Sight/Sightlessness in Oedipus

Although now he is physically blind, he, like Tiresias, now “sees”. Tiresias remarks, “If only you could see what lurks in yours, you would not chide me so. 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. Oedipus cannot see the wretchedness of his life. He feels that he can no longer “look men in the eyes". Oedipus, “a simple man, who knows nothing”, is unable to prevent his own downfall because of his own ignorance. However, once Oedipus gains the knowledge of his past, his world will come tumbling down. He proclaims, “What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy. The well-known phrase, “Ignorance is bliss”, fully pertains to the life of Oedipus. ” Once Oedipus sees the truth, his entire world collapses. Oedipus is “blind to [his] origins and to a union in [his] house. He does not see the reality of his life. Tiresias finally says to him, “You don't see how much alike we are.

Although blind to the outside world, Tiresias could foresee the despair that truth would cause in the city of Thebes. Tiresias states, “Oh, what anguish to be wise where wisdom is a loss!” The knowledge of the retained information is disadvantageous to so many people and yet Oedipus still demands to know.