Blindness vs. Sight
Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles, and performed for the first time between 430 and 425 B.C. The play unfolds the tale of a king's battle for justice and knowledge in seeking the killer of his father, the previous king; Oedipus is unaware that he is the murderer, and has thus fulfilled his prophecy. Throughout the play, there are references to Oedipus' blindness to the truth; it is this blindness, not his fate, which fulfills the prophecy dictated to both Oedipus and his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta, saying that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. The blindness is emphasized figuratively with the concerned townspeople and Tiresias, and literally with Jocasta's death. In the beginning of the play, Oedipus declares that Laius' killer will be either exiled or killed; he says that justice must be served to keep the gods happy and to banish a murderer from their midst. He does not realize that he is stating his own sentence. He is blind to the fact that he killed King Laius; he fulfilled the prophecy given to him that he would kill his father, but he does not realize it, and now he is determining his punishment. He even says that "as if for my own father, I'll fight for
him, I'll leave no means untried, to catch the one who did it with his hand" (Sophocles 1312). He sees so clearly in his mind that he will bring Laius justice in his death, but he fails to see that the man he killed in the midst of his voyage is the same man whose death he valiantly avenges. Oedipus carries blindness with him through the entire play, whether it be literal or figurative. There are times, like with Tiresias and the townspeople, when he has sight but can't see the truth, and there are times, like the end, when he can see the truth but has no physical sight. As a result of his blindness, whether to his true origins, his involvement in the murder, or the pain caused, he drives himself into the ground and lays out his destiny before him. In the end of the play, he does not blind himself to the punishment he created; he asks that Creon banish him from his homeland (1340). With this request, he acknowledges that even though he did not realize he was condemning himself, the strict orders he gave for dealing with the murderer still apply; his blindness led him to make the choice, and he must now suffer the consequences of that blindness. By the end, the blindness causes him much horror and suffering. Jocasta's death marks the change of blindness in Oedipus from figurative to literal. Right before her suicide, they both realize that Oedipus is Jocasta's son by Laius, and th
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Approximate Word count = 946
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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