Jack Beasley AP English Essay A January 30‚ 2001 In the story of Oedipus the king‚ Sophocles beautifully demonstrates the imagery of sight versus blindness through the use of tragedy and ignorance. Oedipus is ignorant to his own incest‚ therefore causing the first instance of his blindness. The second instance of Oedipus’ blindness is the ignorance of his true parent’s identity. The third instance of Oedipus’ blindness is a literal one‚ in which he physically blinds himself after finding
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In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex‚ blindness is a reoccurring theme which is used in many different ways in the play. Blindness is used quite often and is emphasized with the prophet Tiresias who is literally blind can see the truth unlike Oedipus who is blind to see the truth about his past and the crimes he has committed. It is ironic that the prophets Tiresias who is blind can see better then Oedipus in a metaphorical sense. The prophet Tiresias is physically blind but is able to see much more
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Blindness plays a two-fold part in Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King.” First‚ Sophocles presents blindness as a physical disability affecting the auger Teiresias‚ and later Oedipus; but later‚ blindness comes to mean an inability to see the evil in one’s actions and the consequences that ensue. The irony in this lies in the fact that Oedipus‚ while gifted with sight‚ is blind to himself‚ in contrast to Teiresias‚ blind physically‚ but able to see the evil to which Oedipus
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Effects of Physical Blindness People can in fact be blinded to the truth‚ the solution to their problems may have been completely oblivious‚ yet somehow still oblivious. We often make assumptions between being blind and enlightened. With Blindness one may not have sight but another type of vision. In king Oedipus‚ Tiresias‚ the blind prophet‚ presents the truth to Oedipus and Jocasta. Oedipus has been blind his whole life‚ and when faced with the truth‚ lost his the truth is uncovered she still cannot
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Sophocles’s play‚ "Oedipus the King" is one of the most well known of the Greek tragedies. The play’s interesting plot‚ along with the incredible way it is written are only two of the many reasons why two thousand years later‚ it is still being read and viewed. For those who are not familiar with the story of "Oedipus the King"‚ it is written about the results of a curse put on King Oedipus which claims that he will murder his father and marry his mother. After reading or viewing this play‚ it
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Professor Lin Humanities 101 – Section 7 September 14‚ 2015 Blindness as a Spiritual Awakening in Oedipus Rex In literature‚ blindness has come to be associated with insight and highly sensitive perception. While Oedipus gains awareness to the truth‚ no longer blind to his past‚ before blinding himself‚ he gains a more spiritual sight after blinding himself. Amidst the terror that strikes in the last few scenes of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles‚ Oedipus is finally able to take control of his fate by stabbing
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Theme of Blindness Sophocles was a prolific writer and his long life enabled him to have a prodigious literary output. There is always a deep philosophic content at the back of Sophocles’ plays. Men suffer in the tragedies of Sophocles‚ characterisation always charged with emotion and poetry guesstimates the growth and development of his dramatic genius. One of the main underlying themes in Oedipus Rex is blindness. Not just physical blindness‚ but intellectual blindness as well. The blindness issue
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How does Sophocles explore the use of contrast in his play King Oedipus? ¬The use of contrast by Sophocles in his play King Oedipus allows the audience the ability to see into the multifaceted layers that possess his characters. Being both physically and metaphorically blind is a motif that is both ironic and somewhat cruel in nature‚ due to the circumstances to which this physical blindness is acquired‚ and the latter is bygone. The contrast between the piety and god fearing nature of Creon and
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In Sophocoles’‚ Oedipus the King‚ "blindness" is ironically referenced in more than one way. This is the obvious motif of the story. Correspondingly‚ in the story of Oedipus the King‚ “blindness” is used quite ambiguously. As a matter of fact‚ this story displays the classic contrast between the distinction of "seeing" and being "blind‚" and it is intertwined throughout the story. The contradiction between these two are played by Oedipus and Teiresias. This story is the classic tale of what you see
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Oedipus the King has many images of blindness‚ both physical and blindness of the mind. The characters surrounding these images are Oedipus and Tiresias the prophet. When the play begins Oedipus has vision and Tiresias cannot see‚ but by the end of the play‚ it is clear who can really see and who is blind. When Oedipus first encounters Tiresias‚ the blind prophet proceeds to tell Oedipus after much pressure that Oedipus is the one who has brought the great plague down upon Thebes and that he
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