Nice Guys Finish Last

A Consideration of the Way Shakespeare Presents and Develops the Theme of Blindness in King Lear

Gloucester’s renewal of sight is described by the line “I stumbled when I saw”. I saw that this line could be interpreted in two ways. First, it is meant to say that when he could physically still see, he had been following the wrong path. Gloucester made continuous mistakes when he had his eye sight, trusting and assuming much too quickly. It was then until his eyes wore literally plucked out but the Duke of Cornwall, that the truth finally came to surface. This famous line explains that when he was not blind yet, he kept stumbling on the lies and disguises of both Edmund and Edgar. Alternatively, “I stumbled when I saw” could also be a reflection how he mentally sees who has been in the truth all along, but it took him to be paralyzed in vision to see, where he must now “stumble” to survive. In either interpretation the same message is that Gloucester no longer desires eye sight is he can see more clearly without them. The confidence that his eye sight once gave him only mislead his belief of reality. This entire event changes Gloucester’s morals completely. His vision is more improved using his mind instead of his eyes. In line 19, it is apparent that he is in full remorse: “I have no way and therefore want no eyes” shows that Gloucester accepts his faults and rather than pities himself, becomes more acknowledgeable in others. Gloucester states, “Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I’ld say I had my eyes again!” Because Gloucester finds that Edgar had been innocent all along, this line shows how truly sorry he now is and how to see feel Edgar for one more moment would be equal to having vision. Nothing else in the world matters to Gloucester anymore. The change in personality shows when he believes that he i...

Throughout the play ‘King Lear” both King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester experience suffering and redemption due to their actions and attitudes. Whilst both Lear and Gloucester experience great suffering, it is Lear that loses the most and suffers more greatly. Lear 's arrogance and need for flattery causes him to exile two of the people who were most loyal to him. Gloucester’s naive and foolish ways result in impulsive decision making and him exiling his loyal son. Lear’s suffrage is evident as he loses his kingdom, his sanity and his youngest daughter. Gloucester suffering is similar to that of Lear 's as he thinks he has lost his son, as well as losing his eyes. Both characters suffering in the play is self-inflicted and results in their

King Lear is a story, which deals with the idea of familial expectation and the roles in which parents and children play. Lear’s madness and his obsession with being praised blinded him to the child who was really the only one who loved him, Cordelia. The same with the Earl of Gloucester, he was blinded by his illegitimate child, Edmund, who set out to turn him away from his heir, Edgar. Within the story, these two children and a few loyal servants try to help and eventually try to save the King and Gloucester, but they are both too stubborn to recognize the goodness and true bond in these people. The story of King Lear deals with the turmoil of a chaotic world began by the boundaries of family and personal relationships being turn upside down.

Within the poem there is another article that I read which is called, “I Stumbled When I Saw”: Interpreting Gloucester 's Blindness in King Lear”. Which talks about, Gloucester 's blindness is the same as Lear’s madness, both of the characters representing the destruction of themselves and their human existence. Both are major issues to the way the play works and its tragic clash with the characters themselves in the play as well. Shakespeare understands how human emotions work when they come out when Gloucester is blinded by Cornwall and what is the powerful meaning behind what is being done in the play. Another key element in the poem is, when Cordelia and Lear are imprisoned locked up together. Before, Cordelia is about to be killed, Lear kills the guard who is trying to hang him and next he kills the guard who strangles Cordelia to death. In an instance it is shown that Lear shows compassion and more faith and shows that he is a father more than a king in that instance when his daughter is killed right in front of his eyes. His daughter is the only thing that he cares about, even when they were jailed together, she was all that he thought about, “No, no,

Blindness is one of the main themes in King Lear and is a recurring trait that is by several characters in the play. Blindness is represented literally, with Gloucester, and figuratively, with King Lear, in the play. In King Lear, Lear himself undergoes several shocking and unpleasant experiences due to his own figurative blindness. These experiences include his daughters, Goneril and Regan, treating him with disrespect and being locked out in the raging storm. These experiences drive Lear to losing his mental sanity, however, revive his moral sanity.

Firstly, in King Lear, Shakespeare uses the idea of social illusion to develop ideas around civilization and torture. When Lear, Kent and the Fool find a hovel, Lear stands in the rain and starts praying for the “poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,/ That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm” (III.iv.35-36). Lear becomes more compassionate for the poor when he leaves his kingdom. In King Lear, there are two main settings; the kingdom and the heath. When Lear loses his place in civilization, he changes from an uncaring king to a caring person. Civilization is supposed to encourage righteous actions towards humans, while nature is supposed to encourage animalistic behaviour. Lear’s change proves that the Kingdom is a place of torture whereas nature is a space that allows for characters to grow into compassion and kindness, traits usually associated with civilization. This is evident when Lear’s daughters betray him and he says, “The little dogs and all/ Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me” (III.vi.63-64). Lear’s statement supports that his daughters are torturing him and not deferring to what he believes is his importance. However, Lear is not the only person who has made this realization. Edgar, who is Gloucester’s eldest son, also changes his view once he leaves

In a professional career normally the goals are always focused on being promoted. In other words, for example, it can be compared to a stairway, when the next goal is go to the next stair and the main goal is reach the top, it doesn’t mean you can’t comet mistakes or intentionally decrease a stair sometimes, but the main goal still always be better. How closer to the top a professional is, more factors like ethics, skills, education, experience and 6others are evaluated for to get a promotion, but when you see the top promotion ahead all of this is put on the table, and many kinds of situations can happen. One of those dilemmas facing a promotion is when the professional think to be the right option for the job and receive a negative call, should accept it or try all ways to reach this? This dilemma is the focus of Pfeffer’s case study, ‘Can Nice Guys Finish First?’(2011).

It is a well-known stereotype that “nice guys finish last.” I use the term “stereotype” loosely, because, at times, it can feel like a universal law of nature. Most of us know how it goes. Two guys, one nice; the other not, both vie for the attentions of the same girl. The nice guy is ever sympathetic, expressive, and kind, but for all his efforts, the other guy, effortlessly employing an uncanny maneuver called “Being a Jack-Ass,” gets the girl. Thus, in the most paradoxical of paradoxes, it is in being almost exactly what women claim to want that many respectable young men fail miserably. And it is miserable. There is no greater injustice or frustration than that which spawns from watching someone you care about: someone who is worth the world and more to you walk away with someone who, as often as not, couldn’t care less. I can think of no more appropriate context for the expression “like casting pearls before swine.”

Parallelism is greatly enhanced by the use of subplots, for it creates emphasis and suspense. The parallel between Lear and Gloucester displayed in the play cannot possibly be accidental. The subplot of Gloucester corresponds the major plot of Lear. The two fathers have their own loyal legitimate child, and their own evil and disloyal kin. Gloucester and Lear are both honorable men, who have children that return to them in their time of need, and are sightless to the truth. Like Lear, Gloucester is tormented, and his favored child recovers his life; he is tended and healed by the child whom he has wronged. Their sufferings are traceable to their extreme folly and injustice, and to a selfish pursuit of their pleasure. In the early beginning of King Lear, Cordelia says that her love for her father is the love between father and daughter, no more, no less.

Such downfall is devastating for both Lear and Gloucester, and mental blindness is the cause of it. As a result, they cannot blame that “I am a man more sinn’d against than sinning”, because the origin comes from themselves. It’s an impressive lesson for everyone living in this physical world that our eyes can only see the surface of objects and our hearts can see through the essential of objects.

Williams Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear, presents the importance of clear vision and insight, or the lack there of, as a significant theme throughout the play. This theme is rendered through Gloucester’s character once he becomes physically blind. Without doubt, Act 4, Scene 6, also known as the Dover Cliff scene, is a pivotal event within the play that offers this theme to be true. Within the act, we recognize the humiliation of the recently blinded Gloucester at the hands of his supposedly loving son, Edmund, as a turning point and transformation for Gloucester’s future. Oddly enough, Gloucester is incapable of seeing the vengeance of his son, Edmund, until after he is blinded. Furthermore, as the scene opens, we understand that Edgar, who is disguised as a peasant, leads Gloucester to the place where Gloucester intends to commit suicide by jumping off of Dover Cliff. In order to convince his father, Edgar describes the cliff in fear-provoking terms just before stepping away from his father, whose attempt to jump off of a cliff only result in a simple fall to the ground. Although Edgar says that the humiliation of his father is an attempt to cure him of his misery, it is clear that for Gloucester, the picture is much bigger. Although the gouges of eyeballs seems gruesome and horrific, the knowledge and understanding Gloucester gains to achieve clear vision and insight on new life, and as a result is directed towards a future to see unquestionably by the means of the heart and mind to see as a replacement for the absence of his eyes.

Shakespeare's King Lear is known as one of his greatest tragedies. The story is full of misfortune, deception and death. The story also contains two plots, a main plot with King Lear, and a subplot with a character referred to as Gloucester. The main plot and subplot in King Lear may have minor differences but the two main characters of each plot share the same fundamental theme of blindness.

In the tragedy King Lear, the term blindness has an entirely different meaning. It is not a physical flaw, but the inability of the characters to see a person for whom they truly are. They can only read what is presented to them on the surface. King Lear, Gloucester and Albany are three prime examples characters who suffered most by having this flaw.

The main character of the play would be King Lear who in terms of Bradley would be the hero and hold the highest position is the social chain.  Lear, out of pride and anger, has banished Cordelia and split the kingdom in half between the two older sisters, Goneril and Regan.  This is Lear's tragic flaw that prevents him from seeing the true faces of people because his pride and anger overrides his judgement.  As we see in the first act, Lear does not listen to Kent's plea to see closer to the true faces of his daughters.  Kent has hurt Lear's pride by disobeying his order to stay out of his and Cordelia's way when Lear has already warned him, "the bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft" (I.i.152).  Kent still disobeys Lear and is banished.  Because of this flaw, Lear has initiated the tragedy by disturbing the order in the chain of being by dividing the kingdom, banishing his best servant and daughter, and giving up his thrown.