The Theme of Sight vs. Blindness to Oedipus, Jocasta, and the Prophet
In Greek mythology, late 6th century BCE, Oedipus reigns as the King of Thebes; this followed after the death of King Laius. Before he left Corinth, a prophecy was passed that he will kill his father and marry his mother. A prediction that is fulfilled after Oedipus becomes a grown man in his adopted home. After the truth of their relationship is revealed, Oedipus's wife and mother commit suicide; however, even after death this tragedy, Oedipus continues to rule till his death.
Although no one was quite sure of the originality of dramatic tragedy, it was greatly attributed to Ancient Greek celebrations, done in honor of Dionysius and goats (Goodhart 152). As a historical event in a unique way incorporating the culture and society in ancient Greece. Even during the reign of Sophocles, Greece had an outside history imprint, comprise of two walled city-states, with a strong military base where the citizens were part of the military at some point in their lives. This was one of the ancient regions to establish democratic societies. Overly, the play depicts a solid historical base ranging from political administration, culture, religion, and more so important these that reveal in the play. More importantly, Sophocles builds the story to present various themes revolving around the achievements and underlying plagues (Porter n.p). However, this paper will discuss the theme of sight against blindness as presented in the Greek Tragedy play. This is a story that remained relevant to the present date as it was even 2500 years ago. This is evident through the theme of sight vs. blindness between Oedipus, Jocasta, and the prophet Tiresias.
The play portrays many themes that help shape the play and reveal the happenings in the tragedy. Sophocles writes contradicting situations that symbolically show the ability to see both literary and physically. The sight instances are highly repetitive in the play, making it legible to become the play's central theme. Additionally, this theme is depicted significantly among the three significant characters, Oedipus, Jocasta, and Tiresias. Starting with King Oedipus, the theme of lack of sight stands out as the most significant in the tragedy, as the writer of the play presents. In an ordinary person’s language, blindness is the inability to see; however, in this context, Sophocles writes about blindness in two distinct perspectives: the inability to see physically and the incapacity not to see the trust for those with the physical eyes (Barlow 7). The physical blindness is well revealed as Teiresias, the prophet, despite being physically blind he sees and stands for truth. Ironically, King Oedipus can physically see he is portrayed as blind for truth from the start of the play and becomes physically blind. Similarly, Jocasta, the wife to Oedipus, just like the husband, can see using her eyes; even after being told the truth about her case, she deliberately decides to deny it.
Based on the play, we can state that both King Oedipus and his wife Jocasta are “blind” to the truth, while Teiresias, although blind, can see and tell the truth. Therefore, in this context, physical sight represents a person’s ability to accept the truth; on the other hand, blindness depicts the ability of an individual to fail or reject the same truth. This comes into reality as the King removes his own eyes after discovering the truth. Throughout the play, it is clear that both physical sight and truth cannot exist together, where truth is no sight and vice versa. In this play, King Oedipus is set as the biggest victim of blindness on matters concerning truth. The blindness is revealed in various instances where he is seen denying reality. The start of his life is with a doom prophesy from Teiresias that predicts that he will kill his father and marry his mother “An oracle foretold that the child was born to him by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother (Barlow 8).” The father Laius and mother Jocasta are presented metaphorically blind as they do not accept the truth about their son. In order to evade reality, Oedipus is deported to the mountains, where he is expected to die and nullify the prophecy. While in the mountains, Oedipus is rescued by a shepherd, who takes him to Polybus and his wife Merope, who adopts him. Years pass, coming a time when Oedipus gets to reality and discovers the prophecy that directly concerns him. Since his childhood, he had lived with the adopted parents to the extent that he feels that they are his, which forces him to escape. His story takes a bad form as while on his way to escape, he encounters his biological father, Laius, whom he stabs to death and goes back to Thebes, where he becomes the King. After he is ordained as the King, he marries, later to discover that he had married his mother.
Although with less concern on the theme of free will and fate develops after fulfilling prophecy, Oedipus is seen ignorant of the facts. However, due to ignorance, Thebes is faced with a tragedy that forces Oedipus to consult the blind prophet, Teiresias. Upon consultation, he states that Theban woes are originating from a Kingdom’s polluter. Teiresias highlights that “… Thou, the accursed polluter of this land,” wherein this note he refers to the King (Kohon 260). As a clear depiction of blindness, King Oedipus stands out strongly and refuses the truth. Indeed the King finds it so tragic to withstand the tragedy, and he says, “Vile slanderer, thou blur test forth these taunts (Kohon 260),” more evidence for blindness concerning truth. After learning the truth, he stabs out his eyes towards the end of the play, becoming physically blind.
Based on the play, Oedipus's blindness is depicted in the following instances. First, he does not realize the truth about Polybus and Merope, who was not his birth parents, and that Lucius and Jocasta were. After discovering the truth of his tragedy, he opts to get physically blind, where he gets time for a recap and reflection on what he had done in his entire life. Due to blindness, Oedipus's actions cause him harm; this is metaphoric to the truth blindness which he had previously portrayed. Both forms of blindness cause pain. On the other hand, Jocasta decides to ignore the truth despite knowing it all. Jocasta knows the truth concerning Oedipus's prophecy; now that they had thrown him into the mountains, she believes that he had died (Bernstein 27). Therefore, we must accept that at first, Jocasta did not know that the man he married was her son. However, even after realizing that Oedipus was hers, she decides to ignore everything, which is a clear depiction of blindness.
Moreover, after Jocasta realizes that the prophecy about Oedipus has been fulfilled, she commits suicide. Although death is a symbol of permanent or eternal blindness, “Jocasta’s blindness eventually led to her disgrace (Barlow 9).” We all understand that death is a clear implication that she will never see again nor make decisions; the loss of life is a sign of admission to the truth. In addition, towards the end of the play, Oedipus is banished from the Kingdom; this is his final punishment, and upon leaving, he casts a spell on his two sons (Cormack n.p). Also, being blind, Teiresias limits him from changing his surroundings, but he can see the future and link it to the past. Therefore, due to this capacity, we can state that he is a visionary man. It is for this gift of vision, and he reveals Oedipus as the polluter of Thebes Kingdom. Further, he also knows that Oedipus is his father's killer and that Jocasta is his mother. According to Sophocles, the knowledge and acknowledgment of the truth are a greater extend of sight than physical sight.
Nevertheless, sighted Oedipus can see all physical objects, apart from truth, while those that are physically blind have a limitation on seeing physical things; indeed, they see nothing except apart from truth. However, after knowing the truth presented concerning Oedipus and Jocasta, they went ahead and ignored it, which has far-reaching consequences costing their lives. The theme of sight vs. blindness is outstanding throughout the play and revealed within the major characters. After the end of it all, truth is the final; when Jocasta realizes what is true, she can no longer ignore it, and unfortunately, death remains the only way out (Bernstein 30). Ignorance to truth makes the Kingdom decline, and the truth is sought from prophet Teiresias, who, despite being blind, explains what makes the Kingdom deteriorate. The theme of vision is used across the Greek Tragedy play to reveal Oedipus's fate, who is now completely aware of the truth of his life.
However, some critics posed, concerning the blindness of Oedipus, as much of what revolves around his life. Nevertheless, we cannot attribute him to acceptance of truth; he keeps denying the truth, regardless of his consent or not. As the play rolls on, we have incidences that Oedipus is hit by truth, which in most of the cases he ignores; hence we can categorize him as blind, Similarly to the wife who happens to be his mother. Finally, near the end of the story, both accept truths, and the consequences are so tragic that they are faced with death.
Generally, the theme of blindness and sight is revealed in various characters. The outstanding characters are Oedipus, Jocasta, and Prophet, who portray how physical blindness and blindness to truth delineates. Throughout the play, Oedipus is present as an individual who denies the truth; he does not see the truth about his parents. He wents ahead and marries his mother, and kills his father, now after opening his eyes and knowing the truth. He becomes physically blind by gouging his eyes. Similarly, Jocasta is presented as a woman who knows the truth, and his choice is to be blind concerning the issues revolving around her life. Now, after the truth concerning her life and relationship that led to her marriage with her son, she decides to hang herself. On the contrary, Teiresias is physically blind; however, he can see the truth, which is a paradox of blindness. Thus, from the entire story, we are aware of the facts concerning sight and blindness; for an individual to possess sight for the truth, they have to be physically blind.
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