Assignment #10--Oedipus

The relationship between sight, truth, ignorance and darkness in the play Oedipus the King is that which has true meaning in the play. I believe sight is Oedipus's lack of belief in the oracle which foretold him that he would kill his father and have children with his mother. "As, that I should lie with my own mother, breed children from whom all men would turn their eyes; and that I should be my father's murderer"(879). This is what the oracle at Delphi told Oedipus and he felt disgusted. I also believe Oedipus didn't value his sight and he took it away by making himself blind. "For the King ripped from her gown the golden brooches that were her ornament , and raised them, and plunged them down straight into his own eyeballs, crying"(891). He made himself blind because his mother/wife committed suicide. It must have been very painful when Oedipus stabbed his eyeballs. The truth is Oedipus's investigation into his father's murderer which he learned through a shepherd to be himself. Once the truth was told to him by a shepherd he exiled from Thebes and had to leave his children. Oedipus was shocked by the truth and really couldn't believe he was the murderer. Ignorance is Oedipus's disbelieve is Teiresias statement that he is his father's killer. Oedipus only believes the shepherd who he questions. One darkness in the play is the suicide of Iocaste. Another darkness is Oedipus's blindness and exile from Thebes. The truth revealed to Oedipus about being his father's killer and married to his mother is another darkness. The kind of statement the play makes about sight, truth, ignorance and darkness primarily concerns Oedipus's fate in the play. The play has sight, truth, ignorance and darkness because of Oedipus's actions in the play.