Literature Help: Blindness

By Students' Academy

“Blindness” is set in an unnamed city in an unnamed country. The story describes the sudden attack of an epidemic that strikes the people of the city and makes them blind. The disease spreads rapidly and soon the entire city goes blind, except for the doctor’s wife.

The stricken people are sent to quarantine, an asylum for their treatment. The story describes how the affected people suddenly turn into violent, aggressive, and selfish human beings. They are divided into groups.

The doctor’s wife leads a group and takes care of them. She is not blind but she pretends to be blind just to be there with her husband.

In this short treatise, you will find the introduction, about characters, plot summary, complete summary, and critical analysis. However, for the better understanding of the novel, the students are advised to go through the original text of “Blindness” once again to get to the bottom of the subtle literary elements.

Literature Help: Blindness
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Summary
Chapter Three: Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jan 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310985560

Students' Academy

Easy study guides for the students of English literature.

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Literature Help: Blindness

Students' Academy

Copyright

Literature Help: Blindness

Students’ Academy

Copyright@2014 Students’ Academy

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Chapter One: Introduction

Blindness by Portuguese author Jose Saramago was first published as "Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira in Portugal in 1995.

Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira means Essay on Blindness in English. It is considered as one of Jose Saramago’s most famous novels.

The author’s other famous novels are The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Baltasar, and Blimunda.

The English translation of Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira was titled Blindness and it was released in 1998. It is said to be the author’s most widely read book. The success of the book goes to the movie based on the novel that was released in 2008.

The film was directed by Brazilian director Femando Meirelles.

Blindness happens to be the first half of the two part series of ‘essays’. However, the second part was not released in theatres but it was published as Seeing in its translated version.

There are some extraordinary stylistic features in the novel. Jose is known for these stylistic elements in his writings.

It can be said that the premise of the