One of the themes in Sophocles" Oedipus the King is the concept of sight. Blindness, though usually referred to as lacking the ability to see with one's eyes, can in other ways be equally, if not more detrimental to one's fate. Though many of the characters possess physical sight, their fates are sealed by their lack of intellectual sight. As the blind prophet Teiresias shows, one does not need vision to see the truth and just because a person has physical sight does not mean they can see what is right in front of them. This irony and the many forms of blindness that Sophocles gives his characters prove to be some of the most significant aspects in determining the outcome of the play.
Oedipus is blind from birth. His real parents, Laius and Jocasta, send him to be killed, but the shepherd asked to do this, instead gives him to another couple. After learning of the prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus flees to Thebes in an attempt to guarantee that the prophecy will never come true. In his flight he makes the fated mistake of killing a man who he later finds out is his real father. In Thebes, Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx, becomes king, blind to the fact that he has killed the previous one, and marries Jocasta. Blind to his past and to the power of prophecies, Oedipus killed a man and married a woman that was the exact age to be his mother. Little did he know that this was not a mere coincidence.
Oedipus possesses physical sight, but is completely blind to the truth. When a plague falls on Thebes and the only way to rid the city of it is to find the previous king's killer, he calls upon a prophet named Teiresias, who ironically has no physical sight but sees the truth clearly. .
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Teiresus says to Oedipus, "You are the curse, the corruption of the land!" (303). Even though Teiresius, a valid prophet, tells Oedipus that he killed Laius, his father and previous king, his pride and self-righteousness prevent him from seeing the truth that has been laid out for him.
