Hi graham99!
'Oedipus Rex' (also known in many translations as 'Oedipus the King')
is considered by many, including Aristotle in the wonderful text on
dramatic writing, 'Poetics', to be one of the most perfect plays ever
written. It has been performed, and thematic questions like yours
studied and analyzed for centuries. As a result, there are some great
resources online for and about the play!
Let me preface this by saying that reading summaries and analyses will
give you only a tiny understanding of or appreciation for any play,
especially one of such heightened language, theme, and scale. I
strongly encourage you to read one - or better yet several
translations, if you have not already! You can find both an online
and a downloadable translation by F. Storr through MIT's Internet
Classics Archive at http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html .
Since I'm not sure how familiar you are with the play itself, here's a
link to brief synopsis from TheaterHistory.com:
http://www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/oedipus001.html
And here’s a longer version from ClassicNotes.com:
http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/oedipus/shortsumm.html
Now, on to the theme of blindness (and sight, its necessary
counterpart.) There are two characters who suffer physical blindness
in the play... Tiresias the blind seer (an obvious irony), and Oedipus
himself, at the play's end. However, physical blindness is just one
manifestation of the theme. Moral blindness, and blindness
to/defiance of one's fate are equally, if not more, important, as
you'll see in the pages below:
Spark Notes' page on Themes, Motifs, and Symbols discusses the theme
as it appears in all three of the Theban plays, Antigone, Oedipus Rex,
and Oedipus at Colonus.
("Sight and Blindness" is about halfway down the page under Motifs):
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oedipus/themes.html
ClassicNote.com offers an excellent analysis of the play @
http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/oedipus/summ2.html .
This excerpt most directly addresses your question:
"Perhaps the best example of dramatic irony in this play, however, is
the frequent use of references to eyes, sight, light, and perception
throughout... Teiresias knows that Oedipus will blind himself... he
says as much: "those now clear-seeing eyes / Shall then be
darkened"... The irony is that sight here means two different things.
Oedipus is blessed with the gift of perception; he was the only man
who could "see" the answer to the Sphinx's riddle. Yet he cannot see
what is right before his eyes. He is blind to the truth, for all he
seeks it. Teiresias's presence in the play, then, is doubly important.
As a blind old man, he foreshadows Oedipus's own future, and the more
Oedipus mocks his blindness, the more ironic he sounds to the
audience. Teiresias is a man who understands the truth without the use
of his sight; Oedipus is the opposite, a sighted man who is blind to
the truth right before him. Soon Oedipus will switch roles with
Teiresias, becoming a man who sees the truth and loses his sense of
sight."
(Classic Notes has a ton of really great information on the play and
the trilogy, Sophocles, the Festival of Dionysus (where the plays were
first performed), and lots more - even a 40 question quiz! Definitely
worth further reading.)
I hope this answers your question! If you'd like any further help,
don't hesitate to post a Request for Clarification.
Best,
Rebeccam-ga
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