Examples Of Blindness In King Lear

When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.

Selective blindness can be explained as a person choosing not to see the reality of something such as a negative a destructive behaviour or personality trait. When it comes to failing to notice one’s own destructive behaviour, Hamlet and Jay are suitable examples. Hamlet, in his desire for revenge, becomes blind to his own destructive behaviour of pretending to be insane, “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on” and whilst pretending to be insane, Hamlet allows his own behaviour to falter (1. 5. 171-172). He begins to act without thinking, such as when he kills Polonius and destroys his relationship with Ophelia to keep up his act of insanity.

This is shown many times throughout the play; she thinks she can do everything that is needed to be done with killing Duncan, because she is not a “coward” but when it comes to her making the attempt to do so she chickens out because she finds Duncan to resemble her father to much when he is sleeping. She tells Macbeth everything will be fine as long as he doesn’t show his fear. She does not understand that she has a much stronger conscience then she is aware of. The play reads, “Only look up clear; / To alter favour ever is to fear: / Leave all the rest to me.” (Act I, v, 79-81) This statement is very important because it shows that Lady Macbeth is very confident in herself. She is saying that Macbeth just needs to stand there and look pretty, and sell himself to everyone mean while she will plan out everything else, involving this horrid murder. Much later in the novel she starts to feel very guilty for the murder of Duncan, and eventually falls ill, ridden in guilt. Lady Macbeth has mentally wired herself to act as though nothing will get through to her, it is like she is an iron wall, she thinks nothing can get through, but in reality, the wall is nonexistent, and her conscience is very strong, it is just not present at the necessary times. As well as Lady Macbeth’s blindness to her conscience and guilt, she is blind to the consequences that come with doing

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.

The Downward Spiral Of Human Blindness William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a message criticizing human blindness. The characters end up bringing themselves to their downfall as a result of their blinded views. In Julius Caesar Shakespeare exemplifies how being blinded by one's ego, misinterpreting signs, and characters not knowing how to handle the gift of sight leads to their demise. In Julius Caesar, characters become blinded by their egos, ultimately leading to their demise. Caesar is full of himself and feels like he is above everyone else, which ends up hurting him in the end, “Cowards die many times before their deaths;

Character disappearance is such a mystery, it leaves cliff hangers yet it also creates theories. In the play King Lear, the fool acted as Lear's conscience, served as comic relief, and wisdom. Even though all of these traits are amazing the fool disappears. His disappearance is unclear because he states he will always stay by Lear. The disappearance of the fool shows he is useless now.

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.

King Lear is the character who suffers the most from blindness in the play. His three daughters are most likely the main cause of his mental blindness. In the very first act of the play we see that Lear is easily fooled by his two eldest daughters Regan and Goneril, and we also see his inability to realize Cordelia’s true love for him when she tells him the truth. His blindness causes a rift in the family, and Lear banishes Cordelia from the kingdom saying “Thou hast her, France; let her be thine, for we / Have no such daughter, nor shall

“Nothing, Everything, Anything, Something: If you have nothing, then you have everything, because you have the freedom to do anything, without the fear of losing something.” (Jarod Kintz) This quote could describe the meaning and description of the word “nothing” used in the play King Lear by Shakespeare. When the characters had nothing in this play they truly gained knowledge and insight about the world around them, but they lacked this knowledge when they had everything.

After having both eyes gouged out by the Duke of Cornwall, Gloucester exclaims: “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused” (3.7.91). Unaware of Edmund’s betrayal, Gloucester had earlier told Edmund about his alliance with France in their invasion of England. Wanting to remove his father from power, Edmund conveys this information to the Duke of Cornwall and as a punishment, Gloucester has his eyes gouged out. This quote is important because it ties directly into the theme of “Blindness vs Sight.” Although he is literally blinded, it is at this moment that Gloucester is able to see the truth. Previously, he believes his son Edgar has betrayed him and therefore places his trust onto his other son, Edmund. Upon losing his vision, he finally regains his sight by realising Edgar’s innocence and Edmund’s treachery.

The embodiment of physical and mental blindness and its importance in King Lear Blindness is usually a literal statement outlining the physical inability to see has become a metaphorical statement in Shakespearian text that speaks on the mental incapacity to be aware of the intentions that lay beneath what the eye can see. The play King Lear upholds and exhibits the theme of literal and metaphorical blindness through characters such King Lear, Gloucester, and Albany and their actions. King Lear being one of the most important characters in the play has a large weakness when it comes to noticing the evil hiding behind Goneril and Regan’s flattery and flowery speech and the love behind the seemingly apathetic approach Cordellia had to his

“I have no way, and therefore want no eyes./ I stumbled when I saw.” (4.1.18) This quote encompasses the echoing theme of blindness versus sight; an important facet in the understanding of William Shakespeare’s play King Lear. This theme is especially exhibited through the parallel between the two main protagonists King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester, whose hamartia impedes their ability to recognize the truth. Both characters go through similar journey’s as their blindness towards their deceptive children’s motive leads them to act irrationally. It is not until their demise in which they gain sight. The understanding of King Lear’s metaphorical blindness, Gloucester’s literal blindness and a comparison of the two cases, leads to explicating

    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.

Shakespeare often incorporates sight into his work of literature. He does not think of sight as a physical trait in human, rather, he gives it a symbolic role in his work of literature. It is believed that Shakespeare once said: “the eyes are the window to the soul”. In other words, Shakespeare is saying how by looking at an individual’s eye, it can give us an insight of their emotional state such as happy, anger, despair, etc. Shakespeare also sometimes connects sight with blindness in some plays such as King Lear and Othello, where the character are physical or psychologically blinded from seeing the truth. Literatures critics have a different interpretation of Shakespeare’s view on blindness. One of the critics, Danijela Kambaskovic, state