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
Premium Hamlet Oedipus Oedipus the King
In literature‚ blindness serves a general significant meaning of the absence of knowledge and insight. It serves this same purpose in Sophocles’ classic tragedy‚ Oedipus Rex. In this piece‚ blindness manifests itself in three ways: intellectual blindness‚ which is the refusal or inability to accept knowledge; physical blindness‚ which is being without the physical sense of sight; and metaphorical blindness‚ which is what blindness symbolizes or means for each character affected by it. In all aspects
Free Knowledge Truth Oedipus the King
The Use of Blindness in Oedipus Rex Authors often use blindness both metaphorically and literally to describe their characters. In Oedipus Rex‚ Sophocles begins the play with literally blind Thebans suffering from a plague that their metaphorically blind king has brought upon them. Oedipus‚ being the king‚ is trying to help his blind Thebans. In doing this‚ he blindly curses the murderer of the late King Laius for bringing this plague‚ not knowing that the murderer is himself. When
Premium Oedipus Oedipus the King Tiresias
In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles‚ the themes of sight and blindness are developed in a way to communicate to the reader that it is not eyesight itself‚ but insight that holds the key to truth and‚ without it‚ no amount of knowledge can help uncover that truth. Some may define insight as the ability to intuitively know what is going to happen‚ or simply as the capacity to understand the true nature of a situation. Both definitions hold a significant role in the play‚ not only for more obvious
Premium Oedipus Oedipus the King Sophocles
The Blindness in Oedipus Rex In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles‚ the minor character of Tiresias is responsible for foreshadowing Oedipus’ fate‚ developing the theme of blindness‚ and also illustrating dramatic irony. Tiresias is responsible for further developing the theme of blindness‚ by using his own physical blindness to reveal to Oedipus his mental blindness. Lastly‚ Tiresias is ultimately responsible for imposing dramatic irony because of his great knowledge of the truth of Oedipus
Premium
Oedipus Rex: A Symbolic Path to Truth In the ironic and tragic play Oedipus Rex‚ the titular character (Oedipus) goes on a journey to discover who he really is. The story starts with the King Lauis abandoning his son Oedipus because the prophet said Oedipus would murder his father and marry his mother. As the story goes on Oedipus finds a sphinx and solves the sphinx’s riddle which kills it. Oedipus is immediately named King of Thebes. As the story comes to an end he starts to ask the question‚ who
Premium Oedipus Sophocles Greek mythology
Oedipus Rex In Oedipus Rex‚ Sophocles uses dramatic techniques in order to create tension‚ an impact or a certain atmosphere in the play. Some examples of this include foreshadowing‚ imagery‚ symbolism‚ and many more. However‚ this essay is only going to talk about two of these methods; irony. These two methods seem to be the most used in the play and also seem to add the most feeling or impact on the audience. There are many instances in Oedipus Rex‚ that the dramatic technique of irony is
Free Oedipus the King Oedipus Literary technique
Journal Project for Oedipus Rex 1. What is the effect of Oedipus’ insistence and promises regarding the hunting down and punishing of the murderer of Laius? What does this suggest concerning his character as well as the meaning of Sophocles’ play? Sophocles a Greek poet and a writer was famous for his tragedies. All of his plays and tragedies consisted of a very distinctive style called dramatic irony - a situation of drama which is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters
Premium Oedipus Oedipus the King
through a minefield. However‚ we often tend to approach “sight” and “blindness” from very literal perspective. Whereas Sophocles‚ in his play Oedipus Rex‚ approaches the sight-blind dichotomy metaphorically. Sophocles associates sight with possession of prophecy and knowledge while connecting blindness to ignorance‚ using Tiresius and Oedipus as physical representations of the latter and former. Sophocles uses sight and blindness to establish that humans are natural drawn to the unknown and that insight
Free Oedipus the King Oedipus Prediction
In Sophocles’ play‚ Oedipus Rex‚ there are many themes that are woven through the life of King Oedipus‚ and revealed through the key points of the plot. One of the most important themes is the inevitability of ones’ fate. Although fate is considered the usual genre of the Greeks in playwriting there‚ are specifics that Oedipus conducts unusual to our own way of thinking of a king during the Ancient Greek times. For example: Oedipus’s ignorance of believing what is said from his wife‚ Iocaste and
Premium Sophocles Oedipus Oedipus the King