Our eyes are mirrors -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 10:59:34 03/11/08 Tue
Author: Betsy Peters
Subject: Our eyes are mirrors

When Creon interrogates the choragos as to Oedipus' reaction to the Delphic Prophecy, he asks, "But you were watching him! Were his eyes steady? Did he look like a man in his right mind?" p.24. Girard argues in his chapter on Apollonius in I See Satan that when Jesus writes in the sand before the condemned woman caught in adultery, he does so not to write in the sand, but to avert his eyes. Girard argues that no matter what sort of compassionate glance Jesus might have given, it would have been grossly interpreted by the crowd eager to throw stones. Had they looked into his eyes, they would have seen the condemnation that they wanted to see. So Jesus doesn't look up. I wonder if it might work the same way here. Had Creon been there to look into Oedipus' eyes, it wouldn't have mattered if they looked shifty or not--that is what Creon would have seen. And angry man or crowd cannot read into peoples' eyes. They merely see back into their own.

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