José Saramago’s Blindness is a modern allegorical novel about the sudden collapse of society when an epidemic of unexplained blindness spreads across an unnamed city.
The outbreak begins when a man loses his sight while waiting in his car at a traffic light. Soon, everyone he comes into contact with also goes blind. The government, terrified of the epidemic, quarantines the newly blind in a derelict mental hospital. Inside, conditions quickly deteriorate. With no proper food, hygiene, or leadership, the inmates are left to fend for themselves.
Among the internees is an eye doctor, his wife, and several others: the first blind man, the thief who stole his car, a girl with dark glasses, and an old man with a black eye patch. Strangely, the doctor’s wife never loses her sight; she chooses to hide this fact in order to remain with her husband and help the group.
As more blind people are confined, chaos escalates. A gang seizes control of the food supply, demanding valuables and even sexual favors in exchange for meals. Brutality and degradation dominate the asylum. Eventually, the doctor’s wife takes decisive action: she kills the gang’s leader with a pair of scissors, freeing the group but also forcing them to confront the ruins of the wider world.
When the group escapes, they discover that the entire city has succumbed to blindness. Streets are filled with corpses, garbage, and starving people. Civilization has collapsed—law, government, and morality have all disappeared. Despite this, small acts of kindness and solidarity among the doctor’s wife and her companions allow them to survive together.
The novel closes with a sudden, mysterious reversal: people begin to regain their sight. The epidemic ends as abruptly as it began, but Saramago leaves its cause and meaning unexplained.
