Oedipus Sight And Blindness Essay

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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.
In the play when Oedipus asks Teiresias to reveal the murderer of King Laois, Teiresias blames Oedipus as the murderer and Oedipus denies the blame and gets angry on Teiresias. The chorus even denies the blame on Oedipus and takes Oedipus’ side. The chorus says the following lines to protect Oedipus “This is the king who solved the famous riddle, and towered up, most powerful of men. No mortal eyes but looked on him with envy, Yet in the end ruin swept over him”(Freud 988). Oedipus on the other hand who is really mad at Teiresias blames him and Creon for plotting against him. As Oedipus was blind from the start he was unaware of his origins which will cause him to trigger the unavoidable chain of events that would lead to the fulfilment of the prophecy. But he didn’t knew the fate itself was unavoidable. The irony of theme sight and blindness is produced here when Oedipus is compared to Teiresias. Oedipus who is not blind and has the capability to see with both of his eyes doesn’t finds anything wrong in killing a man, who he later discovers was King Laois and his group. He even took over the throne of Thebes and was found to be lying with his mother thinking her as his wife and having babies with her. On the other hand is Teiresias who is really blind and unable to see than...

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...ys these lines ""Ah God! / It was true! All the prophecies! - Now, O Light, may I look on you for the last time!" (62). These lines clearly describes that he has finally made his mind of giving up on his eyes because he is unable to bear the truth.
Near the end of the play, Creon speaks to Oedipus saying: "Think no longer that you are in command here, but rather think How, when you were, you served your own destruction" (77). In these lines did Creon meant to say that Oedipus himself is responsible for bringing his own destruction and misfortune upon his family? We can surely argue saying yes because he himself was the one who had stated that no one would speak or communicate with the murderer, and must pay for his/her sins through exile or losing their life in the form of death. Now the decision was already made and the gods had already decided for Oedipus’ fate.

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