Journal Entry 4 Oedipus

The image that I chose to track was the image of eyes.

"Come to [...] your own father's hands that served his once bright eyes so well-" (Sophocles Oedipus 248:1622-1623). This is spoken by the now broken Oedipus. He tell of how his eyes were once bright. This could mean that it could be his innocence, of how he supposed himself uncorrupted. This is because Oedipus, before he found out the truth, never thought that would fulfill the prophecy. After the prophecy was fulfilled, he no longer had that innocence about him, so he gouged out his eyes in torment.

"You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know!" (237:1405-1408). This again refers to Oedipus' self-inflicted blindness. He also does this in order to prevent him from seeing anymore of the grief in the people that he caused them, since he is the one that caused the misfortune for the town. He also gouged out his eyes because his eyes fooled him; he could not tell who his real parents where. Thus, as punishment, Oedipus gets rid of his eyes. He did it so he couldn't be fooled by such things ever again.

"Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step" (185:517-519). This is what Tiresias tells to Oedipus before he leaves Thebes. It foreshadows the torment that will befall on Oedipus. However, Oedipus chooses to ignore the words of the wise man, rather believing that he can still change his own destiny.

The author uses the imagery of eyes in order to characterize Oedipus. The eyes show that even though Oedipus can see, he can't figure out the truth, even when it is right in front of him. Oedipus even states that he is "Oedipus the ignorant" (182: 451). This shows that he is ignorant to all of the things around him, only taking in the things that he deems worth his time. The imagery also shows the tension in the play. For while the time that Oedipus can see, he is wrought with discontent, for he constantly worries about the prophecy. After he blinds himself, he then lives in agony, furthering the tension that he has, for he feels that he needs to save himself from his crime, thus putting a large burden on him on top of being blind.