These ideas are inspired by How To Read Literature Like A Professor.
1. When a character can't see the physical world it means that they can see much more than most about the deeper meaning of life.
2. Often blind characters see into the future or spirit world.
3. Not only are people blind, but a house without windows is blind, an alley can be blind, a horse can wear blinders, and the author may have a character with 'blind' speculation.
All of these “mean” something to the theme of the story. The author is pointing you down the 'right path' if you can 'see' and pick up on these clues. Oedipus blinds himself at the end of the story so that he can see. He went through his whole life running away from his destiny that he could SEE that he had fulfilled it. Often as characters grow older and wiser they loose their physical sense of sight.
In stories with a Seer, the seer is blind because sight gets in the way of really seeing. In most stories with blind characters, the blindness is rarely a handicap. I can think of The Village, Miracle Worker, The Cay, Into The Dark, and one of my favorite poem/stories Knots on a Counting Rope where the blind character is not just capable, but the hero of the story. Leading those who can see to a better understanding of themselves and the world around them.
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