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One of the main underlying themes in Oedipus is blindness. Not just physical blindness, but intellectual blindness as well. The blindness issue is an effective contrasting method for Oedipus at different points in the play. You can’t just simply say "blindness", because, it has a double meaning. It can be broken down into two components: Oedipus's ignorance to see the truth, and his willingness to see. Throughout the play, these two components are always …

…himself so that he may not see. Unfortunately, this does not help his problem. I think it was an act of cowardice because he didn't want to accept the situation the way he "saw" it, and decided instead not to see it at all. A lesson can be learned from all of this, that is that even the greatest of all men can fall to the smallest of things, especially their blindness to the truth.