Oedipus Rex Essay

5. Discuss the sight and blindness imagery and symbolism throughout out the play. How does the use of this symbolism advance Sophocles’ overall message or meaning of the play?

Hide and Seek

By Destiny Adams

Oedipus Rex Analysis Essay

Hide and seek in the dark has to be the most exciting game anyone has ever played because of the nervous, exciting thrill that comes along with it. The best place to play this game in the dark certainly is in your own home; it’s like a trap. You pretty much know where everything’s place is, like that closet that has extra space in one corner or that couch that hides a spot big enough for two people. Knowing your way around in complete darkness shows your advantage towards the game. It distinguishes the blind from those with sight, the hiders from the seekers, despite the black color that fills the air. Sophocles is like a captain picking his team and uses sight and blindness throughout the play by forcing his own characters to play hide and seek with each other. 

The first picked from the crowd is a man named Oedipus, who is indeed Sophocles’ “hider”. Oedipus is truly blind to everything around him; he’s unaware of his surroundings and unsure of the ending result. He however believes that everything is under control and he as a king has enough confidence to keep his city, Thebes pleased; Oedipus simply says “I am Oedipus” in line 8 on page 1427. Although Oedipus can clearly see those he deals with in his daily life, he is symbolically blind to story behind them and himself. Sophocles displays Oedipus’ blindness after revealing to us (including Oedipus) that he kills his father and marries his mother, who also gave birth to his children. Sophocles writes on page 1447 in lines 819-821, “Oh, no, no, I think I’ve just called down a dreadful curse upon myself – I simply don’t know!”,  illustrating how Oedipus is now starting to notice how blind he really is.

            Sophocles’ “seeker”, Tiresas, Thebes’ prophet, knows his vision, purpose, and reasoning for others. It’s apparent to understand Tiresas and Oedipus’ love-hate relationship and how their closeness reversed into a distant gap as the tables turned. What’s ironic about this situation is that Tiresas’ life is closed into four black walls, he’s physically blind. He has the power to see futuristic events only through his metaphorical eyes. Tiresas says, “How terrible - to see the truth when the truth is only pain to who sees” in lines 359-360 on page 1436. Sophocles demonstrates his use of sight through the blind prophet as a way of somewhat telling the play’s storyline. Sophocles writes “Blind who now has eyes…”, on page 1439, line 517, showing how blindness and sight seem to switch roles in the play.

            Due to the various events Sophocles tells use about, it’s recognizable that both sight and blindness themselves seem to symbolize various things. Blindness represents shadowing and confusion. Sophocles shows as Oedipus is on his quest of “curing” Thebes, he has many questions concerning his own whereabouts. Sophocles writes “For the love of god, don’t turn away not if you know something. We beg you, all of us on our knees” on page 1436, lines 371-373. This shows how blindness confuses and shadows the truth because “sight” was not on hand. Sight appears to represent advantage and enviable leave way. Page 1439, lines 509-510 says “I’ll never shrink from the anger in your eyes – you can’t destroy me.”, offering the confidence of the advantage that Tiresas knows his has. It’s annotated in my book that line 388 page 1436, “What will come will come.” is an enviable prediction made by the blind would could in reality see. Oedipus mocks Tiresas by verbally insulting him as a “stone blind” (page 1437 line 424) man with the reply of Tiresas, “your blind to the corruption of your life” (line 471 page 1438).

            There’s one last player in our game that usually goes unrecognized, more like our referee that determines our ending results, fate. Fate is what controls our seeing and blind characters because no one and nothing can tell fate how to do its job. Fate knows, hears, and sees all and waits for the perfect moment to take advantage. Fate was there when Oedipus argued back and forth with Tiresas and allowed one of the two to be “blind” and the other to have “sight”. Sophocles makes reference to “chance” throughout the play and uses the characters’ action to show fate and chance working together to create an unexpected twist in the play. The chorus shows the characters desperation for help on page 1450 lines 954-997 (Destiny guide me always…) all because of fate and its ways of establishing how the seeing and the blind would survive.

            Sophocles’ use of imagery and symbolism emphasizes how sight and blindness contributes to the overall analogy of the play. Sophocles shows how eyes are not required to see what’s in front of you. Oedipus’ true identity was revealed toward the end of the play because it was not able to see in the dark. Tiresas knew what was coming because he was in his own “home” and symbolically saw every detail around him. The game of hide and seek has its tricks and rules, but clearly Sophocles decided otherwise.