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- Sight vs. Blindness - By: Elda Radice, Chiara Altamura and Yujiro Nishibori

OEDIPUS THE KING. - Sight vs. Blindness - By: Elda Radice, Chiara Altamura and Yujiro Nishibori. References to the eyesight and vision , both literal and metaphorical, are very frequent in all three Theban plays. The image of clear vision is used as metaphor for

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- Sight vs. Blindness - By: Elda Radice, Chiara Altamura and Yujiro Nishibori

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  1. OEDIPUS THE KING - Sight vs. Blindness - By: Elda Radice, Chiara Altamura and Yujiro Nishibori

  2. References to the eyesight and vision , both literal and metaphorical, are very frequent in all three Theban plays. The image of clear vision is used as metaphor for knowledge and insight. Throughout “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles employs one continuous metaphor: light vs. darkness, and sight vs. blindness. 

  3. THE IRONY • The irony in this play is dramatic irony. The irony is that sight here means two different things. Oedipus is blessed with the gift of perception (he was the only man who could “see” the answer to the Sphinx’s riddle. However he cannot see the what is right before his eyes, he is blind to the truth.

  4. A reference to this metaphor occurs early in the play, when Oedipus falsely accuses Teresias and Creon of conspiracy: • “Creon, the soul of trust, my loyal friend from the start steals against me... so hungry to overthrow me he sets this wizard on me, this scheming quack, this fortune-teller peddling lies, eyes peeled for his own profit—seer blind in his craft!”

  5. Teresias responds to this by using the same metaphor: • “So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this.  You with your precious eyes, you're blind to the corruption of your life, to the house you live in, those you live with—who are your parents? Do you know? All unknowing you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood, the dead below the earth and the living here above, and the double lash of your mother and your father's curse will whip you from this land one day, their footfall treading you down in terror, darkness shrouding your eyes that now can see the light!”

  6. Though at this point the reader cannot be sure which character is right, eventually Teresias comes out the winner.  This is revealed as Oedipus learns his tragic fate, saying: • “O god—all come true, all burst to light! O light—now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last—cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!” • Here we can see again the metaphor of light, which represents truth and knowledge.

  7. Ironically, this causes the king to gouge out his eyes, which have been blind to the truth for so long.  He screams: • “You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness—blind!” • Oedipus furthers Sophocles' sight metaphor when he defends his decision to humble himself through blindness: • "What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy."

  8. Therefore the idea of sight is critical in “Oedipus the King”.  Though Teresias is physically blind, he sees the truth from the beginning, while Oedipus, who has physical eye sight, is blind to his fate.  By the end, Oedipus makes his eyes blind when he learns the truth and finally sees. • The play seems to say that human beings can demonstrate remarkable powers of insight, and they have a great capacity for knowledge, but that even the smartest human being is liable to error, that the human capability for knowledge is ultimately quite limited and unreliable.

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