Blindness And Blindness In William Shakespeare's King Lear

After King Lear’s two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan express their love for their father in a flattering speech they were granted their share of the kingdom, and Cordelia his youngest daughter and favorite daughter refused to play along, Lear felts she was disrespectful and she was banished from his sight. Cordelia bids farewell to her sisters, and tells them that she knows they don’t love him, “I know you what you are, and like a sister am most loath to call your faults as they are named.” (1.2.273-275). “Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides; who covers faults, at last shame them derides. Well may you prosper!” (1.2.284-286). Once Cordelia left, Goneril and Regan revealed to the audience that they had no love for their father.

In the beginning of the story, as Lear conducts his love test Goneril and Regan kiss the bottoms of their father’s feet in order to gain their desire power. However, when Cordelia does not follow with her sister’s praise Lear feels betrayed and embarrassed by her. He decides to get his revenge and decides to disown Cordelia by saying "Here I disclaim all my paternal care"(pg. 5). The betrayal continues to go back and forth as Lear feels Cordelia’s love is not pure or true meanwhile, Cordelia feels the exact opposite. In this specific part of the story betrayal is being used to portray the easy access to power and success as well as losing it. “Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved, as thou my sometime daughter”(pg.5). Cordelia lost everything from the blink of an eye because her father turned a blind eye to Goneril and Regan’s true intentions.

In the play, King Lear, vision and blindness are repeated allegories that relate to the characters, Lear and Gloucester. This exemplifies the theme of self-knowledge and consciousness that occurs in the play. These classic allegorical is inverted in King Lear, producing a situation in which those with well working eyes cannot see what is happening around them, and those without sight are able to “see” clearly. What do I mean? Well, Lear is completely “blind” to the character of his children, while Gloucester blindness is literal. Blindness is echoed through Gloucester and Lear to explain Lear's metaphorical blindness with Gloucester's literal loss of vision.

When a character in a tragedy fails to see what they really are, or who other people around them really are, tragedy, normally consisting of death results. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare many characters fail to see the truth that is themselves, or another person. The play reads,

“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.

The protagonist of the play Macbeth, coordinately named Macbeth, is proven to be blind from the opening of his role in the play. Written by William Shakespeare, the play shadows many other works of his, in a sense that the majority of the most important pieces of information to the plot are delivered indirectly. An example of this in Macbeth is the frequency of characters, Macbeth more than others, to reference vision, and the ability to see while describing an event. The difference between Macbeth and other characters is that while he speaks about life and the ability to see it with his own eyes, the statement is always negative, suggesting his literal blindness. Examples of this can be found throughout all acts of the

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

"Let not light see my black and deep desires./ The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be/ Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see" (i, iv, 53-55). Only light enable people to see, but sinners can't see through light owing to their blindness. These black and deep desires are the one corroding the light, bedimming those righteous decisions, in which it could come after anyone. The Shakespearean play of The Tragedy of Macbeth projected a reasonable and moral man on his downfall path. This tragedy originates from the rapacious desire that erodes Macbeth's self-consciousness and completely distorts his heroic character. Certainly, Macbeth's ambitions that blind his eyes must be seem as a dangerous and terrifying identity.

In many countries around the world, ignorance carries a considerable weight in politics, households, between friends, and in other vicinities. This ignorance can be depicted as blindness of the mind. In the Greek philosopher Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King, Oedipus’ family and friends share their blindness in the fact that they love Oedipus and don’t have a desire to know the truth of his ruined past. They keep things from Oedipus and end up withholding the actualities of life from themselves in the process. Sophocles urges the reader that the love people clutch to can cause people to lose sight of the truth. He then expands on the blindness, demonstrating the idea that when the truth comes out, it pulls the love a person feels for another into darkness with it. Love is fragile, and can be easily destroyed by the opening of the eye, causing families to crumble underneath.

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.

Goneril and Regan use Lears pride to render him homeless. They are aware that he loved Cordelia best but

At the beginning of the play King Lear has more power than anyone else, the feeling of power made him think it was okay to ask his three daughters who loved him the most. When his youngest and favourite daughter Cordelia did not give him the answer he wanted by saying, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth/ I love your majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less” (King Lear 1.1.91-93). he started lashing out. Lear clearly values Goneril and Regan fawning over him over Cordelia’s sincere honesty. Out of pride and anger, Lear banishes Cordelia, as well as Kent for defending her. Lear splits the kingdom in half to Goneril and Regan which leads to the deaths of many people in the play. Throughout the play he becomes increasingly shocked when people do not obey him the way they did before and the lack of respect he receives. With his loss of power Lear often responds to these problems with anger saying things like “My curses on her!” (2.4.138). about his own daughter. By the end of the play he recognizes that he takes responsibility for both his own problems and for those of others. King Lear’s actions were the first step to the plays tragic outcome.

Another folly displayed by Lear is that of blindness. He is ignorant to the true feelings and intentions of his closest family members. When Regan and Goneril shower him with false praises and declarations of their love, he egotistically believes them and bases his division of the kingdom on their deceitful words. Eventually, however, Lear's heart is broken when their true nature is exposed. Lear repeats his mistake of blindness when he fails to realize that Regan and Goneril are plotting against him. The two sisters deviously agree to "hit together" and take full control of the kingdom (1.1.332). Had Lear "seen" better, he would have realized the true intentions of his daughters and saved himself from tremendous grief.

These classic tropes are inverted in King Lear, producing a situation in which those with healthy eyes are ignorant of what is going on around them, and those without vision appear to "see" the clearest. While Lear's "blindness" is one which is metaphorical, the blindness of Gloucester, who carries the parallel plot of the play, is literal. Nevertheless, both characters suffer from an inability to see the true nature of their children, an ability only gained once the two patriarchs have

As the play progressed Lear's sanity went downhill, but his vision became clearer. When Goneril and Regan would not provide him with shelter during a furious storm, Lear realized that they were the daughters who did not love him. He also began to understand the words of Cordelia from the beginning of the play, he realized that she loved him too much to put into words.