The messenger announces to the city the current predicament of their kingdom. He describes the death of their queen and to what provocation presented itself to her to drive the insnity within her to surface and cause her to die at the mercy of her own hands. Oedipus then comes forward, blinded by his own hands and delivers a well-rehearsed monologue to his people, in effect, essentially confirming everything the messenger has just said.
Oedipus blinds himself not so he can feel the pain, but because he cannot stand to see the horrors around him. Because he can no longer look at his children of his wife and mother. Because his eyes are stain by his wife's and mother's dead body dangling from a rope. The world is ugly through his eyes.
I thought this was a sorrowful section of the book and every character had every reason to react as they did. I don't know how I wouold deal with any of it if I had been in the queen or Oedipus' position. I too would have killed or blinded myself. I also think this was a very well written section of the play, very captivating.
