The Effects Of Blindness: A Painful, But Beneficial Flaw

Blindness: A Painful, But Beneficial Flaw The statement “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” seems like a ludicrous cliché that everyone says too often. Usually when people go through terrible times in their lives all they can see is the negative effect. The journey sucks and usually no one commends it for the newfound strength gained from it. It’s like walking through a rose garden. During the walk, all you can feel are the pricks of the rose thorns impaling themselves in your skin. The experience is horrible and quite excruciating. But after coming out of the rose garden, all you can see when you turn back are the roses. As silly as this statement might sound, this statement carries a good source of moral truths that many of us should

This is the case when it comes to Gloucester. Gloucester suffered from a terrible case of blindness. His blindness consisted of being unable to see Edgar as his good son and Edmund as his evil son. Although Edgar was always loyal to Gloucester, Gloucester resented Edgar after being deceived from Edmund saying that Edgar wanted to kill him. Gloucester’s lack of sight made him believe that Edmund was a good son even though all Edmund cared about was taking away Gloucester’s title of Earl. Gloucester’s blindness up to this point in the play is metaphoric. As the play moves on Gloucester was betrayed by Edmund and left at the merciless hands Regan and the Duke of Cornwall. Gloucester felt bad that King Lear was locked out of his castle thus he went to help him. Edmund snitched on his father and then ditched him when he’s punishment was carried out. Gloucester was punished for his loyalty to King Lear by having his eyes gouged out. It wasn’t until that point where Gloucester saw his mistake. Gloucester’s revelation is shown when he says, “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused. King gods, forgive me that, and prosper him.” (3.7.111-112) Gloucester understood now that Edgar was always a loyal son to him and Edmund was a treacherous snake. Gloucester’s famous line, “I stumbled when I saw” (4.1.20-21), was ironic for him to say. His inability to see the true nature of both sons occurred when he

Itʻs not an enjoyable journey to partake. However, our actions and mistakes led us to our blindness. So you could say King Lear, Gloucester, Albany, and I deserved it. Itʻs a very lonely and humbling experience. Even though all our blinded journeys were different, we all learned of our mistakes and tried to make ammends. Life is full of decisions and possibilities. Through these rough emotional and sometimes physical experiences, God teaches us how to be a better person. In essence, blindness is like nuturing a tree. God is our gardner and he wants us, trees, to be as tall as we can be. However, sometimes we get so caught up with how tall we are that we become blind to whatʻs really important. Thatʻs when God cuts us back down and we have to learn humbleness from being foolishly blind. Blindness is always a second resort. We just have to be smart enough to not get caught up in the