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Dialogue

Laios: What are we gong to do?

Iocaste: This can not be true!!!
              How can our own son, Our flesh
              And blood commit such a vicious
              Crime against us.

Laios: This man is a prophet, it must be
           The truth.

Iocaste: Then what shall we do?
              We can not have this child...

Laios: And we will not.

Iocaste: What do you mean?

Laios: We must kill this child.

Iocaste: How can we kill a child
              Born of us?!

Laios: Either we kill this child or
           This child will killl me.
           Would you rather that?!

Iocaste: Don't be silly.

Laios: We must get rid of this child
            Immediately.
                                                                                ( enters the messenger )

Messenger: Great Laios, you sent for me, Sir?

Laios: Yes, I have a special job for you.

Messenger: Anything you need, I am
                   Here for you my king.

Iocaste: What we are about to tell you,
              You must never repeat.

Messenger: Yes, my queen never

Laios: I need you to go to Kithairon
           And expose of a child.

Messenger: My king I have no problem
                   With exposing of this child
                    But may I know the origin
                    Of this child?

Laios: Yes, I owe you that much...

Iocaste: The child is born of us.

Messenger: So why are you getting rid
                   Of this child...

Laios: That is as much as we can tell
           You. Now please do as I say!!!

Messenger: Yes, My king.

Laios: Come and bring the child, we
          Must gaurantee his death.
                                                        ( Iocaste hands the child to the
                                                          messenger and turns way sobbing.
                                                          Laios and the messenger leaves the
                                                           room)

The Motif of Blindness
vs.
Vision in "Oedipus Rex"

    In Oedipus Rex there are three battles of blindness and vision.  The battles are within: Oedipus, Teiresias and Iocaste.  But in this play blindness and vision have more than a literal sense.

    Oedipus' battle between blindness and vision is very unique.  Physically Oedipus is not blind, but mentally he is because what he thought was the truth was not.  All of his life he thought that he was running from the truth but in reality he was running into it.  For him to see the truth he blinded himself because what he was seeing all his life was a lie.

" You call me unfeeling.  If you could
only see the nature of your own
feelings..." Teiresias (page 17)

    Teiresias on the other hand is blind literally but he can see the future (susayer).  Teiresias sees what Oedipus can not see and he knows things others don't because he is a prophet.  Teiresias is the only person in the selection that knows the truth.

" Teiresias: seer : student of mysteries,
Of all that's taught and all that no man
tells, Secrets of Heaven and secrets of
the earth: blind though you are, you know
the city lies blind sick with plague; and from
this plague, my lord, we find that you alone can
guard or save us." Oedipus (page16)

    Iocaste is in a way like Oedipus.  She is not physically blind but she is blind to the truth.  She thought that her and Laios went against fate by sending their son to die but in reality fate was right behind them.  Iocaste like Oedipus was trying to run from fate but it turned out they were running into it.

" For Apollo said my child was doomed to
kill him; and my child-poor baby!- it was my child that
died first.  No.  From now on, where oracles are concerned,
I would not waste a second thought on any."
Iocaste (page 43)

    In Oedipus Rex there were a few cases of blindness vs. vision.  This selection shows us that just because you have vision doesn't mean you can see the truth, and just because you are blind doesn't mean you can't see the truth.


    Some literature portrays the conflict of hero vs. fate.  In Sophocles' Oedipus, Odepus was a hero who was trying to defy his fate.  When Oedipus was a baby, his parent were told that when he grew up he would kill his father and marry his mother.  After hearing this news his father decided that they should kill the baby.  But when they sent their servant to get rid of him, the servant took pity on Oedipus and gave him to another king and queen. When oedipus was a young man he was told the same prophecy.  by Oedipus think that the people who raised him were his real parent he run away, not knowing that instead of running from fate he was running into it.  While he was fleeing he ran into a king and his servants, not knowing that this king was actually his father, and because he felt threatened he killed them all.  His journey ended in Thebes, where his mother was the queen.  The people in thebes were suffering from a sphinx and the only way to get rid of it was to solve the riddle.  Oedipus solved it and became the king, which meant he was to marry his mother.  Oedipus married his mother and had children.  But their still was a mystery as to who killed the king.  Oedipus not knowing that he killed the king, stated that who ever it was who killed the king was to either be killed or  leave Thebes.  A prophet came told oedipus that he was the one who killed the king and that that man that he killed was his father and the woman that he beard children with was his mother.  After finding this out his mother killed herself and Oedipus so discussed by the whole situation stabbed his eyes out and left Thebes.  This is a prime example of a hero vs. fate.