Oedipus Sight vs. sightlessness
What is sight? Is it understanding? Knowledge? Truth? Can the sighted be blind? Can a blind man see? When the truth becomes too terrible, does one choose not to see? In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, the characters of Tiresias and Oedipus form a complete contrast to one another. Tiresias, a blind man, can "see" the truth about Oedipus, yet Oedipus, in all of his physical perfection, cannot. Although Tiresias is physically blind, he sees the truth from the beginning, while Oedipus, who has physical eyesight, is blind to his fate. However, in the end, Oedipus blinds himself when he learns the truth and finally sees. Both the characters of Tiresias and Oedipus prove that seeing the truth does not require sight. Although, Tiresias, a seer, is physically blind, he is clairvoyant and sees more truth than the sighted. Tiresias is "A blind man, who has his sight now." It is ironic that the only insight Oedipus has into the gods' will is through a blind man. He cannot see the workings of the world. However, his contact with the gods gives him more knowledge and truth than any of the sighted can observe. Oedipus demands that Tiresias tell him the information sent from the gods, but Tiresias refuses, knowing that the mention of such word
Tiresias says to him, "Ask yourself where you are from?" His entire life has been a lie and yet he is too blind to see the truth. It isn't until he sees reality that his world begins to crumble. Tiresias is literally blind while Oedipus is "blind" toward his prophecies. Oedipus can see all too clearly what the truth is, but he desperately does not want to accept his fate. With a scream, Oedipus calls out, "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 blinding himself was the only thing left to do. " Once Oedipus sees the truth, his entire world collapses. Tiresias proclaims, "What flood of sorrows-. Oedipus cannot see the wretchedness of his life. Tiresias retorted, "I'm blind, you say; you mock at that! I say you see and still are blind-appallingly. " If only Oedipus were not so ignorant as to demand such information, he himself would benefit. Although now he is physically blind, he, like Tiresias, now "sees". "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!" That light, which represented all truth and knowledge, must be destroyed. Having killed his own father and married his mother, knowledge of his past tears Oedipus to pieces. Oedipus is "blind to [his] origins and to a union in [his] house.
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Acceptance Essays
