“The blind man sees and the seeing man is blind.”
To what extent is this true in Oedipus the King?
“To be wise is to suffer.” Throughout this play we see that after Oedipus suffers and loses his eyesight it is only then he is able to seek the truth.
When we are first introduced to Oedipus, he is a strong leader who is thoroughly respected by the people of Thebes. “O greatest of men.” Oedipus was the saviour of Thebes 15 years before he solved the riddle of the Sphinx which freed the city from the plague and death. Because of this act, he inherited the throne although when a new disaster threatened the prosperity of the city, the people of Thebes turned to Oedipus. “I grieve for you my children. Believe me; I know all that you desire of me, all that you suffer.” Oedipus learns that there is an “unclean thing” which is polluting their soil. He declares punishment to this thing that if he owns up now then his punishment will not be harsh but if he conceals the truth and it later outed then nothing will save him. “No matter who he may be, he is forbidden shelter or intercourse with any man.” After declaring this punishment, Oedipus is approached by Teiresias, a frail, blind prophet who says that Oedipus is the “cursed polluter of this land.” Oedipus is horrified by this accusation and mocks the blind prophet. Later on in the play, we see that Oedipus becomes the figure he once mocked.
At the beginning, we are informed that Oedipus has murdered his father and married his mother. Throughout the play, we observe how Oedipus is completely oblivious to this knowledge and we are able to watch how he learns about the truth. As he follows the path to his destruction he becomes aware of the truth.
Upon learning that he has killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus gouges out his eyes and makes himself blind. He feels that if he kills himself then he must face his mother/wife and father in heaven and he does not have the strength to do so.
The selfishness that Oedipus possesses causes him to have abundance of ignorance. This combination is what leads to his father’s death. After fleeing Corinth and his foster family, Oedipus gets into a skirmish with an older man. The reason for the fight was because, “The groom leading the horses forced me off the road at his lord’s command” (1336). Oedipus is filled with a rage after being insulted by the lord and feels the need to act. The two men fight, but Oedipus ends up being too much for the older man, and he kills him. What Oedipus is unaware of is that the man was actually his birth father and by killing him, Oedipus has started on the path of his own destruction. Not only does Oedipus kill his father, but also everyone else, “I killed them all” (1336). The other men had no part in the scuffle, but in his rage, he did not care who he was killing.
He murders his father and marries his mother unknowingly. While it may seem to some that Oedipus was destined to carry out his fate, it is also true that Oedipus’ personality led him to his fate. It is clear to see that Oedipus is an impulsive and passionate man, which causes Oedipus to fulfill the prophecy that haunts him. He flees the kingdom of Corinthian in order to avoid his fate. Along his journey he comes to a crossroad that is blocked by a chariot, and “in a fit of anger” Oedipus kills the father he never knew (Meyer 1422).
“…they will never see the crime I have committed or had done upon me!” These are the words Oedipus shouted as he blinds himself upon learning the truth of his past. It is ironic how a person blessed with perfect physical vision could in reality be blind to to matters of life and conscience. During his prime as King of Thebes, Oedipus is renowned for his lucidity and his ability to rule with a clear concept of justice and equality. The people loved him for his skill and wit, as he saved Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx. As a result, Oedipus became overly confident, and refuses to see that he may be the cause of the malady that is plaguing his kingdom. Although physically Oedipus has full use of his eyes, Sophocles uses sight to demonstrate how Oedipus is blind to the truth about his past what it might me for both him and his kingdom. Upon learning the truth, Oedipus gouges out his eyes, so he won’t have to look upon his children, or the misfortune that is his life. Once physically unable to see, Oedipus has clear vision as to his fate, and what must be done for his kingdom and his family
In the play “Oedipus Rex by Sophocles” the themes of sight and blindness are produced to develop in the readers mind that it is not the eyesight, but insight that holds the key to truth and without It no amount of knowledge can help uncover the truth. Insight can be described as the ability to see what is going to happen. Characters like Oedipus and Teiresias hold a significant role in the play and other characters like Iocaste are also important in the play.
Oedipus was blind in more then one way. He was blind to the truth about his own life. Oedipus had no idea that his real parents were Laius and Jocasta. He was so blind that he got mad at anyone who was foolish enough to suggest such an idea.
The play "Oedipus Rex" is a very full and lively one to say the least. Everything a reader could ask for is included in this play. There is excitement, suspense, happiness, sorrow, and much more. Truth is the main theme of the play. Oedipus cannot accept the truth as it comes to him or even where it comes from. He is blinded in his own life, trying to ignore the truth of his life. Oedipus will find out that truth is rock solid. The story is mainly about a young man named Oedipus who is trying to find out more knowledge than he can handle. The story starts off by telling us that Oedipus has seen his moira, his fate, and finds out that in the future he will end up killing his father and marrying his mother. Thinking that his mother and father were Polybos and Merope, the only parents he knew, he ran away from home and went far away so he could change his fate and not end up harming his family. Oedipus will later find out that he cannot change fate because he has no control over it, only the God's can control what happens. Oedipus is a very healthy person with a strong willed mind who will never give up until he gets what he wants. Unfortunately, in this story these will not be good trait to have.
Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother, with whom he produces four children. These are terrible crimes, impious, immoral and illegal. However, the fact that he carries these out in ignorance, not conscious of his own actions, attributes them to severe misfortune and a cruel fate. He even tried, in vain, to avoid the completion of this destiny, leaving his believed home city of Corinth upon hearing it told to him at the Oracle of Apollo ("I heard all that and ran" 876). Thus, when it is revealed to him, this sudden revelation of his crimes within one day leads him to blind himself so that he can no longer see what he has done ("Nothing I could see could bring me joy" 1473). The blinding was not required by fate and is indeed self inflicted but he believed that it is just punishment for what he has done, and by doing so he regains some control over his fate ("hand that struck my eyes was mine...
When Oedipus blinded himself, he actually had more insight than before. His ignorance about the murder caused him to rely on his intellect to find out the truth. He persisted learning more not only from Creon and Teiresias but also from the messenger and the shepherd. He went against his wife Jocasta’s wishes of having “no more questioning(p872, 140)'; because he felt “the truth must be made known(146).
The play Oedipus Tyrannus, written by Sophocles, is a play filled with symbols and irony involving the aspect of both vision and blindness. This aspect of the novel takes on an important role in the life of Oedipus, the ruler of Thebes. He originally feels as though he knows and sees everything, nevertheless, as the motto of the Oracle at Delphi states, he does not "know thyself," as he will find out toward the end of the play. The notion of seeing and blindness becomes an important and ironic symbol in the tragic fall of Oedipus, a man who could not escape his lot or moira.
From the opening dialogue we sense the character of Oedipus. When confronted by his subjects praying for relief of the plague he reacts kingly and graciously, saying, “I am king, I had to come....How can I help?...Ask me anything. Anything at all.” He obviously cares for the people in his kingdom, but he goes on to say how he pities “these poor shattered people of [his].” The pity he feels is rooted not only in his love and sympathy, but his arrogance as well. Perhaps this attitude is duly deserved, for Oedipus had solved the Sphinx’s riddle, an apparently heroic feat, and was seen to be “greater than any man”, but the leader that he had become still possessed the hubristic tendencies which doomed him from the time he fled Corinth.
Oedipus is the main character in the play Oedipus the King. Oedipus is thought of as a tragic figure because he was doomed from birth. Tiresias, an old blind prophet, told Oedipus' parents about Oedipus' fate. He told them that Oedipus would kill his father and sleep with his mother. So, his parents decided to have him killed, only it did not happen that way. He was passed off by two shepherds and finally to the King and Queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope to raise him as their own. Oedipus finds his way back to Thebes and on the way kills his father, but Oedipus did not know that one of the men he killed was his real father. This is the beginning of the prophecy coming true. In short Oedipus obtains the throne, Marries his mother and has kids with her. Oedipus' fate has come together without him even realizing what is going on. Eventually he is told what has happened and asks to be banished by his uncle/brother-in-law Creon. The tragedy in Oedipus' life began with his birth and the realization by his parents that his whole life was doomed.
Ancient Greeks cared deeply about the pursuit of knowledge. Although the truth was often a terrifying concept, they still saw it as a critical virtue. One of the main underlying themes in Oedipus the King is the struggle of sight vs. blindness. Oedipus’ blindness is not just physical blindness, but intellectual blindness as well. Sophocles has broken blindness into two distinct components. The first component, Oedipus's ability to "see" (ignorance or lack thereof), is a physical characteristic. The second component is Oedipus's willingness to "see", his ability to accept and understand his fate. Throughout the play, Sophocles demonstrates to us how these components.
In the beginning of the play, Oedipus has perfect physical vision. However, he is blind and ignorant to the truth about himself and his past. He desperately wants to know, to see, but he cannot. Oedipus' blindness which must be considered is that many times throughout the course of the action he is warned not to pursue the matter any further, for fear that the truth could be damaging to him as the prophesies would suggests. The events are made all the more tragic at the point where he thinks he can 'see' when he at last realizes that he is in fact the murderer of Laius, and yet he is still blind to the final horrible truth. To make the situation worst Jocasta his wife advises Oedipus not to pursue the matter further: "Stop-in the name of god, ….call off this search!" Jocasta has seen the truth but Oedipus is only worried in she finds out he was not of noble birth.
Then when the truth comes out, blindness is even emphasized more with Oedipus blinding himself physically. His hubris is caused by many things, one may be him thinking he has evaded his cursed prophecy, and even having his own townspeople pray to him as if he were one of the God’s. Blindness in Oedipus Rex is both literal and figurative. People can be physically blind as well as figuratively blinded by the truth. Oedipus was born with a terrible prophecy.
Poor Oedipus discovers that he had killed his father and married his mother at the climax of the play when the Shepard is questioned. He states "I stand revealed at last - cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!"³ He then finds his mother after she has committed suicide and proceeds to gouge out his own eyes with her brooches.