Essay on Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex"

In Sophocles' famous work "Oedipus Rex," he chronicles the tragic fate of the main character Oedipus, who was cursed at birth to kill his father and marry his mother. This play even sparked the famous Oedipus complex proposed by Sigmund Freud pertaining to psychoanalytic theory over two centuries later. Throughout the play, the motif of sight and perception is brought forth through Sophocles' copious use of homophones, synecdoche, and irony.
Homophones are used throughout the play to craft the motif of sight and perception. The relationship between sight and perception is clearly demonstrated when Tiresias states "you call me unfeeling. If you could only see..." (pg 18). He is not referring to Oedipus' physical capability for sight, but much more importantly, his ability to understand his own predicament. Also, Oedipus rages at Tiresias and calls him a "sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man" (pg 20). Insulting Tiresias' power of prediction in addition to his lack of sight, Oedipus couples "sightless" with "witless" and "senseless." Finally, after hearing enough, Oedipus yells "Out of this place! Out of my sight!" (pg 23). He means to forget all that Tiresias has imparted to him. Since Tiresias symbolically represents Oedipus' unyielding fate, the order "out of my sight" is his desire to forget what he has learned. The motif is also revealed through the literary device synecdoche.
Through synecdoche, Sophocles is able to highlight the motif of sight and perception. When Oedipus asks, "What is troubling you? Why are your eyes so cold," he is using a part (the eyes) to represent the whole (Tiresias' odd behavior) (pg 17). However, since the odd behavior is caused by Tiresias' knowledge of the situation, Oedipus is actually asking why Tiresias is not divulging any information. Synedoche is also seen when Tiresias says, "upon your precious eyes" (pg 23). Oedipus takes pride in his ability to solve riddles and his eyes represent his sharp perception. Therefore, the "eyes" mentioned actually means skill in deduction. Finally, when Tiresias mocks Oedipus by saying "you, with both your eyes, are blind" (pg 22). As Oedipus is ignorant to the truth of his shame, his "eyes" are indeed blind. Irony plays an indispensable role in conveying the motif.
Irony is the last literary technique that Sophocles employs to convey his motif of sight and perception. As Oedipus exclaims "you child of endless night! You cannot hurt me or any other man who sees the sun," he does not realize that he ends up damning himself (pg 21). Tiresias responds by claiming that Oedipus cannot "see the evil" (pg 20). Cleary there is irony at work as the blind man calls the normal one blind. However, he means blind to the truth. Also, it is ironic when Oedipus says, "Blind though you are," since he is the one who is blind in the figurative sense (pg 16). He mocks Tiresias for his blindness by emphasizing it but he is really just drawing attention to his own ignorance.
The consistent attention to aspects of sight, brought forth by three literary devices homophones, synecdoche, and irony create the motif. The focus draws attention to Oedipus' willful and blissful ignorance to his crimes. It allows the audience to clearly see that Oedipus is the one at fault from the very beginning.