Blindness and Sight

In Oedipus the King, the idea of blindness and sight reoccures all throught the story and is used to express the pursuit of knowledge. Oedipus is blind due to the fact that he doesn't know he's the murder of the the king. He is very angry and says "let the man drag out but his life in agony, step by painful step." If he were to find out the truth he would fill up with different emotions. The feelings would be anger due to him being the murderer and nervousness due to him thinking of what may happen if others figure out he's the murderer. Oedipus also calls himself "Oedipus the ignorant" because his action of slaughter was done under not much information of others. Having sight leads to being ignorant but being blind leads to knowledge. Once Oedipus found out he killed his father and married his mother he stabbed his eyes out with a sword. Him blinding himself is part of the pursuit of knowledge since he knows more of what's happened. After all of this took place Oedipus just wants to get away from everything, "he will grope his way toward a forign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step," as said by Tieresas. The motif of blindness and sight & pursuit of knowledge tie in with one another in Oedipus the King as blindness and sight are what leads to th gain in knowledge. Oedipus had sight until he found out the truth of his family, he became blind after learning the truth and will learn more as a blind person.