Meaning Of Blindness In Oedipus

The word ‘blind’ isn’t likely to be equated with a blind person in today’s world, more often is it used to represent a more abstract concept. Blindness has come to represent a great variety of things in literature, being used as a metaphor for everything from ignorance to supernatural powers. These views of blind people as being different have become engrained in our minds after many years of establishment through literature. Nevertheless the opinion held by many people who actually experience blindness themselves (including the President of the National Federation of the Blind) is that their ideal would simply be to be treated the same as anybody who still has their sight. However, People who are blind can’t do anything for themselves, they …show more content…
“Shakespeare believed that blindness did not only mean the inability to see but was also a mental flaw which some people possess. This makes them unable to see things from a different perspective and generally leads to a shallow and narrow thinking person.”(Source #7) Shakespeare equated blindness with ignorance and he wasn’t the only one, many great authors made this same connection. Consequently, many know the two things as being synonymous with each other, even in this modern era. It is known that Oedipus blinds himself at the end of the book Oedipus, but Oedipus is portrayed in the book as ‘blind’, meaning ignorant to the truth, even before he actually blinds himself, as said by Tiresias, the prophet “Blind who now has eyes […].”(Oedipus) Tiresias is calling attention to Oedipus's lack of knowledge in relation to his fate. Even Tiresias, who is blind himself, compares blindness to ignorance. Why would Tiresias say something that is seemingly an insult to himself? As President of the National Federation of the Blind, Kenneth Jernigan puts it “The helpless blind man is a universal stereotype.” The portrayal of the blind in Literature has led us to believe that they are foolish and can do nothing for themselves, becoming totally helpless and in a way ‘ignorant’ to the world. It seems unwise to support a film such as Blindness, that only …show more content…
Classics, like the story of Oedipus, may be banned as well. This is not a solid argument, there is a clear distinction between simply wanting to discontinue a practice that is mentally harmful to an poorly represented group and wanting to completely eradicate all literature that contains a trace of bias towards these people. It is possible to have one without the other, and one must recognize what is common sense and what is censorship; it is perfectly logical to take action to stop stereotypes, that blind people have directly said are hurtful, but it is also possible to do this without removing a large chunk from the history of literature. The boycott of the movie Blindness will serve an important function: helping us identify our prejudices of the blind. Once we have identified that biases exist, they lose their power, because we can read objectively and realize that the portrayal of the blind in literature is not necessarily accurate. It is often difficult to identify when we have views that are detrimental to a certain group, In most cases it is only necessary to ask the opinion of the group in question to find if they feel they are being stereotyped, after all, they are the most qualified to decide. The blind are the most qualified group