Oedipus The King Sight And Blindness Essay

Physical sight comes at the expense of truth whilst knowing the truth comes at the expense of sight.Oedipus confirms this when he gouges his eyes after knowing the truth.

Once Oedipus learns of his role in the death of Laius and realizes the truth of the earlier prophecy, he is distraught.

He runs inside and finds his wife hanging there, dead, and then proceeds to poke his own eyes out, as we are told by a Messenger.

Teiresias is physically blind and happens to be a prophet; he stands for truth.

On the other hand, king Oedipus is sighted; however, he cannot see the truth as the play starts even though he makes himself physically blind as the play ends.

When the blind prophet refuses to tell him, the king becomes enraged.

…except for you; …blind as you are in eyes, ears and mind!“An oracle foretold that the child born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother” (Johnston 2).However, his parents, Laius and Jocasta are blind to this truth and to escape reality, they deport Oedipus to mountains where they hope he will die hence nullify this prophecy.In there is both physical blindness and inability to see and accept the truth amongst the sighted.As aforementioned, Sophocles explores blindness from two angles, physical blindness, and inability to see the truth for the sighted.Similarly, Jocasta is physically sighted but blind to the truth, even after knowing the truth, she deliberately rejects it.Therefore, in this play, the sighted like Oedipus and Jocasta are ‘blind’ to the truth whilst the blind like Teiresias can see the truth.By using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies. Google(); req('single_work'); $('.js-splash-single-step-signup-download-button').one('click', function(e){ req_and_ready('single_work', function() ); new c. Luckily, for Oedipus, a shepherd rescues him and takes him to Polybus and Merope for adoption.After Oedipus discovers his prophecy, he escapes from his adapted parents thinking they are his true parents.