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Tiresias And Oedipus

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Recommended: Oedipus as a tragic hero

Matthew,

Tiresias did appear to be the representer of the "truth" that Oedipus so despretely wanted to know. The conversation between Tiresias and Oedipus was an interesting turning point in the play since Tiresias was the one telling the truth and Oedipus did not believe him. Oedipus would find out the hard truth at the end of the story though. It struck me when Tiresias said “You ridicule me and call me blind, but your eyes cannot see your own corruption.” This is because even though Tiresias was literally blind and was ridiculed by Oedipus, he knew the truth. In a way, he was able to see more than Oedipus himself. In the beginning, Oedipus was essentially blinded by his own ignorance.
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He blind because of his arrogance. After the plague hits Thebes, Oedipus orders to see Tiresias and when he does he lets his arrogance get in the way. Once he became arrogant he blamed Tiresias. Tiresias they replied, “All right, King: you mock my blindness. Hear me well: you have your

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He finds out that his mother is his wife and that he killed his father, The former king. Finding all of this out, Oedipus becomes his own prosecutor, and then his own judge and punisher. This story suggests that knowledge is vain and constrained in its capacity to convey happiness to the individuals who look for it. Sophocles certainly wasn’t timid about the symbol sight vs. blindness; words like

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Oedipus learns that you can’t control everything in life and also things come and go, they never stay. So instead seeing the truth and believing the lies, it’s best to see the lies and believe in the truth. Otherwise

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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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Critic Northrop Frye claims that tragic heroes “seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them… Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” A perfect example of this assertion would be King Oedipus in the classical tragic play “Oedipus Rex,” written by Sophocles, where Oedipus, himself, becomes the victim of his doomed fate. As someone who was born and raised of royal blood, he becomes too proud and ignorant, believing that he was too powerful for his fate. Using the metaphor “great trees [are] more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass,” Frye compares the heroic but unfortunate Oedipus to the great trees as they both are apt to experience victimization of tragic situations

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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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In The Identity of Oedipus the King, Alister Cameron proved Oedipus as a tragic hero. He specifically wrote, “[f]or whatever his faults, Oedipus is noble. And after all, the acts he performs he is condemned to perform in ignorance. Therefore, whenever he acts, necessarily he acts blindly. Blindness is given him in his situation” (Cameron 140).

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Having been given many hints in his life, Oedipus cannot detect and know the truth. He is blind, to the extent that he could not even understand his life and does not even want to accept his origin. In this way, we get to know the contrast between eyesight and insight (Calame, 1996). After Oedipus realizing and coming to know the truth, he gets out his eyes so as to have the vision (Calame, 1996). He removes his eyes so as not to see his children and siblings who would remind him of his actions.

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Oedipus was a tragic hero he was seen as a great man and was king,but he fell to misfortune because of his disability to see past his pride and anger which led to his demise. By not being able to see past his pride and anger Oedipus was not able to to avoid his prophetic destiny. He was blinded by his pride and anger so much that it became his tragic flaw ultimately leading him to his

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Although throughout most of the play Oedipus is not physically blind, he is blind to the fact that his fate has come to fruition. When questioned about the former king of Thebes’ death, Oedipus claims that “[he] never saw the man” (Sophocles 7). However, it is later revealed that Oedipus killed the king and that he was his father, thus fulfilling the prophecy. Oedipus’ sight prevents him from seeing the truth and from accepting his fate.

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Every character in stories or in plays has their flaws and strengths; Oedipus is no exception to this. Oedipus has his strengths and weaknesses that shape him into the character he is perceived to be in the play. He is intellectual which is why the city looks up to him, he is caring, and tenacious. Like any other character Oedipus also has his flaws, he jumps to conclusions and makes rash decisions, he has anger issues, and hubris which eventually leads to his downfall. Intelligence is something that is highly respected in individuals, especially in leaders.

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Blindness is also a motif recited numerously during the story, from times before the story right down to the end, reflecting the wise and ignorance in the characters of Oedipus Rex. Sophocles, interestingly, seems to have grouped the characters of the play into two distinctive groups, the ones who can “see” and the ones who can’t “see”. This contrast of seeing and not seeing is becomes overt when the prophet Tiresias enters the stage. Tiresias is literally blind, but he can see clearly of not only Oedipus ' past, present, but also the horror in his future. Oedipus ' eyes works fine, but he 's completely blind of the ugly fate that gods have placed upon him.

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700 Words | 3 Pages

Oedipus, King of Thebes, has sight but is blind to truth. Since he is born Oedipus was living in the lie. He never knew who were his real parents and what was the real story hidden behind his entire life until it was reavealed to him. Oedipus was born to be a king. Being a king in a certain way helped him discover the truth about his life.

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Throughout the play, these two components are always at the center of the action. Even people that have great vision and can have the physical capability to see, can still be blind to truth and complete understanding of it. Throughout the tragedy Oedipus the King, Sophocles ' repeatedly bring up the idea of sight and uses it as a metaphor for insight and knowledge. The protagonist of the play, Oedipus, is "blind" to the fact that the fate that he had tried so hard to avoid, had come true without him knowing of it, while the physically blind prophet Tiresias was the one who can actually "see" and understand the

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But, he was also a good man, father, husband, and king, and for this reason he is mourned over for his loss of fortune. One of the themes in Oedipus Rex is physical and metaphorical blindness. In Greek culture, those who were physically blind were said to have metaphorical "vision" and were messengers of the gods. For example, In the beginning, Oedipus is blind, not physically, but metaphorically because he does not know the

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