Sophocles
wrote beyond one hundred and twenty plays, most of which have not survived
(“Sophocles”). However, one of his most
famous, Oedipus Rex was fortunate enough to have been discovered and
preserved. “Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices
that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes” (SparkNotes
Staff). This dramatic play touches on
several different motifs, a major one being sight / blindness. The sight /
blindness motif happens to come up numerous times throughout the play. Oedipus Rex was based on the King of
Thebes, Oedipus, who was accused of being oblivious to his city and to
himself. Not only was the King himself
accused of being blind to life but the motif of blindness comes up numerous
times throughout the play in other characters as well. The play is set in the city-state of Thebes
where there was currently an ongoing plague.
Neither the city dwellers nor Oedipus could understand why there was a
plague and Oedipus as the King didn’t know what to do about it. When the god Apollo gave a man named Kreon
the answer to lifting the plague on Thebes, which was to find and exile or kill
the murderer of the former King of Thebes named Laios, Oedipus held a meeting with
the whole city to turn everyone’s attention to catching Laios’ killer. Little did the King know throughout the play
that he was blind to reality and it would become clearer who the murderer
really was, Oedipus himself.
Oedipus
sees his life in one way, but in reality it is the opposite of everything he
had known up to this point. There are numerous situations that show Oedipus’s
selfish ways, and how he acts blind to the world around him. Oedipus and
Teiresias argued over the information that Teiresias knew which was that
Oedipus murdered King Laios, but Teiresias didn’t want to tell Oedipus and
cause problems. Teiresias knew Oedipus was too ignorant to listen to what he
had to say:
Teiresias: I say
that you are the murderer whom you seek.
Oedipus:
Now twice you have spat out infamy. You’ll pay for it!
Teiresias:
Do you care for more? Do you wish to be really angry?
Oedipus:
Say what you will. Whatever you say is worthless.
Teiresias: I say
you live in hideous shame with those most dear to you. You can not see the
evil.
Oedipus: Can you
go on like this, babbling for ever?
Teiresias: I can,
if there is power in truth. (1.152-159)
King Oedipus got infuriated with
Teiresias’s words because they were not what he wanted to believe, and because
of this he blocked them out refusing to consider that they could be true.
Oedipus was also blind in seeing his real
childhood. He walked away from his, who he thought to be, parents to avoid the
prophecy hoping it wouldn’t come true. However, it was the opposite and Oedipus
walked directly into the mess which was his prophecy. Throughout the play he
received several hints of his true background and for quite some time he chose
not to consider them, let alone believe them. When these hints were shared with
Oedipus, his way of dealing with them was telling the person to leave his sight
because it was too ridiculous to consider.
Teiresias:
Listen to me. You mock my blindness, do you?
But I say that
you, with both your eyes, are blind: You can not see the wretchedness of you
life, nor in whose house you live, nor with whom. Who are your father and
mother? Can you tell me? You do not even know the blind wrongs that you have
done them, on earth and the world below. But the double
lash of your
parents’ curse will whip you out of this land some day, with only night upon your
precious eyes. (1.206-215)
King Oedipus claimed that he wanted
what was best for his city and that he wanted his people to be at peace yet his
actions completely contradicted that. People came to the king and tried to
inform him of what had really happened, but because it was not what the king
wanted to hear, he demanded them to leave.
He acted as such a blind and selfish person when he didn’t even take the
time to consider the information that had been given to him.
As the truth unraveled
in front of King Oedipus, he slowly realized what had happened. The prophecy he
tried to escape came true after all. He learned that it was he who murdered his
father, King Laios, and that he had married his own mother. His wife, Iokaste,
could not handle the truth so she killed herself by a hanging. King Oedipus
walked in on the awful sight of her murder and, overwhelmed, he took her golden
brooches from her dress, and did what he thought was fair: “He struck at his
eyes—not once, but many times; and the blood spattered his beard, bursting from
his ruined sockets like red hail.” (Exodos.53-55)
After discovering
that he had been blind to the truth for all those years, he blinded
himself. By doing so, he believed that
he would not have to face his own children or the city he was once responsible
for. King Oedipus knew that he was a foolish man for being so close-minded and
stubborn. He thought that being of a high power; he was too wise even for the
gods. Oedipus trying to outdo his fate
only made his life worse and he learned that what is meant to happen, will happen,
with no way around it. He chose to act blindly to reality when he had eyes, but
in the end he ironically turned out to literally become a blind man.
When a reader of Oedipus
Rex looks into the deeper meanings of this play, it is very obvious that
blindness and sight is an important recurring motif. “When Oedipus realized his fate was true and
was happening the entire time, he gained the ability to see his true
surroundings. It was at this time that he went blind” (Mason). This quote is entirely true; obviously
Oedipus was doomed to be a blind man because when he actually had his eyes, he
was blind to himself and to his city.
However, when Oedipus’ eyes were taken away, he literally became blind
in the physical sense but he quickly realized who he really was and how he was
at total fault. Looking at the sight and
blindness motif can be very interesting:
However, the
references to eyesight and insight in these plays form a meaningful pattern in
combination with the references to literal and metaphorical blindness. Oedipus
is famed for his clear-sightedness and quick comprehension, but he discovers
that he has been blind to the truth for many years, and then he blinds himself
so as not to have to look on his own children/siblings. (SparkNotes Staff)
Here again, it can be noted that
Oedipus was damned by the gods to be blind from the day he received his
haunting prophecy. Once he finally found
his metaphorical sight, he lost his literal sight.
Sophocles truly
transformed that art of dramatic tragedy in the theatre world by being “the
first to add a third actor” and unlike Aeschylus he “chose to make each tragedy
a complete entity in itself” instead of using “three tragedies to tell a single
story” (“Sophocles”). It can be argued
that one of the major themes and points Sophocles was trying to make in Oedipus
Rex was to show how powerful the gods and prophets were and that they were not
to be messed with (SparkNotes Staff).
Since a motif is supposed to more or less support the major themes, the
sight / blindness element of Oedipus Rex is definitely a motif. There is no better support for the theme of
not to mess with the gods because this play shows exactly what happens to those
who fail to obey their gods. Thus, it
can be said that the recurring motif of sight and blindness throughout this
play is indeed effective because there is no doubt that the audience of this
play must have been absolutely horrified into obeying their gods.
Works Cited
Sophocles. Oedipus Rex.
Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Introduction to
Literature,
6th ed. Ed. Alice S. Landy and William Rodney Allen. New York:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. 545-89. Print.
“Sophocles.” Moonstruck Drama
Bookstore. Web. 15 Jan. 2010.
Mason, Julia. “Oedipus Rex--Critical Analysis 9,10 Feb 2012.” Bernas/JCC Discussion
Forum. N.p. 9 Feb.
2012. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.
Sparknotes
Staff. “Themes, Motifs & Symbols.” SparkNote on The Oedipus
Plays. 29 Jan. 2006. Web <http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/oedipus>
