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

Not All Can Truly Be Seen: An Analysis of the Impact of Blindness and Deception in Othello

Often times we take our eye sight for granted. We never think about what would happen if we could not see and believe our eyes. There is an old saying that says, “Seeing is believing;” however, what we see is not always the truth. As we read King Lear it becomes clear that people can physically see events, believe that what is being seen is the truth, and be totally blinded to the truth. We choose to see what we want to believe because that is what we want to happen. Many times our emotions take over and what is right in front of our face is blinded by what we want the truth to be. There are several characters in King Lear who are blind to the truth, not because their eye sight is impaired but because they have selective sight and only see what they want to see. Sight or lack thereof, has many literary facets beyond the obvious physical meaning, as intricately portrayed in Shakespeare’s King Lear; where the ability to see the truth is clouded by mental blindness, love, greed, and ambition until a transformation occurs and the characters can truly see the truth.

The Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear, is a significant play that explores the concept of blindness whilst communicating the importance of the theme for the characters King Lear and Earl of Gloucester. Blindness is in literary terms is defined as the inability of the eye to see, however in Shakespeare’s play blindness is perceived to be a mental flaw that people possess and is the catalyst for false decisions that eventually place the two characters into emotions of despair and regret. In the play, Lear’s self-delusion and his inability to determine between right or wrong and genuine or fake, leads him to a remorseful state. The prominent theme of blindness is explored throughout the play and in Act 1 Scene 1, responders are able to sight the

Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear can be interpreted in many ways and many responses. The imprecision’s and complication of the play has led

Many of the passages of King Lear, particularly those between the characters of Lear, Kent, the Fool, and Cordelia, all share a common theme. The theme of nothing, as well as the theme of blindness, echoes throughout the play. King Lear is in many ways about nothing. However, Kent, the Fool, and Cordelia make him more than nothing by serving faithfully, speaking bluntly, and loving unconditionally.

“Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind” (4.1.46-47). In the tragedy King Lear, blindness is a key theme that is repeatedly mentioned and represented in many different forms. Throughout the novel, blindness is most often developed in the forms of mental and physical blindness. For King Lear and Gloucester specifically, blindness leads them to decisions that they will later regret in the play, and Gloucester’s actual blindness is a mirror image of Lear’s spiritual blindness. King Lear’s main plot and Gloucester’s sub-plot are almost identical, and by both of them being blinded for a majority of the novel, they both come to realize the truth in what is actually occurring in their families.

If there is any one element that sets The Tragedy of King Lear apart from other works in the Shakespearian canon, it is the expertly laced motifs. Throughout the play, Shakespeare investigates the dimension-defying problem of sanity versus madness, and all that those can imply for a person. Lear’s foolish decisions and raging monologues show that madness comes from an inability to adapt to changing circumstance, and is symptomatic of aging.

not to use his own ‘eyes’ to look into the matter, but asks Edmond to

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.

Lear can "see" through a sympathetic lens, after having exchanged the pride for shame, revealing to us that mental blindness can be more damaging than physical blindness. While Gloucester, who willingly admits that "[he] stumbled when [he] saw," is only able to "see," though sightless, after he has suffered (4.1.20). Only through the physical pain of losing his sight was Gloucester able to see the truth of his sons. Unquestionably, the plots of Lear and Gloucester run similar courses. However, Shakespeare employs Gloucester's plot to clarify Lear's plot. Through the physical blinding of Gloucester, Shakespeare provides an equivalent, which contextualizes King Lear's theme of consciousness and allows Lear's own metaphorical blindness to be fully

    In King Lear, the recurring images of sight and blindness associated with the characters of Lear and Gloucester illustrate the theme of self-knowledge and consciousness that exist in the play.

Although it is never too late to learn, those lessons learned in old age are the most difficult and the most costly. In his play KING LEAR, Shakespeare illustrates that wisdom does not necessarily come with age. The mistakes that Lear and Gloucester make leave them vulnerable to disappointment and suffering at a time in their lives when both should be enjoying peace and contentment. Although both Lear and Gloucester achieve wisdom before they die, they pay a dear price for having lived life blindly.

Within the Shakespearean play, King Lear, blindness hinders characters from making just and moral judgements. The rash decisions made by each character have a strong influence on character progression and their downfalls within the play. The central idea of blindness as a tragic flaw is portrayed throughout many different characters. Most frequently, it is easily depicted within King Lear, Gloucester and Edmund where all three characters are confronted with battles when coming face to face with family. Lear’s conflict with family pertains to his two disloyal daughters and the fact that they constantly demine him. Gloucester battles with his two sons, Edgar and Edmund, when dealing with legitimacy versus illegitimacy. Finally, Edmund internally struggles with himself as being an illegitimate son and an outcast of society. Through their processes of realization, they endure many hardships and act on impulse rather than logic and reason. It is through these characters where King Lear highlights how impulsivity leads to blindness.

“King Lear” is known as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. “King Lear” is a play which tears off the outer coverings of human character. Two prominent themes that can be found in “King Lear” are disguise and deception. Disguise and deception are connected to each other because if you put on a disguise, you are masking yourself. If you are masking yourself, you are misrepresenting the truth, which is also known as deception. The characters constantly deceive each other throughout the play by either changing their physical appearance or changing their personality to mask their true identities and motives. Shakespeare’s exposure of the connection between disguise and deception reflects today’s culture and is still relevant today.

King Lear is understandably one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, it encompasses the journey through suffering and explores, in detail, the idea of justice. Each character in the play experience s one or the other throughout the progression of the plot, it is evident that through compositional features such as these, the play write is trying to convey this meaning. Through methods such as intense imagery, motifs, repetition of words and rhyming the play write has given intensity to certain passages, speeches and conversations. Shakespeare, through the use of character development, unravels the way in which humanity responds to injustice, the character relationships, specifically character foils, give rise to a number of notions