Parental Blindness in King Lear
As Shakespeare presents to us a tragic pattern of parental and filial love, in which a prosperous man is devested of power and finally recognises his "folly", empathy is induced in the audience. In "King Lear", it is noted from the beginning of the play that both Lear and Gloucester suffer from self-approbation and will consequently find revelation by enduring "the rack of this tough world". While Lear mistakenly entrusts the shallow professions of love from his "thankless" daughters - Goneril and Regan - instead of the selfless words of Cordelia, Gloucester shadows a similar ignorance by initially entrusting love in the evil Edmund, rather than Edgar, whom we consider to be a "truly" loyal "noble gentlemen".
Undeniably, both parents misjudge appearance for reality, as it is only in this way that they can "let the great gods that keep this dreadful pudder O'er [their] heads / Find out their enemies" where "all vengeance comes too short". When Lear is rejected by Goneril and Regan and stripped of his "hundred Knights and squires", he is left with "nothing" in the wilderness, besides the loyal company of Kent and the Fool, and later on, Edgar and Gloucester. It appears that at this stage he senses his "folly", that he "did [Cordelia] wrong". But Lear has yet to gain full insight. Although, before entering the hovel, he realises that he has been a "man more sinned against sinning", the process of self-discovery is not complete until all truth is unveiled. As Lear realises his foolishness in bannishing Cordelia - his "joy" and the only daughter who truly loves him - we sense Lear's increasing sorrow and despair. By revealling his "sin", he is subjecting himself to punishment. Perhaps it is a deserving motion, since he had passed judgement and punished Kent and Cordelia for coming between "the dragon and his wrath", that is, him and his power. Now the gods above rightfully control Lear's destiny, abiding by the process that man has to suffer to gain peace.
At this particular moment, Lear is still unaware of Kent's identity, disguised as Caius, ever since he bannished Kent for defending Cordeila's thoughtful choice to "love and be silent". We understand that the disguise is a way in which Kent can protect and continually serve the "poor, weak and infirm" Lear. Lear begins to accomplish understanding through the change in his contemptuous behaviour to a sympathetic learning man.
Lear becomes blinded by his flaws, leading him to make irrational decisions which ultimately cause him to go mad. After Cordelia is unable to state how much she loves her father and outdo her sisters exaggerated professions of
The area formula was mainly put into practice to calculate the area of the middle sections of the prism and the area of the regular polygon bases, whereas the perimeter formula was put into practice to calculate the perimeter of the regular polygon bases. The investigation was divided into 3 main parts. The first two parts primarily considered solving the topic question and developing the shortcut formula, whereas the third part considered testing the findings from part 1 & 2 on special prisms called ‘Platonic Solids’.
Following this Lear begins to banish those around him that genuinely care for him as at this stage he cannot see beyond the mask that the evil wear. He banishes Kent, a loyal servant to Lear, and his youngest and previously most loved daughter Cordelia. This results in Lear surrounding himself with people who only wish to use him which leaves him very vulnerable attack.
The first major betrayal seen is when Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia proclaim their love for their father when he asks them how much they love him. Their answers determine how much of Lear 's land they will be given. Goneril replies to Lear 's question with, “Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter/ Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty…” (I.i.56-57). It is almost as though this response is vacant and well prepared. It shows her true intentions, which is to please her father and gain power through her dishonesty. Similarly, her wicked sister Regan responds just as flatteringly. It is quickly seen that Goneril and Regan do not truly love their father as their rise in power comes from their betrayal of Lear. Goneril states, “then must we look to receive from his age/ not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed condition” (I.i.297-298). Here, Goneril and Regan are plotting against Lear, they know that he is impulsive and aging which could play to their advantage in taking his power and all his land. Ultimately, the betrayal of their father helps them gain power that Lear never even had and soon they become greedy, wanting everything they desire. Evidently, the sister 's betrayal is the greatest in the play as they take all the power from Lear and cause irreversible suffering of their father and others. As the play progresses
Through Lear, Shakespeare expertly portrays the inevitability of human suffering. The “little nothings,” seemingly insignificant choices that Lear makes over the course of the play, inevitably evolve into unstoppable forces that change Lear’s life for the worse. He falls for Goneril’s and Regan’s flattery and his pride turns him away from Cordelia’s unembellished affection. He is constantly advised by Kent and the Fool to avoid such choices, but his stubborn hubris prevents him from seeing the wisdom hidden in the Fool’s words: “Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool” (Shakespeare 21). This leads to Lear’s eventual “unburdening,” as foreshadowed in Act I. This unburdening is exacerbated by his failure to recognize and learn from his initial mistakes until it is too late. Lear’s lack of recognition is, in part, explained by his belief in a predestined life controlled completely by the gods: “It is the stars, the stars above us govern our conditions” (Shakespeare 101). The elder characters in King Lear pin their various sufferings on the will of...
Shakespeare's King Lear tells of the tragedies of two families. At the head of each family is a father who cannot see his children for what they are. Both fathers are lacking in perceptiveness, so the stories of the two families run parallel to each other. In Lear's case, two of his daughters fool him into believing their lies. Lear shuts out his third daughter because she cannot her love into words the way he wants her to. Gloucester, similarly, forbids the son that truly loves him, while putting all his trust into the son who betrays him. Both Lear and Gloucester lack the direction and insight that it takes to see reality, instead they see only physically. Lear does not realize his daughter's true feelings until it is too late. Gloucester must loose his physical sight in order to gain the type of vision that he needs to see his son's betrayal. Shakespeare uses Gloucester's realization of reality and Lear's inability to see with his heart to portray his theme of blindness.
As Shakespeare picked some characters to show poetic justice, he whispers the social and divine justice through King Lear. Firstly, Lear is uninterested to the fights; as he slowly make changes in his mind, Lear becomes more sensitive and obtain humility, proving the change in King Lear.
Lear’s scheming older daughters, Goneril and Regan, respond to his test with flattery, telling him in wildly overblown terms that they love him more than anything else. But Cordelia, Lear’s youngest (and favorite) daughter, refuses to speak. When pressed, she says that she cannot “heave her heart into her mouth,” that she loves him exactly as much as a daughter should love her father, and that her sisters wouldn’t have husbands if they loved their father as much as they say (I.i.90–91). In response, Lear flies into a rage, disowns Cordelia, and divides her share of the kingdom between her two sisters.
The first stage of Lear’s transformation is resentment. At the start of the play it is made quite clear that Lear is a proud, impulsive, hot-tempered old man. He is so self-centered that he simply cannot fathom being criticized. The strength of Lear’s ego becomes evident in the brutal images with which he expresses his anger towards Cordelia: “The barbarous Scythian,/Or he that makes his generation messes/To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom/Be as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved,/As thou may sometime daughter.” (1.1.118-122). The powerful language that Lear uses to describe his intense hatred towards Cordelia is so incommensurable to the cause, that there can be only one explanation: Lear is so passionately wrapped up in his own particular self-image, that he simply cannot comprehend any viewpoint (regarding himself) that differs from his own (no matter how politely framed). It is this anger and resentment that sets Lear’s suffering and ultimate purification in motion.
People can be “blinded” to the truth. The answer to their question or solution to their problem may have been obvious. Yet, they could not "see" the answer. They were blinded to the truth. Associations have been made between being blind and enlightened. A blind person is said to have powers to see invisible things. They "see" into the future. The blind may not have physical sight, but they have another kind of vision. In Sophocles' King Oedipus, Teiresias, the blind prophet, presents the truth to King Oedipus and Jocasta. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth his whole life. When he does find the truth, he loses his physical vision. Because of the truth, Oedipus blinds himself. Jocasta was blind to the true identity of Oedipus. Even when she found out the truth, she refused to accept it. In this case, those who are blind ultimately do have a higher vision - the truth.
(CITE THIS FROM BOOK). He beings to see that (O’Driscoll, 2009) ‘power and wealth cover up the fact that everyone is weak and helpless underneath. He is beginning to develop a social conscience. ‘ Upon meeting with poor Tom (Edgar in diskize) he is better able to empathize with him o the extent that he too strips off his clothes. For until this point Lear has never put much thought into the people of his land and he beings to feel great shame in not helping them when he had been
The distrust is evident in the play, as, many instances of questioning of the child’s parentage occurred. When Goneril threatens to dismiss Lear’s knights, Lear asks her, “Are you our daughter?” (1.4.224) Lear cannot believe that his own daughter is asking him to tolerate this indignity, and attributes that only someone else’s child would treat him so, doubting his wife’s faithfulness to his marriage. Gloucester also claims to have “never got [Edgar]” (2.1.91) as he is convinced that Edgar is plotting to murder him. He accuses his wife of infidelity as he also presumes that a child he fathered would not want to commit such an aberrant offence against him. When Regan meets Lear at Gloucester’s castle Lear tell her that if she were not glad to see him, he would “divorce [himself] from [Regan’s] mother’s tomb” (2.4.147) as that would be “sepulch’ring an adult’ress” (2.4.149). Lear is saying that if Regan is not glad to see him, she would not be his child and therefore, his wife would be an adulteress. Lear and Gloucester both assume that no impertinence would spring from their own children, and that any misconduct from their supposed children are due to the lack of blood bond between the father and the child. Since, in the time of the play, a mother is the only person who knows who actually fathered her child, whereas men can never ascertain the true heritage of their children, Lear and Gloucester’s blaming their children’s impropriety on their mother’s faithfulness clearly exhibit their distrust for
...ne encounters when trying to use an Aristotlean theory, a Christian formula, or the Renaissance tradition to interpret the play. In particular, the Christian formula fails because redemption does not accomplish anything. Edmund's forgiveness leads to Cordelia's death; no one is redeemed. Also, he points out the problems in viewing Cordelia as an "innocent who dies for everyone else's sins" (231); namely, that her death causes Lear only despair. He also disagrees with pessimistic critics view King Lear as a completely meaningless play. Despite the sadness in the end, the "bad" characters have all died, and a "good" character will rule England.
But not only are Lear and Gloucester blind to those around him, they are blind to their responsibilities. Gloucester's adultery leads to the illegitimate Edmund who causes strife in his kingdom. Lear's abdication of the throne and handing over of power to self serving individuals, feeling entitled to a “retirement”, leads to his downfall, it is also apparent that Lear was blind to the needs of his people during his reign as evidenced by his remorse over not taking care of the less fortunate after his encounter on the moor. The theme of blindness is omnipresent in Lear and should be regarded as something of a cautionary message against our own blindness.
Cordelia, Lear’s favorite daughter tells him, “Why have my sisters husbands if they say they love you all?” (King Lear, Act 1 Scene 1 Line 109) Cordelia knows that Goneril, Regan and their husbands just told Lear that they love him just to flatter him to give them part of the country. Cordelia sees the reality and how her sisters are lying to her father. In fact, Lear soon realize that Goneril and Regan were buttering up to him when they kick him out of their castle. “And speak ‘t again, my lord. No more with me” (King Lear, Act 2 Scene 4 Line 293). Lear needed a place to stay with his soldiers but Goneril and Regan tells him to reduce the number of soldiers or else, he can’t stay. Lear realizes that Goneril and Regan has lied to him about their love for him and that Cordelia was right, which leads him into the storm and regretting about what he did to Cordelia. Ultimately, after Cornwall plucks Gloucester’s eyes, Regan tells Gloucester that Edmund is the one who told on him to Cornwall. So Gloucester finally knows the truth, “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused” (King Lear, Act 3 Scene 7 Line 111). Subsequently, Gloucester is punished for not trusting his own son, and not even asking Edgar if it was true that Edgar was trying to kill