Term Paper on "Oedipus the King Blinded to See"

Term Paper 3 pages (1060 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Oedipus the King

Blinded to see the horror of his fate -- Sophocles' Tragedy "Oedipus Rex"

It is easy for a contemporary viewer to apprehend that the fate of Sophocles' "Oedipus the King" is a horrible. Oedipus fulfills his foretold destiny to marry his mother Queen Jocasta and kill his father King Laius. However, for a Greek audience Oedipus' fate would be especially terrible. Oedipus loses his vision, the most precious of all the senses, fulfils his fate to become a parricide in a world where filial duty and respect was of paramount importance, and becomes dominated by the influence of women in a patriarchal society. His only reward at the end of the play is that, now blinded, he can finally see the nature of human life clearly -- human beings are blind when they think themselves powerful, and they are playthings of the gods and goddesses.

The theme of blindness allowing people to see clearly is perhaps best embodied not by Oedipus' self-inflicted fate of blindness at the very end of the play but by the presence of the blind prophet Tiresias. Only the blind prophet knows why a plague has been inflicted upon Thebes. Oedipus begins the play full of self-confidence. "The opening of the play makes at least two things clear to us. First, the citizens have enormous respect, even love, for Oedipus. They acknowledge not only his political power (which they have given him), but also his pre-eminence among all human beings for wisdom, especially in dealing with things they don't understand: 'We judge you / the first of men in what happens in this life/and in our interactions with the gods'" (37-39) (Johnson, 2004).

However, because of the zealous confidence of the citizenry in his ability to solve problems and because of his success solving the riddle of the Sphinx, Oedipus cannot conceive that he is the real source of his city's ills, despite mounting evidence to the contrary as the play progresses. He condemns Tiresias, just as he condemns the then- unknown man who caused the plague in the first scene -- ironically condemning his own self. Although sighted, the king cannot see clearly, because his human arrogance in his capabilities conceals the real truth of human life. Human beings have little control over their fate and the will of the gods. As a blind man, Tiresias already knows this all too well. This is why, although "not in the original myth" Sophocles chose to include the blind prophet, to contrast his insight with the sighted Oedipus' stubbornness. (Roisman 2003:1)

Although Oedipus is arrogant, and hubristic, his tragic flaw is not the flaw of over-confidence in the manner of some heroes, like Odysseus, for example, who tells the Cyclops his name after blinding the demigod, and unwittingly condemns himself to wandering the seas in punishment. "It should be noted that Sophocles never suggests that Oedipus has brought his destiny on himself by his "ungodly pride" (hubris) alone, although this is a common theme in other Greek tragedies (Pontikis, 1988). Rather, for reasons unknown to mortals, Oedipus has been marked for an especially unhappy destiny in life. Sophocles even "makes a special effort to… READ MORE

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