Oedipus The King Blindness
Oedipus was also physically blind.
Oedipus the king blindness. Blindness plays a two fold part in sophocles tragedy oedipus the king first sophocles presents blindness as a physical disability affecting the auger teiresias and later oedipus. In the case of oedipus blindness was a punishment for his neglect of the truth. But even in this oedipus feels that blindness will become somewhat of an asset to him in the after life.
Oedipus remains in disbelief and is blind to his reality as he nitpicks and finds faults in other statements in order to prove his denial in killing the king and protect his noteworthy status. Truth can be seen when teiresias tells oedipus you with your precious eyes you re blind to the corruption of your own life 470 471. Oedipus is affected because while he is not literally blind he is blinded by ambition to find the killer of laius and blind to what is happening around him.
The characters surrounding these images are oedipus and tiresias the prophet. Just as teiresias was blind and open to the truth so was oedipus. Oedipus physical blindness played into the whole role of the greek tragedy.
This line is the first of many in oedipus the king that indicate how characters who are literally blind can see the truth better than the characters with sight. But later blindness comes to mean an inability to see the evil in one s actions and the consequences that ensue. The blindness completed the tragedy for.
Blindness and pride in oedipus the king by sophocles. The two most affected characters by this main theme are oedipus the king and tiresias the blind seer. Sophocles uses situational irony in this quote as even teiresias a true blind from birth can see that oedipus is blind to his own life.
Oedipus finally came to the realization of his ignorance and his self mutilation is in a way memorializing his past intellectual condition. But he is blind to the truth about his own life. Throughout the play oedipus is seeking clarity on who killed the previous king lauis and in searching for the killer he finds his own demise.
When oedipus asks him to reveal laius s murderer tiresias refuses to answer and instead asks oedipus to send him home. Oedipus s vision and intelligence have made him a great king of thebes he solved the riddle of the sphinx and revitalized the city. Blindness is a very prevalent theme in oedipus the king.
Oedipus the king has many images of blindness both physical and blindness of the mind. It takes the blind prophet tiresias to point out his ignorance and to plant the first seeds of doubt in oedipus s mind. In the play oedipus the king written by sophocles blindness portrays a significant theme in the play.
Blindness in oedipus the king 867 words 4 pages. Oedipus was the person causing the bad times in thebes. When the play begins oedipus has vision and tiresias cannot see but by the end of the play it is clear who can really see and who is blind.
Here oedipus speaks to the blind prophet tiresias who despite his blindness can see the truth.
