While reading Oedipus Rex today and viewing the cover of our
packet, one can conclude that although we do not yet know its importance, it is
apparent that the eyes will play a big role in the play. Upon further
reflection of King Lear I noticed that the concept of sight and the eyes played
a big role in that play as well. The eyes are alluded to several times
throughout the story. In my opinion the most important reference to the eyes
was said by Goneril, while she was describing her love for her father. She
claimed she loved him "more than sight itself." This might have been
the only part of her self-proclaimed devotion to her father that was true.
While it is clear by her future actions that she does not love her father,
saying she loves him more than sight may be true, as she was the one urging
Cornwall to pluck out the eyeballs of Gloucester. Both her cheering and goading,
show the irony in her past statement to her father. She claimed she loved him
more than sight and then proved she has no respect for sight. The second big
allusion to the eyeballs was made by Gloucester the father of both Edmund and
Edgar. After being blinded and discovering the truth of his two sons,
Gloucester curses his eyeballs wallowing in the irony that when he could see,
he could not 'see.' It was not until he could not physically see that his 'eyes
were open' (please pardon the colloquialism but I thought it was fitting for
the topic.) to the horrors his youngest had done.
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ReplyDeleteConor, I'm kind of angry because I had this idea like a month ago but I never voiced my opinion and I was totally going to do a post on this topic like two days ago. I noticed this during Lear as well. Both plays carry the theme of blindness. In King Lear, both Lear and Glouchester are “blind” to the honesty and loyalty of their innocent children. In the scene when Glouchester is blinded, it wasn’t until after his eyes were gauged out that he realized his mistake in trusting in the wrong son.
ReplyDeleteIn Oedipus Rex, Oedipus attempts to save Thebes when he, unbeknownst, is the cause of the plague through his sinful and immoral actions. Oedipus does not "see" his own mistakes for quite some time in the play. He does not even begin to question himself until he is exposed to the truth through the blind prophet. Also, in Oedipus, the all-knowing and wise prophet Tiresias is ironically blind. Although he does not have sight, he has more insight than any other character in the play thus far. Oedipus even states, "I am terribly afraid the prophet can see," meaning that Tiresias was correct and knows why everything has happened.
I heard that Oedipus ultimately plucks out his own eyes, but I predict that he does this because he attains the knowledge of his actions and the willingness to accept his own mistakes.
I agree that there is irony in regards to sight and blindness in both plays.