Burn Scars

[SeverinR]

I think it would depend on the society.
If she moved to a new town I think she would probably be shunned. The stereotypical witch or evil being is always deformed and ugly. Rumor could have that she was practicing black magic and it got away from her.
But in the town that knew her and her family before the injury, they might except her.

 

[teacup]

I think I've got a very good idea of how she will be, now. Thanks everyone.

Of course, if anyone has anything to add, even if it's not much, please post. Everything is helpful with this

 

[teacup]

I'm back for more!
Okay, so would this girl, who's had her eyes burned to blindness by oil be able to cry? I've had a quick google search and only found things about blind people crying, who haven't been blinded in this way. Anybody have any idea at all?

 

[CupofJoe]

From what I know...
If the eye is still in the socket but the eye is blind, then they should be able to cry normally [produce tears]. If on the other hand the damage/scaring/blinding of the eye has damaged the tear ducts [and that is surprisingly easy to do]. With oil I would guess that the intense heat would be more than sufficient to do that, so there won't be any tears.
There is still the rest of the body to cry [shake, moan etc.] just no tears.
Back in the day we had an old family friend that had been caught in an electrical explosion [back in the 40s or 50s - I think] and had been left blind. The eyes were so badly damaged that they had been removed and sockets sown up [which makes me thing wartime]. I remember that he could cry from one eye and not the other. In fact he had to constantly dab at the crying eye to keep his face dry. You couldn't tell if he was asleep unless you could see the tears on his cheek.

 

[teacup]

Thanks CupofJoe. So, it is possible to still cry, but very unlikely. I think I might either have her only cry from one eye, or not at all. I'm still deciding, hmm.

 

[Yellow]

I'd go with a character that cries only from one eye. It seems much more distinctive and memorable to me. But maybe that's just me.

 

[SeverinR]

The tear ducts are as delicate as the eye tissue. If the eye is gone the ducts are probably destroyed.
If the eye remains, tear ducts could also remain.
The head turns, the hand lifts to shield the face, so one eye could survive realistically, even though the other is destroyed.

I don't know about blindness from fire and heat. The tissue is so delicate, I think its all or nothing. Either the eye is burned and ruptures(gone), or it remains in tact and has some vision in it. It could be altered vision by the surrounding tissue being mis-shapened causing distorted vision.
I guess the heat could be just enough to make the lense translucent but basically blind. Looking at the world through a bathroom window.

 

[Guru Coyote]

Yeah, I second whatSeverinR says. Either the eye is kaputt, then there are no tear ducks intact.
Or the eye is only 'blinded' in the sense that the lenses have become opaque... this would mean the character sees light/dark and possibly some shapes (a door, window) but nothing concrete. This kind of 'blindness' seems rather realistic for the setting and the fact that she did somehow manage to get along so long. A lot of 'gray area' comes into play when we call someone 'blind.' In modern times we have 'legally blind' - that's what's true for me. I DO see things and can even read what I am writing here... whit a lot of help (large font, inverted colors..), but for all daily purposes I am considered blind.

I do also like the idea of the girl only being able to cry on one eye! That seems likely to happen and makes her very memorable.

 

[teacup]

I'm not entirely sure about the one eye crying thing, because I already have 2 characters with stuff happening with their eyes, so it might be a bit much. One loses an eye and another has a dragonlike one. The dragonlike one could work well with this as this character falls in love with the blind girl, and it could be fun to have both of them have a "strange eye" but it could be a bit too much, now.

Thanks, guys