King Lear Vs. Glouchester
In Shakespeare's classic tragedy, King Lear, there are several characters who do not see the reality of their environment. Two such characters are Lear and Gloucester. Both characters inhabit a blindness to the world around them. Lear does not see clearly the truth of his daughters mentions, while Gloucester is also blinded by Edmond's treachery. This failure to see reality leads to Lears intellectual blindness, which is his insanity, and Gloucester's physical blindness that leads to his trusting tendencies. They both achieve inner awareness at the end as their surreal blindness' are lifted and then realize the truth. Both Lear and Gloucester are characters used by Shakespeare to ...
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However, when Cordelia says: "I love your Majesty according to my bond, no more nor less." (I, i, 94-95) Lear cannot see what these words really mean. Goneril and Regan are only putting on an act. They do not truly love Lear as much as they should. When Cordelia says these words, she has seen her sister's facade, and she does not want to associate her true love with their false love. Lear, however, is fooled by Goneril and Regan into thinking that they love him, while Cordelia does not. This is when Lear first shows a sign of becoming blind to those around him. He snaps and disowns her:
Let be so! Thy truth then be thy dower!
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation ...
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was plotting to kill him. Gloucester becomes outraged and gives all of his trust into Edmund; he even declares:
"O, villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter!
Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain!
Worse than brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him. I'll appre-
hend him. Abominable villain! Where is he? (I, ii, 75-78)
He does not even stop to consider whether Edgar would do such a thing because he cannot see into Edgar's character. "He did bewray his practice, and received this hurt you see, striving to apprehend him." (II, i, 106-107) At this point, Gloucester's life is headed down a path of damnation similar to Lear's because of a similar lack of sight.
Lear ...
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"King Lear Vs. Glouchester." Essayworld.com. May 27, 2008. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/King-Lear-Vs-Glouchester/84303.
"King Lear Vs. Glouchester." Essayworld.com. May 27, 2008. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/King-Lear-Vs-Glouchester/84303.
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