Sight and Blindness in Oedipus Rex Essay -- Papers

Sight and Blindness in Oedipus RexOedipus Rex is a play about the right smart we cheat ourselves to painful truths that we cant bear to see. Physical sight and dimness are used throughout the play, often ironically, as a metaphor for psychical sight and blindness. The play ends with the hero Oedipus literally blinding himself to avoid seeing the result of his terrible fate. But as the play demonstrates, Oedipus, the man who killed his father and impregnated his mother, has been blind all along, and is partly responsible for his own blindness.When the play opens, the people of the town are asking Oedipus for help. A curse has been cast upon the city and the only way to remove it, is to find the murderer of the last king, Laios. Oedipus then makes a promise to the people that he will find the guilty and punish them.Oedipus can physically see, but his mental blindness inhibits him from seeing the truth of his life. During the course of the day he has been given many clues to r ealize the truth about himself. Such that his do is Oedipus and Oedipus means swollen foot, and...