Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King

Oedipus

Identify a "spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation" in the ending of this play and explain its significance to the play as a whole.

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I think that Oedipus sees certain things by the end of his journey that he was blind to before. Teiresias holds the key to the link between sight and blindness - for even though he is blind, he can still see and predict the future (if not the present). At the end of the play, moreover, Oedipus blinds himself, because what he has metaphorically seen (i.e. realized) leaves him unable to face his family or his parents in the afterlife). As with the previous theme, sight/blindness operate both literally and metaphorically within the play. Indeed, literal sight is juxtaposed with 'insight' or 'foresight'. After Oedipus finds out what has happened, he bemoans the way everything has indeed "come to light".

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