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Blindness And Sight In Oedipus The King

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In the tragedy oedipus rex by sophocles, a man is determined to figure out his true identity, but finds a terrible fate. oedipus doesn't pay attention to anything until he starts to realize that something is going on with him. Then he finally realizes what is happening and takes the consequences of his actions. One theme in the play is blindness and sight, blindness can be physical or lack of understanding and sight can be physical or gain of understanding.
Oedipus can be compared with a person who is blind but eventually regained their sight.

At the beginning of the play, Oedipus is blind to his fate. Oedipus was blind to his fate because he didn’t think of himself being Laius's murder which was part of his fate. Even creon said “A man may find whatever he looks for, but misses what he does not.” (3) He’s saying that oedipus may find what he looks for but is blind to the truth. Oedipus also said “Then I shall start from the beginning and bring everything into the light.” (3) He was saying that he wanted to find out the truth but he didn’t find it. At this point in the play, oedipus was completely blind to the truth. That brings me into the middle of the play. …show more content…

Oedipus goes to tiresias and tiresias tells oedipus his fate. Oedipus said "If you only had eyes that could see, i'd think you accomplished the deed alone." (7) oedipus said that to tiresias because oedipus didn't want to accept the truth. Oedipus also said "because you are blind, not only in the eyes but in the ears and in your mind as well." (7) oedipus said that tiresias didn’t know what he was talking about. At this point in the play, oedipus was completely blind to the truth. That brings me into the end of the

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Master of Tragedies Neil Gaiman once said, “There’s none so blind as those who will not listen.” This quote relates to the theme of sight and blindness in “The Tragedy of Oedipus Rex”. King Oedipus was a man who would not accept the truth about himself. Physically he was not blind but in truth he was. There are three examples of Oedipus’s metaphysical condition of blindness which will be listed as follows.

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The symbolic implication that comes of Oedipus blinding himself is he has seen too much evil and would rather see nothing than more evil. “What’s there left for me to see…?” P.44 Oedipus here say he has seen too much and that what he has seen will taint everything he sees thereafter. I do not find this courageous nor heroic, I believe blinded himself to not see what he had done, to not be reminded of his deeds, even by seeing his

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In Oedipus, the city of Thebes is suffering from a plague which was placed on them as revenge against the murderer of King Lauis. Oedipus is adamant about avenging the murderer until he realizes that the murderer is Oedipus himself. Oedipus was figuratively blind to the fact that he is the actual reason for the city’s suffering. The prophet Tiresias explains, “Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step.” Although Oedipus is now knowledgeable about the truth of his life, because of his blindness before, he has brought himself to complete and utter downfall.

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Oedipus experienced blindness figuratively and eventually literally. The concept of sight and blindness in Oedipus Rex teaches many lessons. One lesson is that seeing something is based on one’s perspective, therefore it will not always be experienced the same way among different people. It depends on the way people perceive the information they receive.

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(Sophocles 391-392). “…You have called me blind, but you have your eyes but see not where you are in sin. Do you know who your parents are? And of the multitude of other evils between you and you children, you know nothing” (Sophocles 432-452). In a rage Oedipus denies Tiresias’ words and claims to not know what he talks about due to

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In the famous quote given by the blind seer he says to Oedipus “ I may be blind to the world but you are blind to the truth.” This quote shows how Oedipus actually know nothing of what he think he is. He doesn't know that he is actually the son of the king of thebes, he doesn't know he killed his dad (until near the end) or married and had kids with his mom. He didn't know that he was adopted and he didn't know that as a child he had spikes driven through his own feet. All of this blindness shows that Oedipus is unknown of the truth and therefore not responsible for his

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