Blindness In Oedipus The King

The play by Sophocles “Oedipus the King” develops the theme of blindness throughout the entire play through three of its central characters: Oedipus, Tiresias, and Jocasta. Oedipus is blind not only to whom he has killed, but also to what his life has consisted of up until the point that he killed Laius; Tiresias the prophet is physically blind; Jocasta is blind in wanting nothing but the best for her child. Through these three main characters they are not only showing that blindness does not just occur in sight but also in hearing and speaking as well. Oedipus thinks that he is one of the only people who is doing something good for the town of Thebes because he has solved the riddle of the Sphinx; instead he is destroying the town of Thebes apart by killing Laius and having blindness towards who Laius even was. In the play, Creon goes to the priest in order to hear from him what the Lord, which looks over their city, Apollo saw Oedipus mysteriously do to Laius. Creon wants to bring this subject up to Oedipus but does not know how to do so. Once Creon tells Oedipus about a …show more content…
He wants to be exiled because he married his mother, and killed his own father. When he is not exiled, he creates another kind of blindness in his life by stabbing himself in the eyes with an ice pike, an act that makes him go physically blind. Taking his own sight was not going to help his own blindness to the killing of Laius, nor is it going to satisfy the people of Thebes in getting revenge on the killer of Laius. “Oedipus the King” was a play which wanted to express that people can have blindness to his/her own actions and towards people’s actions that they love. It also expresses that to have blindness does not just rely on physical blindness, instead it relies on awareness as well and the events to cause you to act the way that you