The theme of ignorance versus knowledge is greatly portrayed in this extremely impactful Greek tragedy written centuries ago, discovering and acknowledging great defeat and one’s destiny. The author of this Greek tragedy is a man named Sophocles. He has written a play that involves Oedipus, the King of Thebes, his wife and queen Jocasta, Tiresias, the blind prophet, and Creon, his brother-in-law. The play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles explores ignorance versus knowledge to truly understand that one cannot control their destiny. This theme is illustrated through point of view, imagery, and symbolism. Oedipus is blinded by his own personal and selfish views, that he cannot bring himself to listen to what others have to say. Oedipus …show more content…
After Oedipus discovers that his wife is his mother, and that he had killed his father, he decides he no longer deserves to see, without thinking, he takes the brooches from Jocasta’s robe, and plunges them into the sockets of his eyes. Oedipus says, “No longer see the things that I have done… the things that I have suffered” (Sophocles, ii.385). The chorus responds, “You have chosen a painful path. It were better to be no more than live in darkness” (Sophocles, ii.460). Oedipus then claims, “No! What I have done is right. You cannot change my mind. If I had eyes… how could I look upon my father down below? How look upon my mother? I have sinned against them both” (Sophocles, ii.460). He took away his sight, which symbolizes his ignorance, because he wasn’t thinking about how it would affect others, and especially himself, because then he had to continue to live without the ability to be able to know what was happening around him. When Jocasta and Oedipus figured out that Jocasta was Oedipus’s mother, they finally realized that they weren’t able to control their own destiny, and that is why Jocasta took her own life, and Oedipus permanently altered