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Why Does Oedipus blind Himself? Many people believe that Oedipus blinded himself solely because he felt he had to hurt himself for unknowingly being with his mother and having kids with her. It is one of the most touching scenes of any story ever told because it is both shocking and revealing of the human condition. It is a classic part that needs to be understood by everyone who reads the book or watches the play because it really does make you think about your own life. First of all, blinding was done for a reason because Oedipus has been blind to the reality of his life since he was a child. This was a great way to bring the whole story together and really make the whole thing make sense to the reader or the viewer. This type of action gives us a better feel for the real tragedy of the whole thing. Feeling Oedipus’ pain when he blinds himself makes you quickly think of everything that he was blind to throughout the story. Blinding also keeps Oedipus from having to see the looks on other people’s faces who now know the truth about him and his mother. Though this may seem really extreme, he was a very proud man and for his character, blinding made it totally sensible for him to react this way. After all, it is not about his action itself as much as the meaning of his action. This decision to blind himself is what makes the whole story work because it wraps up the true message it was trying to tell in one act at the end. There is so much that people will do to get everything that they want in life, which makes them blind to so much along the way. It is a great message and something that I think many people who read this story will learn from. (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Q.6. Comment on the end of Oedipus the King with particular emphasis on the acts of contrition, the self-inflicted blindness, and the banishment. Don’t Forget to read full Book. Go to main Page- Click heare The Self-murder and the Self-blinding
When the attendant has completed his account of these events. Oedipus himself appears. He is now blind and suffering from indescribable agony, both physical and mental. The Chorus witnesses the horror of this sight and his “foul disfigurement”. Oedipus complains of a piercing torture in his mind as well as in his flesh. The Chorus says that such suffering as his must be borne twice: once in the body and once in the soul. The Chorus asks Oedipus who made him rob himself of his eyesight. Oedipus replies that, although Apollo had foretold the sins which have led to the present state of affairs, the act of self-blinding was Oedipus’s own. He had blinded himself because there was now no sight iri Thebes which he would like to see. He did not kill himself because he could not have faced his father and his mother in the realms of death. He had robbed himself of his eye-sight, and he would have liked to deprive himself of his power of hearing also. Oedipus’s Lamentations Oedipus curses the benefactor who had saved his life as an infant instead of allowing him to die on Mt. Cithaeron. He deplores the fact that Mt. Cithaeron did not let him die when he had been taken there as an infant. He also bemoans the fact that Polybus had adopted him as his son and brought him up to suffer this evil. Oedipus recalls the incidents of his encounter with Laius’s party on the road and his unintentional murder of Laius. He recalls the incestuous relationship into which he had unknowingly entered with his mother, begetting children on a woman who had begotten him—father, brother and son; bride, wife and mother; all mixed up in a monstrous relationship, all human filthiness, resulting from the crimes he had committed. Oedipus would like to hide himself at some place or be drowned in the depths of the sea. Oedipus’s Wish to be Banished When Oedipus is thus lamenting his fate and accusing himself of unspeakable crimes, Creon enters. Oedipus humbly asks Creon, who is now the King in succession to Oedipus, to banish him from Thebes without delay. The instructions of the oracle are clear on this point, says Oedipus. He also entreats Creon to perform the appropriate funeral ceremonies in respect of the dead Queen who was Creon’s sister and who deserves a proper burial. As for himself, says Oedipus, he should be allowed to go to Mt. Cithaeron in order to die there. That was the place which his parents had chosen to be his death-bed, and he would go and die there in compliance with their desires. His life is not going to end in any natural manner; he has been preserved to endure some destiny even more awful than that which he is already enduring. He then appeals to Creon to look after his daughters who have nobody now to care for them. His Grief Over the Sad Future of His Daughters The Painful Account of the Suicide and the Self-blinding The Reason for the Self-blinding Various Factors in the Act of Self-blinding Oedipus’s Heroic Dimensions as Depicted at the End |