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Jocasta's story doesn't comfort Oedipus. As a child, an old man told Oedipus that
he was adopted, and that he would eventually kill his biological father and sleep
with his biological mother. Not to mention, Oedipus once killed a man at a
crossroads, which sounds a lot like the way Laius died.
Jocasta urges Oedipus not to look into the past any further, but he stubbornly
ignores her. Oedipus goes on to question a messenger and a shepherd, both of
whom have information about how Oedipus was abandoned as an infant and
adopted by a new family. In a moment of insight, Jocasta realizes that she is
Oedipuss mother and that Laius was his father. Horrified at what has happened,
she kills herself. Shortly thereafter, Oedipus, too, realizes that he was Laiuss
murder and that hes been married to (and having children with) his mother. In
horror and despair, he gouges his eyes out and is exiled from Thebes.
OEDIPUS
Where are they? Where in the wide world to find
The far, faint traces of a bygone crime?
CREON
In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find;
Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind." (107-110)
Creon explains that if Oedipus seeks knowledge of the crime, he will find it.
Creon speaks with a certainty here that is fateful in its confidence.
TEIRESIAS
Well, it will come what will, though I be mute.
OEDIPUS
Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me.
TEIRESIAS
I have no more to say; storm as thou willst,
And give the rein to all thy pent-up rage. (341-347)
Teiresias insists that, regardless of what he says or does, fate will play itself out.
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Sophocles certainly wasn't shy about the motif of sight vs. blindness. If you've
got way too much time on your hands, go through the play and highlight words
like "see," "sight," "vision," "eyes," and "blind." Since this motif is symbolic of
the pursuit of "knowledge," you can go ahead add that word, along with terms
like "oracle," "truth," "prophecy," and "Apollo," since he's the god that represents
all these ideas. The Oracle of Shmoop predicts that your highlighter will run out
of ink, and your script will end up looking like a neon patchwork quilt.
Though this motif of seeing and not seeing is laced throughout the beginning of
the play, it first becomes crystal clear when the prophet Teiresias hobbles on
stage. If one of Sophocles's ancient audience members missed the irony in this
episode, he must've visited the wine stand a few to many times. Teiresias is
literally blind, but he can see clearly the horror that is Oedipus's past, present,
and future. Oedipus's eyes work just fine, but unfortunately he's completely blind
to the dreadful fate the gods have placed upon him. The doomed king's ignorance
on this key matter is made even more ironic by the fact that he was made famous
for his keen insight, by solving the riddle of the Sphinx.
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. With this most famous of gougings, Oedipus literally becomes the thing
he's always metaphorically been: blind. At the end of the play, Oedipus becomes
symbolic of all of humanity, stumbling forward through a dark and unknowable
universe.