Blindness

The doctor’s wife spends the night worried about losing her own eyesight. As she lies awake, she begins meditating on how isolated the internees have become and thinks, “[A]ny day now, we shall no longer know who we are, or even remember our names,” though she ultimately determines that names do not matter because they are treated “like another breed of dogs” (57). Her thoughts are interrupted by the thief’s moans. She checks on him and finds his condition worsening, and as she looks up to survey her dilapidated surroundings, she briefly wishes she was blind, too.

The internees’ morning begins in chaos as five new blind people stumble into the ward. The doctor’s wife notices they introduce themselves by their professions, not their names: They are the policeman, the taxi-driver, the pharmacist’s assistant, the hotel maid, and an office worker. When the last woman speaks up, the blind man recognizes her as his wife, and the two have an emotional reunion. Furthermore, the narrator explains that the new arrivals are connected to the original ward members in some way: For instance, the pharmacist’s assistant gave the girl her eye drops at the pharmacy, and the taxi-driver drove the blind man to his appointment at the doctor’s office.