. Jocasta hanged herself so Oedipus then left Thebes. Throughout the play the theme blindness and sight shows up. Oedipus is blind to the truth until the end of the play.

From the earliest starting point of Oedipus, one can see that the fundamental character of Oedipus is certain about his identity and where he has originated from. The most critical theme of the story is figurative blindness, and how Oedipus asserts that other people around him is blind, and he is the one and only that can see. Oedipus soon discovers that he has no of his identity, and that from the start he has been blind himself. Sophocles makes Oedipus endure as a result of the way that he really has no clue his identity, and abstains from making sense of it. It takes an extremely important occasion for it to first come to Oedipus that he is not who he thought he was. Oedipus' blindness appears to have been his destruction, yet the more predominant inquiry that is raised by Sophocles is whether a man, and

Oedipus's ignorance, pride, and fiery nature are first shown through his interactions with other characters who have a more complex world perception. It gives a perspective on the theme of the story of who is blind and who sees, by contrasting a physically blind prophet Tiresias, with the seeing Oedipus. Tiresias who is shown to be wise, “How terrible - to see the truth when the truth is only plain to him who sees!” confronted Oedipus about him being the man who killed Laius, and Oedipus who was previously shown as a caring leader, “You haven’t wakened me - I have wept through the nights, you must know that, groping, laboring over many paths of thought” (Sophocles, ) is revealed to be a different person when his position as the king is threatened. He resolves to cruel japes on the prophet and his blindness, “Blind lost in the night, endless night that nursed you! You can’t hurt me or anyone else who sees the light - you can never touch me”. Blinded by his pride and want to keep the throne that he considers his own, Oedipus resolves to blaming his trusted friend Creon of treason, “you plotting to kill me, kill the king -I see it

Pushed to the last breaking point, Teiresias finally reveals the truth that the audience has been waiting for. However, instead of the anticipated cathartic climax to release the accumulated dramatic tension and irony from Oedipus’s misguided pursuit of the truth, the play bombards the audience with still more tension and tragic irony in an emotional roller coaster as Oedipus and Iocaste attempts to run away from their inevitable fate. Oedipus refuses to believe the truth Teiresias reveals. Wrongly equating physical sight with mental insight, wit, and sense, he taunts Teiresias for his physical blindness, calling him a “sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man!” (20) Reciprocating Oedipus insult for insult, Teiresias mocks Oedipus for blinding himself to the truth, to the “wretchedness of [his] life,” and to the “blind

The whole idea of sight vs. blindness in Oedipus Rex points to the theme of fate and free will. For example, Tiresias points out that Oedipus “(has his) sight, and (does) not see,” referring to the fact that the king ignored his fate, instead, choosing to go out on his own (page 15). Oedipus is famously “blind” up until page 45, when he literally goes blind. Before he actually goes blind, the main character is “blind in (the) mind,” which means he is unable to see his fate that is right in front of him (page 14). By being blind to his own fate, Oedipus falls into the theme of illusion vs. reality. He lives in an illusion of perfection, being the king and married to a woman with whom he had four children (backstory). Reality hit Oedipus when it is made clear to him that he actually

     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,

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.