Blindness

Even as everyone loses their sight, characters continue to use sighted language. Toward the end of the novel, a group of blind people hear the doctor’s wife say that she does not see anyone in the large grocery store where she initially found supplies. One blind person notes her turn of phrase, but another remarks, “[A] moment ago, when I stumbled you told me to watch where I was putting my feet, it’s the same thing” (312). Throughout Blindness, Saramago emphasizes sight is a necessary part of being fully human. The doctor’s wife implies this to the girl with the dark glasses when she says, “Blind in eyes and blind in feelings […] without eyes feelings become something different […] you say we’re dead because we’re blind, there you have it” (252). Given this, it is unsurprising that once their sight is lost, internees devolve into less human versions of themselves. It also explains why members of the first ward retain most of their humanity with the doctor’s wife serving as their sighted proxy. The consistent use of sighted language throughout the novel shows the innate ableism of society: Not only are towns and cities designed for sighted people, but language as well, with its use of sighted phrases like “I see” versus understand, or “watch out” versus protect.