Blindness in Oedipus the King

A detailed Summary of Blindness in Oedipus the King


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; but later, blindness comes to mean an inability to see the evil in one's actions and the consequences that ensue. The irony in this lies in the fact that Oedipus, while gifted with sight, is blind to himself, in contrast to Teiresias, blind physically, but able to see the evil to which Oedipus has fallen prey to. Tragically, as Oedipus gains the internal gift of sight, he discards his outward gift of sight. Sight, therefore, seems to be like good and evil, a person may only choose one.

Teiresias, prophet of Phoebus, was stricken with blindness to the physical world, but, as a result, gained the gift of sight into the spiritual world. This great gift allowed him to become a superior prophet, praised by the people as "god like" and as a person "in whom the truth lives." Therefore, it was no surprise that Oedipus asked the old prophet to come before the people to enlighten them as to who or what the cause of the plagu


In conclusion, the theme of sight dominated Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus the King." The characters Teiresias, Oedipus, and the Sphinx were used to show the different types of sight - physical, spiritual, and both. Overall though, Sophocles used sight as an extended metaphor, in which the prevailing form of sight showed his master - good or evil, of which there can be only one.

e decimating their country was. What Oedipus was not expecting, however, was that the sin he could not see himself was to blame for the judgement being poured out upon the country. The sin so hidden from Oedipus' and the peoples' eyes was quite visible to Teiresias. What Teiresias lacked in his ability to see the world, he made up for in being able to see a person's heart - a skill that nearly cost him his life after a lengthy argument with Oedipus. Yet what distinguishes Teiresias from the others was his genuine concern for others - a concern that he voiced before demolishing Oedipus in front of the growing crowd outside of the palace. For Teiresias, the choice was simple - he chose to forego his disability and delve deeper into

Some common words found in the essay are:
Teiresias Teiresias, Tragically Oedipus, Teiresias Oedipus, Thebes Sphinx, Tragically Oedipus', Overall Sophocles, King Sophocles, Oedipus Sphinx, , gift sight, types sight, Oedipus King, teiresias oedipus, outward gift sight, outward gift, tragedy oedipus, oedipus king, tragedy oedipus king, blindness physical, sophocles' tragedy oedipus, sophocles' tragedy,

Approximate Word count = 753
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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