Oedipus and Themes
The story of Oedipus
the King by Sophocles brings
to light many
themes, making it a truly
great piece of literature.
One theme that I could
not help notice, due to its
timely recurrences, was the
idea of blindness.
Over and over, the idea of
being in darkness, being
blind, seeing, etc. came
up in key parts of the text.
First off, I will
proceed to list every
occurrence of the references
to
sight that I deem are
important (sometimes being
blind just means being
blind!) as well as a bit of
context. The passages with a
"*" denote a
message of extreme importance
(in my opinion):
line 14: Oedipus
speaking to the priests about
him sensing trouble
ahead;
"I would be blind to misery,"
line 28-9: Priest
responding to line 14; "Our
city-look around you, see
with your own eyes-our ship
pitches wildly,"
line 70-1: Same
subject as above; "I see-how
could I fail to see what
longings bring you here?"
line 119: Oedipus
speaking of the killing of
their former king; "I
never
saw the man myself."
line 150: Oedipus
speaking of how he will try
and solve the murder of
their
former king, Laius; "...I'll
bring it all to light myself!"
line 216-7: Chorus
pleading the gods for help;
"O golden daughter of
god,
send rescue radiant as the
kindness in your eyes!"
line 323: The leader
of the chorus speaking of the
blind prophet
Tiresias;
"Lord Tiresias sees with the
eyes of Lord Apollo."
line 344-5: Oedipus
speaking of Tiresias; "Blind
as you are, you can
feel
all the more what sickness
haunts our city."
*line 360: Tiresias
speaking of the problems that
the city wants
solved;
"How terrible-to see the
truth when the truth is only
pain to him who sees!"
line 425-7: Oedipus
scolding Tiresias for
accusing him of being the
curse
upon the town; "Blind, lost
in the night, endless night
that nursed you!
You can't hurt me or anyone
else who sees the light-you
can never touch me."
line 441-2: Oedipus
again, "going to town" on
Tiresias; "...this
fortune-teller peddling lies,
eyes peeled for his own
profit-seer blind in
his craft!"
line 470-1: Tiresias
"responding" to Oedipus's
attacks; "You with your
precious eyes, you're blind
to the corruption of your
life,"
line 477-9: Same as
470-1; "...their footfall
treading you down in
terror,
darkness shrouding your eyes
that now can see the light!"
*line 517-9: Same as
previous two quotes, this
time foreshadowing
Oedipus's
fate; "Blind who now has
eyes, beggar who now is rich,
he will grope his way
toward a foreign soil, a
stick tapping before him step
by step."
line 552-3: The
chorus is expressing concern
over the fight which has
just
ensued between Oedipus and
Tiresias; "...I'm lost, and
the wings of dark
foreboding beating-I cannot
see what's come, what's still
to come..."
line 567-70: Same as
previous quote; "No, not till
I see these charges
proved will I side with his
accusers. We saw him then,
when the she-hawk
swept against him, saw with
our own eyes his skill, his
brilliant triumph..."
line 672-3: Creon,
after having been accused of
killing Laius and
treason,
Creon defends himself; "A man
of sense, someone who sees
things clearly
would never resort to
treason."
line 822: Oedipus
infers to his wife (and
mother...) Jocasta that he
may be
cause of the trouble,
prompting Jocasta to be
afraid; "I shudder to look at
you."
line 878-80: Oedipus
is recalling past events in
his life, how he was
prophesized to be the
downfall of his parents;
"...always running toward
some place where I would
never see the shame of all
those oracles come true."
line 919-20: Oedipus
prays to the gods that he is
not the victim of
fate
(that he will bring the
downfall of his royal
family); "Oh no, not that you
pure and awesome gods, never
let me see that day!"
*line 1070-1: Jocasta
gives us her theory on man
and wisdom; "Not a man
on
earth can see a day ahead,
groping through the dark."
line 1168-9: Oedipus
wants the truth about his
mysterious past; "I must
know it all, must see the
truth at last."
line 1190: Oedipus
foreshadows his own fate;
"I'll never see myself
disgraced."
*line 1306-8: Oedipus
finds out the truth that he
1) killed his father,
Laius, the former king, and
2) he slept with his mother;
"O god-all come
true, all burst to light! O
light-now let me look my last
on you! I stand
revealed at last-"
line 1315-7: The
chorus sums up and
philosophizes on the fate of
men;
"...who seizes more joy than
just a dream, a vision? And
the vision no
sooner dawns than dies
blazing into oblivion."
*line 1341: Chorus
gives us a nice summary of
what has happened;
"...Time,
all-seeing Time has dragged
you to the light..."
*line 1350: Chorus
foreshadows the fate of
Oedipus; "...and now you
bring
down night upon my eyes."
*line 1358-9: The
messenger adds to the
chorus's speech; "Such things
it
hides, it soon will bring to
light-terrible things, and
none done blindly
now..."
**line 1402-09: In
the climax of the play,
Oedipus finds out the truth
about his past. This is
probably one of the most
important (if not the most
important) sections of this
play; "He rips off her
brooches, the long gold
pins holding her robes-and
lifting them high, looking
straight up into the
points, he digs them down the
sockets of his eyes, crying,
'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!'"
*line1432-42: The
chorus is talking about the
wretched site of Oedipus
after having gouged out his
own eyes; "O the terror, the
suffering, for all
the world to see, the worst
terror that ever met my
eyes." "I pity you but I
can't bear to look." "...so
much fascinates my eyes, but
you... I shudder at
the sight."
line 1498: The
chorus, speaking about
Oedipus, falls prey to the
same
ignorance that Oedipus does
earlier in the play; "Better
to die than be
alive and blind."
--------------------------------
After seeing almost
all of the quotes having to
deal with sight,
darkness,
blindness, etc. it is obvious
that they represent something
deeper than
their literal meaning. Most
of the early quotes using the
word "blind",
represent the paradox that is
presented with Oedipus and
the "blind seer"
Tiresias. Oedipus keeps
pointing out the fact that
Tiresias is blind, but
fails to see (impossible to
escape the word...) that, in
fact, he himself is
blind to the circumstances
that are going on. Throughout
the entire play,
the only one who can clearly
"see" is Tiresias. The
chorus, Oedipus and the
others can all "see"
literally, but cannot see the
"truth".
The double asterisk
passages are of special
importance. They parallel
Plato's Allegory of the Cave
practically to perfection.
Line 1306-8, "O
god-all come true, all burst
to light! O light-now let me
look my last on
you! I stand revealed at
last-" to me, symbolizes
Oedipus having broken the
chains of the cave, bursting
towards the light (the
truth). Since the light
is so bright, he is blinded;
he suddenly does not want to
see the light, so
he gouges out his own eyes.
After having done so, Oedipus
has descended
back into the cave, into
darkness...
In lines1432-42, "O
the terror, the suffering,
for all the world to
see,
the worst terror that ever
met my eyes." "I pity you but
I can't bear to
look." the people of the town
cannot look at the light (the
truth), that is
Oedipus; in fact, they state
that, "...so much fascinates
my eyes, but
you... I shudder at the
sight." This sounds exacly
like the shadows playing
upon the wall of the cave
that occupies their time;
they cannot look away
from the shadow, and cannot
look at the light-the light
would bring them
pain. In the final quote that
I have added, line 1498,
"Better to die than
be alive and blind.", the
crowd finalizes their
ignorance on the subject of
truth. Since one is blinded
by the light after emerging
from the cave, the
people would rather die
having been occupied by
shadows than to face the
real truth.