Symbolism is often used in literature to point to bigger and more important ideas. Using one character, action, or object to represent a more complex and meaningful idea forces readers to look deeper into the text, and to look for more than what meets the eye. This allows more depth and meaning to be added to the text. It acts as a webbing between the story and the theme, as it helps to connect the two together. Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Margret Atwood used symbolism add multiple layers of meaning to a text and to convey key ideas. Symbolism, enhances key concepts in "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, "Hamlet" written by Shakespeare, and the two short stories by Margret Atwood; "Hairball", and "The Age of Lead", which helps to develop clear …show more content…
Blindness and sight were used to represent the amount of knowledge and lack thereof a character had of Oedipus's true identity and his faults. Blindness and sight is mentioned multiple times creating a motif, and this constant emphasis makes it a symbol. Oedipus had his literal sight but was oblivious to the truth, despite it being right in front of him. Tiresias on the other hand was a blind prophet and had the knowledge of Oedipus's true identity. Teiresias tried to tell Oedipus that he had been the one to kill king Laius, but Oedipus was quick to deny that he could have had anything to do with it. Tiresias comments on Oedipus oblivion, "You have you sight yet you cannot see" (Sophocles 62). Blindness as a symbol is repeated again, after Oedipus finally realizes that he was the one to have murdered the king, and that he had unknowingly married his mother. Oedipus, overwhelmed with this knowledge and his grief, gauged out his eyes with the brooches of Iocasta's dress after she had killed herself. Oedipus had gained the knowledge of his faults and was no longer figuratively blind to the truth, but as a result to this information he had literally blinded himself. Blindness as a symbol to represent a character's amount of knowledge is repeated multiple times, developing a key theme in Oedipus the King, knowledge vs …show more content…
In "Hairball" Kat's use of shortening both her and Geralds names symbolizes a change in identity. Kat was first Katherine, then Kathy, and then shortened to Kat. With each name change is a new identity. Kat also changes Geralds name as she molds him into the man she believes she wants him to be. She takes power of Gerald and over her identity as she changes their names. When she calls him Gerald she is symbolizes her power over him and how she can change him back to how he was before her. "'Goodbye, Gerald,' she says. She pronounces the name with mockery. It's a negation of him, an abolishment of him" (Atwood 36). When she calls him Gerald once again in the letter, while shortening her own name once again, she is taking back the power she has. This symbolism is the fundamental start to the theme of power, as the symbolization of the names Kat gives are detrimental in understanding Kat's need for power, which contributes to the overall
People equate ‘seeing’ to gaining knowledge. Expressions such as “I see” and “seeing truth” are used to express understanding of something, but is seeing really the same as knowing? In Oedipus the King, Oedipus’s inability to grasp the truth is despite the fact that he is physically able to see contrasts Teiresias’s knowledge of the truth even though he is blind. The irony of the blind man being knowledgeable, and the seer becoming blind to the truth suggests that the idea that knowledge is not related to physical sight. In the beginning of the play, Oedipus is able to see but does not know the truth about who killed Laius. At the conclusion of the play, Oedipus is
The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.
In the play, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, an honourable and admirable Greek king named Oedipus rules the town of Thebes. He is left in mental turmoil and decay as his unknown, corrupt and immoral past is slowly revealed during his quest to find the culprit who murdered King Laius. The newly exposed past suddenly transforms his glory and respect into shame and humiliation. After he learns about his wicked past he stabs his eyes, which lead to his blindness. During the course of the play, references to blindness and vision constantly recur, giving the reader an enhanced and more insightful look into the themes of the play. Some themes that are expressed through these references include truth and knowledge, guilt, and freewill versus
“O, O, O, they will all come … with them I lived with, cursed in my killing”(1363-1368), Oedipus has now physically become the thing he’s symbolically been all this time: blind. Oedipus’ reason to do such an action is that he is unwilling to look on the horrors that his unwitting actions have created. "What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy”(1473-74), this quote furthers Sophocles metaphor of sight as Oedipus curses himself of not being able to see the truth while he had his eyes, so now that he is physically blind it make no difference. It can also mean that maybe he does not want to see anything as all that he loves will remind him of his horrible
People may be blinded to truth, and may not realize what truth is, even if truth is standing in front of them. They will never see truth becase they are blind to it. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles it is easy to see how blindness affects the transition of the story. It is said that blind people see “in a different manner” because they sense the world in a totally diferent way, such as Teiresias in the play. Oedipus Rex is a tragedy due to the content the Sophocles, the playwright, decided to include, first, murdering his father, king Laius, then marrying his mother, Jocasta, and ending by blinding himself. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth all his life. Eventually, when he seeks the truth he intentionally loses his physical vision, and
When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.
Oedipus thought his life was great. Feeling powerful and almighty, Oedipus was wonderful at solving riddles, but did not like the answer to the riddle of who he really was. Although many told him to stop trying to figure out the answer, it was not in his nature to give up. Oedipus thought he could see everything, but he was actually blind of the truth about his life until the end.
In many countries around the world, ignorance carries a considerable weight in politics, households, between friends, and in other vicinities. This ignorance can be depicted as blindness of the mind. In the Greek philosopher Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King, Oedipus’ family and friends share their blindness in the fact that they love Oedipus and don’t have a desire to know the truth of his ruined past. They keep things from Oedipus and end up withholding the actualities of life from themselves in the process. Sophocles urges the reader that the love people clutch to can cause people to lose sight of the truth. He then expands on the blindness, demonstrating the idea that when the truth comes out, it pulls the love a person feels for another into darkness with it. Love is fragile, and can be easily destroyed by the opening of the eye, causing families to crumble underneath.
A simple process formed the backbone of most Greek philosophy. The ancients thought that by combining two equally valid but opposite ideas, the thesis and the antithesis, a new, higher truth could be achieved. That truth is called the synthesis. This tactic of integrating two seemingly opposite halves into a greater whole was a tremendous advance in human logic. This practice is illustrated throughout Oedipus at Colonus in regard to Sophocles’ portrayal of vision, sight, and the eye. In Colonus, there are many and varied descriptions of the aspects of the eye, whether the eye be human or divine. To Sophocles, the eye must have been a synthesis, both physical and spiritual, yet
One of the many symbols Sophocles portrays throughout the play is sight and blindness. Sight represents how Oedipus had eyesight, but was still “blind” to the truth of himself throughout most of the play. He was both hesitant and unaware of the events that built up to
Blindness plays a two-fold part in Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King.'; First, Sophocles presents blindness as a physical disability affecting the auger Teiresias, and later Oedipus; but later, blindness comes to mean an inability to see the evil in one’s actions and the consequences that ensue. The irony in this lies in the fact that Oedipus, while gifted with sight, is blind to himself, in contrast to Teiresias, blind physically, but able to see the evil to which Oedipus has fallen prey to. Tragically, as Oedipus gains the internal gift of sight, he discards his outward gift of sight. Sight, therefore, seems to be like good and evil, a person may only choose one.
In a way he was similar to a child, blind to the world around him and carefree. As his story progressed, he began to mature into a teenage stage and become more aware of his surroundings. When Oedipus arrived at the end of his story, he finally began to grow into adulthood, fully conscious of his deeds and able to carry their weight. Oedipus, now visionless, possessed metaphorical sight, no longer blind to the fate the gods had decreed for him. Clearly, Sophocles used vision and blindness to illustrate that wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are not attributes limited to only those with
In the play Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, a man named Oedipus is trying to figure out what is causing a plague in the city. Throughout the play, many people are trying to give him clues that he is the cause for marrying his mother. Realizing this, Oedipus stabs out his eyeballs and leaves the city. In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, Antigone buried Polyneices, and Creon wants to have her killed because of it. Tiresias, the blind prophet, tries to persuade Creon that the gods actually want Polyneices buried. Creon then wants to release Antigone, but she had already hung herself. The rest of the family then commits suicide. In the end of both plays, Creon and Oedipus both suffer due to blindness vs. sight.
“How terrible is it to have wisdom, when it brings no profit to him who is wise”, are prolific words uttered by the blind man Tiresias in the 430 B.C. play by Sophocles, Oedipus the King. Despite the fact that Oedipus was wise enough to solve the riddle of the sphinx, he did not have enough insight to see what was before his very eyes which was the truth about who he was and what he had done; not to mention the horrible faith of what his future held in store. Because of Oedipus, it can be said that blindness appears in all people, even if they possess the ability to "see" (Fosso, 27). Oedipus, for instance, sees his parents as strangers, his homecoming as exile and hereditary kingship as an unconstitutional rule. Blindness is a dominant theme in the play and it helps to highlight the irony in the fact the blind man was able to see what was about to happen, while Oedipus in all his glory and with all his wisdom, with eyes wide open, was unable to see the chaos that was unravelling before his very eyes.
Sometimes people make choices not knowing what they are really meaning to do or say. For instance, people might do something out of anger and ignorance. When someone gets mad, they might do something that they didn’t mean to do because of their ignorance. People need to realize what they are saying and doing, that way they aren’t ignorant. In Sophocles’, Oedipus The King, it is evident that some are blind the the truth due to Oedipus’ actions, their thoughts, and their dialogue.