The Symbolic of Evil in Blindness, by José Saramago: Stain, Sin and Guilt

Abstract

This article carried out an analysis from the hermeneutical category of the symbol in the novel Blindness by José Saramago, following Paul Ricoeur, in which the symbols of sin, stain and guilt were chosen to be developed after defining the relevance and the impact of the category of analysis on current situations in our society.  Making use not only of the texts referring to Ricoeur's hermeneutics, but also of The Symbolic of Evil, a conceptual journey is proposed to elucidate how the senses and meanings of the symbols of evil are configured in our culture and, through this understanding, address the situation of the symbolic apparatus of Saramago's novel. Carrying out an analysis of these hermeneutical categories in a novel such as Blindness becomes the opportunity to show a different meaning and sense of a novel that has clearly shown its relevance in previous times and that today, in the middle of a pandemic, invites us to rethink that world and to face the fact of understanding our own blindness and the blindness of the world in the midst of a dizzying speed that requires us to assume our reality in another way. In the words of Ricoeur, the symbol gives food for thought and it is time for us to think through our own symbols about the reality that is presented to us in Saramago's novel and to extrapolate it to the realities that are configured every day in our Western world.