11
edits
Oedipus Rex: Difference between revisions
→Themes and Motifs
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 47: | Line 47: | ||
* Sight and blindness | * Sight and blindness | ||
Oedipus’ life could be called a train wreck; that is, two trains were moving head-on toward each other—one oblivous to the truth and one with knowledge of the truth. When these trains met, the wreck took the {emotional and/or physical} lives of everyone close to Oedipus. Although he could physically see, he was blind to who he really was. Oedipus had no idea that his wife was actually his mother, that the people who raised him were not his biological parents, that his daughters were also his half-sisters, and that he had murdered his biological father. First, he brought in the blind prophet, Tieresias, who revealed the future. Second, he blindly denied these revealations. And third, after he could see the revealations were true, Oedipus blinded himself physically. | |||
In the beginning of the play, Oedipus has perfect physical vision. However, he is blind and ignorant to the truth about himself and his past. He desperately wants to know, to see, but he cannot (Hibbison). Ironically, Tiresias, the blind soothsayer, saw the future from the beginning. Neither Oedipus nor his wife, Jocasta, knew how devastating their lives were. When their true history was revealed by Tiresias, they refused to believe him. Tiresias meant two different things when he referred to sight. First, he knew Oedipus was blessed with the gift of perception; he was the only man who could "see" the answer to the Sphinx's riddle (verse 501). Second, he could not see what was right before his eyes. He was blind to the truth he sought (Gradesaver). | |||
Oedipus, furious at the suggestion of his guilt, berated the prophet, who retorted by insisting that Oedipus was yet blind to the truth and would soon learn of his guilt (Awerty). In verse 478, Tiresias told Oedipus that “…darkness shrouding your eyes that can see the light”. Oedipus angrily dismissed the sightless old man, accused him of conspiring with Jocasta's brother, Creon, to overthrow him (Awerty). Although blind to the truth, as the facts became clear, Oedipus was forced to open his eyes: Oedipus did, in fact, kill his father, Larius, and marry his mother. Oedipus’ slaying of Laius at the crossroads was an intentional act, but also an unconscious one; therefore a “pure” one. Later, when Oedipus blinds himself, the audience is capable of exhibiting the correct emotional response: that of pity and fear. This act, after Oedipus’ recognition of his error, proves that he feels remorse for his actions and shows the audience that he would never have performed them had he known the facts (Lucas). Oedipus was responsible for the bad times in Thebes. The truth was then so obvious to him that he had to confront it. | |||
Oedipus furthered Sophocles’ sight metaphor when he defended his decision to humble himself through blindness: “What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy” (verse 1473). When Oedipus finally discovered the truth, ironically, he was so distressed that he ran pins into his eyes (verse 1405). Oedipus’ self-inflicted blindness is, in effect, his “purification” of his pathos and makes him a proper recipient for the audience’s pity and fear (Lucas). He had been blinded to the truth too long. Oedipus would forever walk in physical darkness, though the truth was now visible. With nothing to look at, Oedipus was forced to think about his life and what had happened. The darkness and the physical pain he had inflicted on himself was just as agonizing as his blindness to the truth. | |||
Figurative blindness can be harder to deal with then literal blindness. A person who is physically blind knows that it will probably be life-long will learn to accept the blindness. However, if a person is blind to the truth, there is nothing that person can do until they learn and acknowledge the truth. The person may not even know that their situation is wrong. When that person does learn the truth, he tends to feel ignorant. That person wonders if things could have been avoided had the truth only been known sooner. When Oedipus learned the truth, his way of dealing with his figurative blindness was to physically blind himself. In this play, blindness led to the truth, and the truth led to blindness. Oedipus and Jocasta were blinded, yet found the truth. | |||
* Light and darkness | * Light and darkness | ||
* Historia — a free spirit of inquiry | * Historia — a free spirit of inquiry | ||
| Line 58: | Line 69: | ||
Archetype of drama? Hero’s quest for himself. | Archetype of drama? Hero’s quest for himself. | ||
Works Cited: | |||
Little, Jennifer. “Oedipus Rex / Oedipus the King.” Gradesaver. July 19, 2000. Retrieved March 31, 2005. <http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/oedipus/summ2.html>. | |||
No author. “Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (c. 496-406 B.C.)” Awerty Notes. Retrieved March 31, 2005. <http://www.awerty.com/oedipus2.html>. | |||
Lucas, Gerald, Ed. “Poetics and Purgation”. Dr. Gerald Lucas. July 16, 2003. Retrieved April 12, 2005. <http://litmuse.maconstate.edu/~glucas/archives/000252.shtm>. | |||
Hibbison, Eric, Ed. “Oedipus the Wreck – Blindness in Oedipus Rex”. VCCS Litonline. Virginia Community College System. Last Updated February 21, 2005. Retreived April 18, 2005. <http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/OedipustheWreck/blindness.htm>. | |||
== Questions for Consideration == | == Questions for Consideration == | ||