Although Oedipus blinds himself out of shame and Gloucester is blinded by an enemy, both find that they see better without their eyes. Gloucester reflects on the uselessness of eyes when he says, "I have no way and therefore want no eyes; I stumbled when I saw." Similarly, the blind prophet Teiresias declared to Oedipus, "thou hast eyes, yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen, nor where thou dwellest nor with whom for mate." It is interesting that until Gloucester looses his eyes he does not realize that he has been mislead and mistreated his son, Edgar; and, upon realizing that he has killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus promptly blinds himself and his eyes become opened to the true horror of what he has done. Losing physical sight equals finding moral insight. Perhaps the message is that we can't truly look inward and find our faults until we stop focusing on everything else going on around us. Once Gloucester and Oedipus loose their sense of sight, they have nowhere to look but inside and at their own faults.
Another parallel between the two characters is their children. Antigone is faithful to Oedipus, her father, and wanders with him after he blinds himself. Edgar, likewise, is faithful to his father and leads him, though somewhat connivingly, when Gloucester cannot see for himself. Edgar even saves his father's life my not allowing him to jump off a cliff. The interesting thing about these faithful children is that both have been wronged by their father, but are still faithful to him. Antigone is the daughter of a messed up, incestuos marriage, and only days before Gloucester was sending hunting parties to kill Edgar. This is also seen in the Cordelia, who loves her father, Lear, even after he disowns and banishes her. Lear, as a foil of Gloucester, can be seen as metaphorically blind to the manipulations of his less loyal children. All three of these "blind" men needed exceptional circumstances to make them change their ways, and were fortunate enough to have children who could help them see the light. The fact that none of these faithful children had to loose their eyes to find a respectful, honorable way of life is comforting. Perhaps if we look inside ourselves and strive for a recognition of good before we have reached rock bottom we can avoid losing sight in a gruesome and bloody way.Just a side note, I learned in my World Civilization class a few weeks ago that Roman actors, when portraying Oedipus the King, were actually expected to gouge their own eyes out on stage. Just makes me thankful to live in a slightly less bloodthirsty culture today.
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