Discuss the significance of Oedipus blinding himself at the end of Oedipus Rex.

The play is full of
references to seeing and vision, and it is perhaps ironic thatis famed as a man who is
perceptive and able to see things clearly. Eventually, he blinds himself after he faces the
incontrovertible truth of who he is, who his wife is and who his children are.seems to be
suggesting that no matter how intelligent someone may feel that they are, all humans are prone
to blindness or to errors that can have serious consequences without them being aware of them.
By making himself blind, Oedipus is only making his blindness physical in addition to the
psychological and mental blindness that he suffers from throughout the play. Note how Oedipus
himself explains his blindness:

What I did was best--don't
lecture me,

no more advice. I, with my eyes,

how could I
look my father in the eyes

when I go down to death? Or mother, so
abused...

Oedipus therefore says that he is not able to
physically look at the people he has "so abused" through his ignorance. He blinds
himself ironically after he is made to finally see, and through seeing he decides that it is
better to be blind.