Blindness Character Development

Character Development in Blindness

When one reads the novel Blindness, they would think it’s about a group of people who are quarantined because of the epidemic. However, if we take a closer look, Jose Saramago was trying to show what it means to human. As the story progresses you notice how the protagonist, The Doctor`s Wife, goes through internal and external character development. Throughout the novel , the character, Doctor’s Wife evolves from quiet housewife to a thoughtful leader, finally ending as an a well aware women who carries the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Throughout the novel the Doctor`s wife goes through different stages of character development. In the beginning she was a very quiet housewife, who did everything

The epidemic has spread like a wildfire that couldn’t be tamed and she had to be the witness to the tragedy of the disease. She had to guided others whenever they needed something and she didn’t question them. Everyone in there had to learn to use their senses to get around. For example, as David Bolt stated in his article of “Humans or Animals?" he compared peoples to animals because they all acted the same once they lost their vision. He even said “twitching, tense, their necks craned as if they were sniffing at something, yet curiously, their expressions were the same" (Bolt). In this he`s trying to say that both animals and humans have senses that kick in once one is inactive. Bolt makes the assumption that the blind people are acting like animals who have no self-control. This significance shows that she is the only one who doesn`t act like an

For example, she was a quiet housewife in the beginning, however as the epidemic picked up the pace, she became a leader figure ,and lastly as an well aware person who reflects on the meaning of humanity. She was an obedient housewife who stood by her husband at all times. She then took the role of taking care of the blind in the quarantine, thus causing the people to declare her husband as the leader, but then that title was hers to claim because she led them to escape and find their way back home. Lastly, the effects of the epidemic hits her hard, and she starts to question if it`s finally her turn to go blind; however, we realize that does not happen which causes her to have excess knowledge that no one else