How the Theme Topics of Blindness and Identity Influence Oedipus’ Character

Sophocles and the Theme of Blindness and Identity

Sophocles uses Oedipus’ transition character in contrast to the storyline of the play to help illustrate topics of his work such as blindness and identification. At the start of the play, Oedipus the King is portrayed as a brave and proud king who appears courageous and optimistic, but he gradually transforms into a tyrant in denial and, by the end of the play, a condemned and frightened man.

The Significance of Blindness in Relation to Identity

As said in the book, “no rule is mightier than comprehension,” so is the play’s wisdom lesson. The blindness of Teriesias, Oedipus, and Jocasta are employed in the play by Sophocles to illustrate the significance in relation to identity. Teiresias is being told in the play that despite reading secret and signs of the sky and the earth through her art enhancing her knowledge though he is aware that she is incapable of seeing (Sophocle 59). In comparison to the population of Thebes, Teiresias was way better than most of the populace despite the fact that he was physically blind and could only read the signs and secrets of the sky and the earth via his mastered art.

It was believed that it was only Teiresias who could save them from the plague that was besetting the people of Thebes and no other man was capable of doing so when he was requested to help in the revealing of the pollutant and he was very apprehensive to deliver the understanding of the best of her knowledge. After revealing it, even Oedipus shed tears because the wisdom of Teiresias was great as illustrated that when knowledge can be of no vain then it is of no burden (Sophocles 72).

The Blindness of Jocasta

The blindness of Jocasta is used in the Oedipus the King to create emphasis on the significance of understanding. In Thebes, Jocasta was one of the people who never took heed on the power of prophesy and never had fear for it postulating that there was no single way in which the prophetic art was touching the fortune of the people (Walton 1546). The reference to identity and eyesight are both metaphorical and literal in the Theban play. For knowledge and identity, the image of vision is employed as a metaphor in a manner that it s not easier to comprehend that it is a metaphor in a Greek way of thinking.

Saying that one is capable of seeing the way things are and saying that one is able to see the truth is an awesome use of ordinary language with the reference to the eyesight forming a significant pattern in relation to the metaphorical and literal blindness (Sophocles 78). Faster understanding and clear sightedness of Oedipus are the ones that have made him famous in the play despite discovering that he was blind for a longer period adding to his years and worse still, Oedipus do not want to look at his children and siblings and the best way to do this according to him is by blinding himself. He finally acquires a limited prophetic vision besides his blindness.

The Limited Capability of Human Knowledge

It is communicated from the play that human beings have the ability to show a remarkable power and ability of intellection comprehension and insight besides the great capacity of knowledge endowed to them (Walton 1552). It is worth noting from the play that the blindness is used to create the understanding that that despite the knowledge human beings may be having, they are not that perfect and everybody is liable to error. This is an illustration that knowledge capability of human is unreliable and very limited.

The Theme of Blindness in the Play

The theme of blindness is mainly addressed through two main characters in the play, that is, Teresias who was the blind prophet and Oedipus. Oedipus is considered blind since he is guilty after being unable to discover the truth about King Laios murderer’s identity besides the fact that he has the full ability to see. More of his blindness is demonstrated by his incapacity to realize that he has fulfilled another component of what was foretold that he tried to avoid by marrying his mother.

Though physically blind, Teiresias on the other hand can see metaphorically making him way better than those with the eyes in the play but are considered blind (Lauriola 149). Teiresias is capable of making predictions in his condition hence considered as a prophet. With his blindness, he holds the painful reality about the identity of Oedipus that he does not want to reveal because he knew the consequences that might follow thereafter (Lauriola 149).

Conclusion

Later Oedipus realizes the truth and gauges out his eyes out to make him-self blind so that he cannot bear to see the reality surrounding him and especially the children he sired since they are like his half siblings. The theme of blindness and identity are in full reference n the play to both dark and light imagery to reinforce the ideas of Sophocles that truth is just but a matter of perception.

.

Works Cited

Lauriola, Rosanna. “Oedipus the King.” Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Sophocles (2017): 149.

Sophocles. Sophocles: Four Tragedies: Oedipus the King, Aias, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Walton, J. Michael. The Greek Sense of Theatre: Tragedy and Comedy. Routledge, 2015.