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- When Oedipus finally sees the terrible truth of his life, Sophocles hammers home his metaphor by having the king stab out his own eyes. Oedipus says he does this because he can no longer look on the horrors that his unwitting actions have created.
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He then took the gold pins that held her robes and, with them, stabbed out his eyes. He kept raking the pins down his eyes, crying that he could not bear to see the world now that he had learned the truth. Just as the messenger finishes the story, Oedipus emerges from the palace.
When Oedipus finally sees the terrible truth of his life, Sophocles hammers home his metaphor by having the king stab out his own eyes. Oedipus says he does this because he can no longer look on the horrors that his unwitting actions have created.
When Oedipus does find out that he is the one who killed his father and married his mother, he stabs his eyes out so that he never again has to see the world that caused him so much pain. His literal blindness also symbolizes the metaphorical blindness, or ignorance, he possesses as he fails to see the truth of his family’s lineage.
Analysis. As in Antigone, the entrance of Tiresias signals a crucial turning point in the plot. But in Oedipus the King, Tiresias also serves an additional role—his blindness augments the dramatic irony that governs the play. Tiresias is blind but can see the truth; Oedipus has his sight but cannot.
Oct 13, 2024 · He had been set out on a mountain to die, in an attempt by Laius to thwart a similar prophecy. When it is finally revealed that Oedipus murdered his own father and has been living in incest with his mother Jocasta, she hangs herself. Oedipus stabs out his eyes and prepares to go into exile once more.
Oedipus says he could not bear to look his father and mother in the eyes in Hades (hell), and, alive, he cannot look bear to look at the faces of his children or his countrymen. He asks the chorus to hide him, kill him, or hurl him into the sea.
Oedipus gouges out his eyes as a punishment for his ignorance and inability to see the truth about his own life and actions.