There are none so blind as those who will not see is an old English saying that could well be applied to the play by Sophocles called Oedipus the King. Oedipus Rex as it is sometimes called, has an involved plot that twists and turns. Written separately, it serves today as a prequel to “Antigone” and “Oedipus at Colonus” it tells the story of Oedipus’s early life. From before he was born prophecies shaped his life. Despite this knowledge, and both he and his mother knowing his destiny they choose not to see the reality of their choices. By not confronting it and by not paying heed directly to both what they knew and saw they created the prophecies’ fulfillment. In the end, Oedipus suffers so deeply from guilt because he killed his father and married his mother he blinds himself.
Because of a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, when Oedipus he was born, his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta wanted him dead. They tied him up by his ankles and gave him to a shepherd to kill. The shepherd pitied the baby and instead of killing him, gave him to another shepherd to raise in a foreign city. Thus as infant, Oedipus ended up adopted by the King and Queen of Corinth who he loved and believed to be his natural parents. This is why when he reached adulthood and got a similar prophecy that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother, he set out and traveled far from far from Corinth so that he could not fulfill it. In his travels, he kills a wealthy stranger in a fit of rage. This stranger is his father, King Laius. Thus, Oedipus fulfills the first part of the prophesy, he has killed his father. He ends up in Thebes, where he born and answers the Sphinxes’ riddle, freeing Thebes from a curse. Because the King had recently died, the grateful citizens make Oedipus the King. Queen Jocasta wants to remain the Queen so she marries this handsome young stranger, hereby fulfilling a part of the prophecy. She does this knowing nothing about just who exactly he is. She is ignorant of his background, but she knows that she is destined to marry her son.
He has four children with her, two boys and two girls. When another curse hits the city he calls a “blind prophet, Tiresias is called by the king to give help for the search. The prophet’s answer is that Oedipus is looking for himself, and as response, Oedipus accuses Tiresias of conspiring with Creon, Jocasta's brother, to overthrow him.”. When the messenger arrives to tell him that King Polybus is dead, he also finds out that he was adopted. When he investigates further he finds out he is the natural son of the King and Queen of Thebes, not of Corinth as he believed.
Another great playwright, William Shakespeare said “To thine own self be true” In order to do that you need to know who you are. This is Oedipus’ guilt, he did not know who he was and because of this, he fulfilled the prophecies. Not knowing yourself is bad, refusing to see the truth is Oedipus’s fatal flaw. Knowing about at least one of the prophecies he still did not see how some of his actions were not good choices. He kills an unknown, but obviously wealthy stranger and he marries a woman old enough to be his mother. For someone trying to avoid a prophecy that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother these are not good things to do. He knew his fate but did not see the reality.
This conflict between seeing reality and being blind to the truth is not confined Oedipus. His mother/wife ordered her own son killed so that he could not kill her husband and marry her, and then she marries a man young enough to be her son in order to go on being the Queen of Thebes. By doing this, she sets the whole tragedy in motion. As the action in the play moves on she avoids, or refuses to see things that should lead her to believe that Oedipus may be her son. She knows how she tied his ankles together and Oedipus has injuries to his ankles that could have been caused by the way she tied up her baby when she sent him off to be murdered. She knew about the earlier prophecy and did not share the details about what she did to her infant son with Oedipus when they got married. She chooses to be blind to the truth instead of clearly seeing the reality in order to accommodate her own desires.
It was only when things unraveled that she started coming up with the details. Then instead of facing him and taking responsibility, she continues to evade seeing the truth by killing herself. Leaving Oedipus alone to face the reality, sort everything out and cope with it all by himself.
The shepherds too, now advanced to court positions knew the baby born to Jocasta and Laius was not dead, and when questioned by Oedipus it was not long before the truth surfaced. Again, we have the situation of individual being blind to the truth.
After Oedipus blinds himself he speaks these words:
or, had I sight, I know not with what eyes
I could have met my father in the shades,
Or my poor mother, since against the twain
I sinned, a sin no gallows could atone.
Aye, but, ye say, the sight of children joys
A parent's eyes. What, born as mine were born?
No, such a sight could never bring me joy;
The most truly evil person in the play is the Queen’s brother Ceron. He seems to be innocent at first but what he really wants is to have the throne for himself. He knows about the prophecy, but does not tell anyone. He is not blind to the truth around him, or in himself; he sees but chooses not to speak the truth. These are two of the ways he moves the action along to its final tragic conclusion. In the end he finally shows his true real motives when he says, “Crave not mastery in all, For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall.:” ,
Works Cited
Davis, Douglas A. "Oedipus Redivivus; Freud, Jung and Psychoanalysis." 1997. Haverford College. 01 06 2013 <http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/jungfreu.html>.
McManus, Barbara F. "Unity of Action in Oedipus the King." 11 1999. The College of New Rochelle. 2012 16 06 <http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/oedipusplot.html>.
Sophocles. "The Oedipus Trilogy - Gutenberg Project." 2012. The Gutenberg Project. 1 06 2013.
Sophocles.Net. "Oedipus the King." 2013. Sophocles.Net . 01 06 2013 <http://www.sophocles.net/listingview.php?listingID=12>.
Sparknotes. "The Oedipus Plays." 2012. Spark Notes. 1 06 2013 <http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/oedipus/context.html>.
