Oedipus Sight And Blindness Essay, Research Paper
Oedipus Rex is a drama about the manner we blind ourselves to painful truths that we can & # 8217 ; t bear to see. Physical sight and sightlessness are used throughout the drama, frequently ironically, as a metaphor for mental sight and sightlessness. The drama ends with the hero Oedipus literally blinding himself to avoid seeing the consequence of his awful destiny. But as the drama demonstrates, Oedipus, the adult male who killed his male parent and impregnated his female parent, has been blind all along, and is partially responsible for his ain sightlessness.
When the drama opens, the people of the town are inquiring Oedipus for aid. A expletive has been cast upon the metropolis and the lone manner to take it, is to happen the liquidator of the last male monarch, Laios. Oedipus so makes a promise to the people that he will happen the guilty and punish them.
Oedipus can physically see, but his mental sightlessness inhibits him from seeing the truth of his life. During the class of the twenty-four hours he has been given many hints to recognize the truth about himself. Such that his name is Oedipus and & # 8220 ; Oedipus & # 8221 ; means conceited pes, and Laious & # 8217 ; boy & # 8217 ; s pess were bound together at the mortise joint. It becomes really obvious to the reader early on in the drama as to what the result will be. It is dry that the one person, who comes to assist the metropolis, is the person that has been the cause of the expletive. Oedipus is the unwellness.
Oedipus and Jocasta both don & # 8217 ; t want to see the truth. Although it may happen to them at some point, but they don & # 8217 ; t give it a 2nd idea because they think it is absurd and it isn & # 8217 ; t possible. & # 8220 ; Why should anyone in this universe be afraid, since destiny regulations us and nil new wave be forseen? A adult male should populate merely for the present twenty-four hours. Have no more fright of kiping with your female parent: How many work forces, in dreams, have lain with their female parents! No sensible adult male is troubled by such things. & # 8221 ; Jocasta is farther from believing than Oedipus, she invariably tells him non to worry about it, don & # 8217 ; t acquire worked up, and to merely bury what you were told. Oedipus canno
T bury what the prophet has said and goes on to prosecute the instance.
Through the class of the drama Oedipus is the investigator, the justice, and the jury. He investigates, decides a finding of fact, and carries out his ain penalty. When Tiresias arrives at Thebes Oedipus inquiries him looking for replies. Tiresias is a unsighted adult male, who ironically can see the hereafter and truths of people & # 8217 ; s lives. It is Tiresias who is the first individual to state Oedipus that he has killed his ain male parent. He tells Oedipus & # 8220 ; you do non see the immorality in which you live. & # 8221 ; Oedipus uncertainties Tiresias & # 8217 ; ability to see the truths because of his physical sightlessness and provinces, & # 8220 ; You are unsighted, your ears and head every bit good as eyes. & # 8221 ; Tiresias has a really different type of sight than that of Oedipus. Tiresias can see the truth even while blinded, whereas Oedipus can physically see but he is blinded by his ain myopia.
Jocasta shows mental sightlessness when she fails to recognize that the prognostication one time told to her has come true. She ignores the marks that prove the prognostications true, because she doesn & # 8217 ; t want to see them. When Jocasta eyes are eventually opened to the truth, she returns to the house and shortly thenceforth kills herself. She does this because she can & # 8217 ; t believe that she had been so unsighted to see that the prognostications were true. She does non desire to populate with the dual fruit of her matrimony, a hubby by her hubby and kids by her kid.
Ironically at the beginning of the drama Oedipus is missing the mental ability to see, but when he eventually does see the truth, he physically blinds himself. & # 8220 ; I know that you are deathlike ill ; and yet, ill as you are, non one is every bit ill as I. & # 8221 ; He takes duty for blinding himself stating he can & # 8217 ; t bear to see the horror everyplace in his actions. It is dry that in the beginning of the drama Oedipus is portrayed as an admired and baronial swayer, and by the terminal of the drama he is stripped of his political power, has blinded himself, and has exiled himself.
Bibliography
Oedipus Rex
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