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Blindness In Oedipus The King And Young Goodman Brown

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When blindness is referenced the first thought that comes up is the actual disability. Blindness doesn’t always come in the form of a physical impairment but can often times have a figurative meaning. Sophocles, J.C. Oates and Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrate this act of figuratively referencing blindness in “Oedipus the King,” Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” and “Young Goodman Brown.” Although some may say that the truth will set you free, for the characters in these stories it decides their fates. The story of “Oedipus the King,” tells a tale of the great ruler of Thebes who has become the culprit of a plaque that is among the city. Being that Oedipus is the cause of this plaque he goes through a great deal to find out the reason why, not knowing that his search would reveal a much more devastating truth for him. Oedipus is fated from childhood by the gods to one day kill his father and marry his mother. His parents attempt to protect Oedipus from this fate by taking and leaving him on mount Cithaeron …show more content…

“She was fifteen and she had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates, 259). Connie didn’t like being compared to her sister June by her mother and felt as if her mother only thought that she sat around all day daydreaming about boys. The only good thing that June did in Connie’s eyes was go out with her friends, which justified Connie being able to go out with hers. Connie would lie about going to the movie with her friend and they would end up going to hang out with older boys at restaurants and in allies until her friends dad would pick them up. One night Connie spent 3 hours with a boy she had met eating at a restaurant and then down an alley to hang out with

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Blindness Vs. Sight In the plays Oedipus the King and Antigone by Sophocles, the city of Thebes deals with two kings, who cause great pain to the city. In the play Oedipus the King, Oedipus is the very tempered king of Thebes, in which this city has a plague. Little does Oedipus know after blaming everyone else, he is the real cause of the disaster.

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Everywhere she goes, including her front lawn, she dresses and acts in ways expected of teenage girls. Now it can be argued that being able to act like a teenage girl is a freedom, but in this story, it almost seems as if Connie has to act like a teenage girl. For example, when Connie is in the drive-in restaurant and decides to leave with Eddie, but is unsure of leaving her friend alone, Eddie assures her that her friend will not be left alone for long (insinuating another male will pick her up), and when Connie and Eddie leave together, Connie looks around to make sure that others are aware of her triumph, “…the boy said that she wouldn’t be alone for long. So they went out to his car, and on the way Connie couldn’t help but let her eyes wander over the windshields and faces all around her…” (2). What Oates might be trying to sound out by Eddie being confident that Connie’s friend will find a guy shortly after Eddie found her, is that girls live a life full of expectations.

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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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From the beginning Oedipus was destined to fulfill a terrible prophecy, but through particular events that follow the steps of the Hero’s Journey, Oedipus becomes a powerful king of Thebes, only to be destroyed by the prophecy that should have ended his life as a child. The Hero’s Journey typically leads to self-confidence and power, however; the Hero’s Journey of Oedipus leads to his tragic demise. The Hero’s Journey lays out the steps of Oedipus’s future actions, which create suspense, fear, pity, and other emotions that captivates the audience. Similar to many famous stories, Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles in 430 B.C., follows the Hero’s Journey path, which is evident in Oedipus’s departure, initiation, and return.

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Blindness Vs. Sight In the stories Oedipus the King and Antigone, the kings who ruled Thebes are very troublesome men. Oedipus is the main character in Oedipus the King, whom is blinded by killing his father. In the end, he marries his mother and punishes himself for his sins.

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While she is out with her friends, she does things she knows her parents would not permit her to do. Connie and her friend sometimes “did go shopping or to a movie, but sometimes they went across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road, to a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out. ”(1). They did whatever they felt they should do to keep their social career at an all-time high. They tried to make sure that the guys knew they were “rebels” and that they looked hot while doing these rebellious actions.

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The gods talked, spoked, stated that the plaque would be undone when the murderer of king Laius was finally found, being Oedipus. The reason Oedipus deserved his fate was because he promised, to himself , to the land of thebes and to its people, to help them in any way they needed him, again acting like a god . He must remain a man of his word just as he made the law of exile , to keep those words and not try and erase what was his actions or his land would be doomed. “ it was murder that brought the plague wind to this city” (prologue 7).This quote is significant because it shows us the truth , the murder of the king was the reason the plaque was a problem to begin with,why it started. Now to undo has has been done , to get rid of this evil plague , the murder being Oedipus himself must be exiled or killed.

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Her mother constantly scolds her for simply being pretty and her father makes it abundantly clear that he could care less about her or June. In an attempt to Hayes 2 describe Connie’s father it is said that “He didn't bother talking much to them, but around his bent head Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over.” (Oats). Within this quote it can be understood how strongly she desired independence and a life separate from her family. In a study performed on adolescent children in Australia it was found that ““By 12-13 years, almost all girls (92%) and two-thirds

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In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the concept of sight and blindness is shown countless times throughout the play. In Oedipus Rex there is both literal blindness and figurative blindness. This play has a character who is blind, which is an example of literal blindness and a character who can see visually but unable to perceive the truth. The concepts of sight and blindness has a major role in Oedipus Rex. It lets the reader know that sight is not only based on what you see, but also based on one’s perspective, that the blind may see more than someone who is not blind, and that sometimes being able to see may not be a blessing but a curse. These are some of the roles of sight within Oedipus Rex.

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The conceit that Wealth is blind dates at least back to the complaints of Hipponax (6th cent.). The attempt to cure his blindness, though, occurs for the first time in extant literature in Aristophanes’ Wealth, produced in 388. This paper argues that Aristophanes’ innovative treatment of Wealth’s blindness echoes the transformation of Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, produced in 402. This is not to suggest that Wealth is an all-out parody of Oedipus at Colonus. Wealth’s engagement with Oedipus at Colonus operates on visual, situational, and thematic parallels, rather than direct verbal parody.

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It's great ignorance to have physical sight when you are ultimately blinded by the truth that you cannot see as in the case of Oedipus. The king makes ironical statement to Teiresias of how he cannot be hurt by Teiresias (Calame, 1996). This later turn to Oedipus equating physical blinded to ignorance as he removes his eyes so as not to see his terrible actions. The play displays Oedipus two encounters of blindness.

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Oedipus married his mother, Jocasta is dead and Oedipus pokes his eyes out, Thebes is in mourning. “Aaah, all has come to pass. All is true!” (line 314, part 2) what Oedipus is trying to find is his misery, Oedipus is tormented by his

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