Comparison Of King Lear And Gloucester Essay

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.

Gloucester is exactly like Lear in the sense that Lear picked the wrong to disown and turn away from. Edmund, Gloucester’s son who had been gone for 9 years, was extremely jealous of his brother Edgar. Edmund then lies and manipulates both Edgar and Gloucester by telling Gloucester that Edgar is plotting against him and wants to kill him. This then causes Gloucester to become exceedingly angry and sent Edmund out to bring Edgar back to him (Lear 1.2.105). In comparison with that story King Lear turned away from his one daughter, Cordelia, who truly cared for him only because she would not confess her love for him. While his other two daughters, Regan and Goneril, were trying to kill Lear off and take his money and power (Lear 1.1.90-95).

Shakespeare portrays madness among many of his characters, and he returns to the theme again and again. Indirect characterization in the form of Lear's mad speeches allows Shakespeare to convey the theme of madness. For example one of Lear's first speeches after things started to go bad for him,

King Lear shows an extreme of human suffering. While there is some foreshadowing to the tragic end of the play and

Destruction of one’s state of existence is not only evident in 1984 but also in Shakespeare’s King Lear. Unlike 1984, the destructive love in this classic is not romantic love, but the love between a father and his son. Gloucester, a noble that serves King Lear, has two sons. His eldest son, Edgar, is legitimate while his younger son, Edmund is illegitimate. Edmund resents his status as a

In the play King Lear, the two characters Gloucester and King Lear, both run on very parallel paths. the turning point in the play where the reader starts to feel sorry for them is as soon as things start to go bad for them. Early in the play, Lear makes bad decisions on which daughters to give his land and power to, while Gloucester is making Edmund feel bad for being a bastard. Their decisions blow up in their faces and the reader starts to feel bad for them. King Lear is driven to madness and Gloucester has his eyes gouged out and want to kill himself. The impressions on both of these characters change throughout the course of the play in the same way.

The Earl of Gloucester, a father with one good and one evil son, parallels to King Lear and his daughters. Gloucester is depicted as a foolish old man, unable to see through Edmund's lies. By mistaking Edmund's motives, Gloucester is blind to the events occurring around him, even before Cornwall blinds him. It is obvious he is not intuitive or quick enough to understand the plotting going on around him. He constantly blames events on the stars, and thus, he absolves himself of any responsibility for his own actions.

Due to this flaw, Lear has given way to the two older daughters to conspire against him.  Lear is finally thrown out of his daughters’ homes and left with a fool, a servant and a beggar. This is when Lear realizes the mistake that he has made and suffers the banishment of his two eldest daughters.  Lear is caught in a storm and begins to lose his sanity because he can not bear the treatment of his two daughters as well as the error he has made with Cordelia and Kent.  Lear also suffers from lack of rest when he is moving all over the place and the thing that breaks him is the death of his youngest daughter, Cordelia.  This suffering can be contrasted with other happier times like when Lear was still king and when he was not banished by his two daughters.

In this quote, Lear voices that he never treated his daughters with unkindness during his Kingship, and believes he does not deserve the treatment he is receiving. Lear’s life is filled with deceit and bad things are to come. “Canst thou blame him? /His daughters seek his death.” (III, iv, 165-166) says Gloucester. The kingdom loses its foundation as Lear’s authority slips away.

     Lear and Gloucester both illustrate that wisdom does not always come with age. Lear asks his three daughters to express their love for him in public. Both Goneril and Regan have no problem competing for his love,

Starting the play with the revelation of Edmund’s plans to see his half brother and father’s downfall, we receive an image of a father who cares only for pure bloods of higher class per say. One can conclude that this man is obviously high class and stereo typically favors the older, direct bloodline son, nevertheless, we can’t take a rash conclusion so fast. Thus, we wait for the plot to develop and let us glance into the true selves of the characters further. We come to the knowledge that Lord Gloucester realizes he values his ties with the king to a great extent, him risking and losing his title as lord due to aiding King Lear. Afterwards, we see him come to appreciation of virtues of honesty and his sons after he is captured by the Duke, losing his eyes as punishment. Gloucester as a character has developed greatly, going forth through challenges and misdemeanors against his pride and being, ending disgraced and blind. Yet, he holds a calm sense to himself, valuing what he has left and becoming more than humble with others. This is a transformation worthy of Shakespeare himself, rather impressive at the very least. This man has lived through the betrayal of his bastard child and being blinded violently for helping a distressed king, he has sacrificed much with spiritual values in return. Astounding that he didn’t suicide out of pure remorse that he will never be able to witness the world again. Unfortunately, he does die of a mixture of happiness and shock when he is revealed that Edgar still breathes life, so he has that going for

William Shakespeare's 'King Lear' is a tragic play of filial conflict, deception and loss. Characters Lear and Gloucester

Death is the common factor of every person’s life. Even literary characters die. By killing off characters, there is some sort of resolution, because there is little to no possible way for a story to continue. Also, with the deaths of several characters in a story, it can bring a sense of justice and retribution for the actions the characters committed throughout. The play, King Lear, ends with the deaths of several characters. At the end of Shakespeare’s King Lear, the deaths of the central characters prove pivotal by helping to provide two of the central themes, justice and retribution, and helps to develop a tragic hero. These two themes will not be shown, if there are no characters that die, or if different characters die.

Furthermore, King Lear suffers a loss of power which causes him to reveal his true nature when his powers as King and as a father are departed and he is able to see the innocence behind his daughter, Cordelia's, love for him. He is reunited with Cordelia and instantly compelled to beg for her forgiveness: "We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage./ When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down/ And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,/ And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh..." (5.3.9-12). This is unveils King Lear's truly humble and loving nature. In summary, because Cordelia, Gloucester and King Lear all suffer a loss of power in the play, their true natures are ultimately revealed.

Lear's actions of distributing his kingdom to his daughters (which in a patriarchal society such as Lear's is against natural law) and his rashness of expelling Cordelia and wrongly rewarding Regan and Goneril, were a violation and misreading of true nature which, from that point on, lead to the destruction and death of Lear and his family.