Blindness and Vision in “Oedipus the King”
...he Chorus ask him why to blind himself, because according to them, “Better to die than be alive and blind” (Line 1498), Oedipus replies, “[He], with [his] eyes how could [he] look[s] [his] father in the eyes when [he] go[es] down to death.” (Lines 1501-1502) About his children, he says “how could [he] long to look into their eyes?” (Line 1506) He feels that he cannot see Thebes or his “countrymen” with his eyes again when he exposes his “horrendous guilt” to them. Oedipus thinks that blinding himself is a best solution for him by declaring “What [he] [does] [is] best [ . . . ] no more advice.” (Lines 1499-1500) Oedipus blinds himself also because he wants to punish himself for loosing his vision. At the triple crossroad, when encountering Laius and the escort and being thrust off by them, he is so angry that he kills them all. He is blinded by his excessive anger. Then when he meets Jocasta, he is blinded by his excessive pride, and perhaps, his passion to Jocasta that he forgets to learn about the background of the woman he is going to marry. That imprudence is significant because he already knows that he may kill his father and couple his mother. Here one can find that he has an internal tragic flaw: he is totally blinded when taking such actions. Also, when he meets Tiresias and forces him to reveal who is the murderer, during their argument, Tiresias summarizes what happens to Oedipus “brother and father both to the children he embraces, to his mother son and husband both [. . . ] he spill[s] his father’s blood!”. But Oedipus turns his back on Tiresias and enters the palace. By turning his back on Tiresias, he also turns his back on the truth that this blind prophet wants to tell him. He even mocks Tiresias’s bl...