Blindness (novel)
A novel about a mass epidemic of blindness and societal collapse.
Blindness (originally *Ensaio sobre a cegueira*, or *Essay on Blindness*) is a 1995 novel by the Portuguese writer José Saramago. The story takes place in an unnamed city, where nearly everyone is suddenly struck by an unexplained epidemic of blindness. The narrative follows several unnamed characters—among them an ophthalmologist, some of his patients, and others thrown together by chance—as society collapses around them. The doctor’s wife is the only person who remains sighted, for reasons the novel never explains. Giovanni Pontiero translated the book into English in 1997. When Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, the committee specifically mentioned *Blindness* among his works. A sequel, *Seeing*, came out in 2004, and a film adaptation of *Blindness* was released in 2008.
The plot traces the chaos that erupts after the first cases of blindness appear. The doctor’s wife, unwilling to abandon her husband, pretends to be blind and is quarantined with him and others in a filthy, overcrowded asylum. Conditions there quickly deteriorate: hygiene collapses, morale plummets, and the soldiers guarding the facility grow hostile, eventually shooting internees during a food distribution. A violent clique seizes control of supplies, forcing women from other wards to trade sex for food. The doctor’s wife kills the clique’s leader. After the internees set fire to the asylum, they find the army has abandoned the site. The protagonists then wander the devastated city, where law and order have vanished, families are scattered, and people scavenge for survival. The doctor’s wife, hiding her sight, leads her small group—which includes her husband and several others—to the doctor’s home, where they begin to rebuild a semblance of normal life. The blindness lifts from the city as suddenly and inexplicably as it began.
Key characters include the doctor’s wife, the only sighted person, who becomes the group’s de facto leader and caretaker; the doctor, an ophthalmologist whose authority among the quarantined comes partly from his wife’s secret ability to see and report what is happening; and the girl with the dark glasses, a former part-time prostitute who contracts the blindness while with a customer and later cares for a young boy with a squint after his mother disappears.
Quick Facts
- Title Orig
- Ensaio sobre a cegueira
- Translator
- Giovanni Pontiero
- Author
- José Saramago
- Country
- Portugal
- Language
- Portuguese
- Genre
- Post-apocalyptic
- Publisher
- Caminho
- Pub Date
- 1995
- English Pub Date
- October 1997
- Media Type
- Print (Hardcover, paperback)
- Pages
- 288
- Isbn
- 1-86046-297-9
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The plot follows an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness that afflicts nearly everyone in an unnamed city. The story centers on a handful of unnamed characters, including an ophthalmologist, several of his patients, and assorted others, who are among the first stricken. The doctor's wife is inexplicably immune to the blindness. After a lengthy and traumatic quarantine in an asylum, the group bands together in a family-like unit to survive by their wits and by the good fortune that the doctor's wife has escaped the blindness. The sudden onset and unexplained origin cause widespread panic, and social order rapidly unravels as the government attempts to contain the contagion via increasingly repressive and inept measures. The first part of the novel follows the central characters in the filthy, overcrowded asylum where they and other blind people have been quarantined. Hygiene, living conditions, and morale degrade horrifically, mirroring the society outside. Anxiety over food availability undermines solidarity, and lack of organization prevents fair distribution. Soldiers become antipathetic as they become infected, and the military refuses to allow basic medicine. An armed clique gains control over food deliveries, subjugating internees and exposing them to violent assault, rape, and deprivation. Internees eventually burn down the asylum, only to discover the army has abandoned it. The protagonists then join throngs of nearly helpless blind people wandering the devastated city. The story follows the doctor's wife, her husband, and their impromptu 'family' as they attempt to survive outside, cared for largely by the doctor's wife, who can still see. Law and order, social services, and government no longer function. The group eventually makes a permanent home in the doctor's house and is establishing a new order when the blindness lifts from the city en masse just as suddenly as it struck.
Reader's Guide
Blindness is significant as a key work by Nobel laureate José Saramago, noted by the Nobel committee in 1998. The novel explores themes of social breakdown, human resilience, and the fragility of civilization through the lens of a mass epidemic of blindness. Its impact lies in its stark portrayal of how quickly order can dissolve when a fundamental human sense is lost, and how individuals and groups adapt or succumb. The work has been widely studied for its allegorical depth and its unflinching depiction of human behavior under extreme duress. Its legacy includes a sequel, Seeing (2004), and a film adaptation in 2008. The novel remains a touchstone in discussions of dystopian literature and the ethics of quarantine and social control.
Did You Know?
- The novel was originally published in Portuguese in 1995 under the title Ensaio sobre a cegueira, meaning 'Essay on Blindness'.
- The doctor's wife is the only character in the novel who does not lose her sight, a phenomenon that remains unexplained.
- The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 2008.
- A sequel titled Seeing was published in 2004.
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