Theme Of Blindness In King Lear

Rough Draft 1: King Lear Lack of insight or blindness to one’s surroundings can be an indicator of failure in one’s proper metacognition. This blindness is a tragic flaw, that in which, if one is not quick to realize it, it can have deadly and long term effects as developed through William Shakespeare’s King Lear. According to Shakespeare, blindness is not simply a physical issue, but rather an intellectual issue. In the play, the dominant theme of figurative and literal blindness carries both the main and counterplots throughout the play. In William Shakespeare’s King Lear, the inevitable theme of blindness is developed through King Lear, his daughters, and Gloucester as they suffer the repercussions of their lack of insight for those around

To begin, Lear’s obsession with flattery leads to a lack of insight into the appearing and realistic love of his daughters. When dividing his kingdom amongst his daughters, Lear asks “[w]hich of [his daughters] shall [the court] say doth love [him] most?” (Shakespeare I, i, 50) After his eldest daughters succeed in flattering the king, his most loved daughter expresses her love as a comparison to a “bond” between a father and daughter, “no more nor less” (I, i, 92), which leads Lear to “disclaim all [his] paternal care, / [p]ropinquity and property of blood” (I, i, 113-114) for her. Lear’s obsession with flattery is a mere indicator is his pride and his lack of knowledge, therefore blinding him to the reality that his eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, are only out for themselves while, Cordelia, is honest in her intentions. This flattery is a sign of his ego-obsessed personality, in which Regan and Goneril clearly take advantage of, while Cordelia is disowned by her father for not being more than extravagant with words. This event is the first step in Lear’s self destruction, to further the main plot of his clouded vision for seeing true character. For readers, it is undeniable that King Lear’s pride is a factor of his figurative blindness to not only his state of mind, but the minds of his

In William Shakespeare’s King Lear, the theme of blindness is developed through King Lear, his daughters, and Gloucester as they suffer the repercussions of their lack of insight for those around them. Blindness figuratively depicts ignorance and unwillingness deal the truth as the characters’ blindness is the fundamental cause of the mistakes they make, a decision that they all come to regret. The parallelism is evident through the events caused by the mistakes of Gloucester and King Lear, passing off to their children. Although Goneril and Regan betray their father, it causes them to betray each other, which compares to Edmund betraying his father, Gloucester. Following these events, the cheaters and the cheated experience their own demise and sorrow without the proper justice to experience tragedy. If those who are closest to one another are the ones most capable of deception and horror, then really who are the people that are blind – the cheater or the