“You with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life,” says Tiresias, a prophet, to Oedipus. This quote reinforces the idea that Oedipus “remains in the dark,” meaning he is ignorant to the truth about his life and of his tragic fate. Because Oedipus is a man of action, a quality that makes him a tragic hero, he goes on a search to find the truth. Unfortunately, he does know what fate has in store for him. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus’s relentless quest to get out of the darkness, a metaphor for ignorance, leads to his downfall, so he literally blinds himself in an attempt to return to that ignorance.
Throughout Oedipus Rex, references to dark and light illustrate Oedipus’s ignorance about his life. When Tiresias, who is blind, tries to tell Oedipus the truth about his life, Oedipus becomes really angry and both men get into a confrontation. Tiresias mocks Oedipus for not knowing who his real parents are, causing Oedipus, confused, to ask, “Parents – who? Wait…who is my father?” All his life, Oedipus believed that his parents were Polybus and Merope, the king and queen of Corinth. In Corinth, he heard that he will kill his father and marry his mother, so he ran away to escape this fate. Ironically, the road he took to escape his fate led him there instead. Tiresias tells Oedipus that “darkness [shrouds his] eyes that now see the light.” Although Oedipus can literally see, he is figuratively blind. He is unable to see that he killed Laius, his father and married Jocasta, his mother. Meanwhile Tiresias, who is literally blind, is able to see the truth because he “sees with the eyes of Apollo.” This shows that sight and light, and blindness and darkness, are not used in the literal sense; they represent knowledge and ignorance. Thus, Oedipus is ignorant and Tiresias has knowledge.
Because Oedipus doesn’t know who killed Laius, he immediately goes on a search to find and punish the culprit; he wants to know who committed such a horrible crime. Oedipus acts quickly, often before thinking, and this is his tragic flaw. There is a plague in Thebes because Laius, the former king, was killed. When the chorus, or voice of the people, come crying to Oedipus about the terrible plague, Oedipus says, “I acted at once.” He immediately sends for people who can provide him with answers because he wants to know. Other kings may have sent messengers to find out the truth, but Oedipus searches for the murderer himself. He promises to “rid [Thebes] of this corruption,” and to “bring it all to light [him]self.” The only thing he can focus on is finding out the truth. He desperately wants to get out of this darkness and see the light. He thinks that finding out the truth will make him happier and safer.
In his obsessive search for the truth, Oedipus ignores all the warnings of his impending doom. He is so consumed with finding the truth that it is all he can think about. “[T]he truth is only pain to him who sees,” pleads Tiresias, trying to convince Oedipus to stop this quest. Jocasta, Oedipus’s wife (and mother), tells Oedipus to be content with his present life and to stop searching for the truth. Finally, the shepherd refuses to tell Oedipus the final clue that will reveal the whole truth to Oedipus. Tiresias, Jocasta, and the shepherd recognize what will happen if Oedipus finds out the truth and they try to prevent this, but he ignores all of them. At this point, he is like a hungry animal with a gluttonous appetite for the truth. He desperately wants to see this light, and he would do anything to achieve that, including torturing the old, helpless shepherd. What he doesn’t realize is that the truth can sometimes cause more harm than it can help.
Oedipus finally discovers the truth, but he does not like what he sees. After Oedipus’s guards torture the shepherd, the latter finally tells the former that he was the baby whom the shepherd found on Mount Cithaeron and gave to the royal family in Corinth. At this moment, everything has been “burst to light.” Oedipus realizes that it is he, in fact, who killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling the very prophecy he tried to escape. “O light – now let me look my last on you,” laments Oedipus. He finally sees the light that many people tried to prevent him from seeing. Unfortunately, he discovers that the light is too bright for his eyes. The knowledge he wanted so much led to his downfall.
In the end, Oedipus blinds himself because he wants to go back to the ignorance in the beginning of the play. Oedipus is so devastated when he finds out that he had fulfilled the horrible prophecy that he uses gold pins to gouge out his eyes and cries, “you’ll see no more the pain I caused.” He even wishes he could “block off [his] ears” so that he would be unable to hear the sounds of life. If he had “remained in the dark,” Jocasta would still be alive, and his daughters Antigone and Ismene would have better futures. Now, Jocasta is dead and no one would want to marry Antigone or Ismene, the spawn of an incestuous relationship. Oedipus now sees that knowledge is pain, so he wants to return to darkness.
Sophocles once said, “not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed.” Oedipus learns this lesson the hard way. Like Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Oedipus wants knowledge with a passion. He is obsessed with getting out of the dark. When he finally finds this knowledge, he learns that sometimes it’s better not to know the truth. Even though Oedipus had a tragic fate, his determination and actions make him a hero.
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