Term Paper on "Sight Verus Blindness"

Term Paper 5 pages (1828 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Sight verus Blindness. Be sure to include all applicability to relevent characters: Lear, Glouster, Edger, Edwin, Fool, Cordilia, Kent

Sight vs. Blindness in William Shakespeare's King Lear

Shakespeare's King Lear is a play about moral insight and moral blindness and how these affect the relationships between people. The well-known folly of Lear is paired in the text by the equal folly of many of the other characters, who are punished for their lack of insight. The play is, in many ways, one of the most dramatic and heart-wrenching of the Shakespearean texts. As in Othello, the characters are dreadfully punished for their blindness with respect to the truth. Thus, in turn, Lear, Gloucester and even Goneril and Regan suffer the consequences of their lack of insight. The ability to see beyond the appearances or the surface of things is only given to those who have a pure heart and a sharp wit, such as Cordelia, Kent or the Fool. All the others mistakenly interpret what they see or hear, being easily deluded by flattery and other things that please them. The most poignant examples for this in the play are obviously Lear and Gloucester, the two old fathers who make the same mistake. In spite of their profession of love towards their favorite children, they are instantly blinded by suspicion because when they hear something they do not like. Thus, Shakespeare aims at showing how spiritual pettiness and lack of insight can have disastrous effects on reality. The most powerful effect of the play is perhaps the contrast that is formed thus between sight or seeing with the eyes and thus viewing only the surface of things, and insight, or the true vision that can look beyond appearance and perceive reality.

King Lear is an extremely dramatic character that, in spite of his foolishness and blindness, awakens the compassion of the reader because of his greatness even after his fall. What Lear pays for is thus his moral blindness caused by his impulsiveness and his vanity. Acting as a true king, Lear pretends authority and takes it for granted that his greatness will inspire the other with awe and respect. As such, he is used to being flattered by his subjects and his elder daughters, who take advantage of his weakness to obtain what they want. Blindly believing in his unshakable position as a monarch, he gives all his possessions to his daughter convinced that they will care for him with love and respect. Thus, Lear cannot be judged very hard in spite of his obvious folly: he thinks and acts as a king, who has been used to having the unconditional respect of the ones that surround him. In acting so, he mistreats Cordelia by dispossessing her and casting her away in the rush of a moment. Strangely enough, Lear proves to have had sufficient insight before since he was able to appreciate the honest Cordelia more than her sisters in the past. When he asks his daughters to declare their love, Lear obviously makes a terrible mistake. He thus fails to see that words do not always convey the truth and that a declaration of love does not prove anything about the speaker's feelings. Lear is enrapt when he hears the flattering but obviously exaggerated words of love from his elder daughter. Even when Regan swears that her love of her father is her only joy, Lear cannot tell the gross lie from the truth: "Only she comes too short: that I profess / Myself an enemy to all other joys, / Which the most precious square of sense possesses; / and find I am alone felicitate/in your dear highness' love."(I. i. 74-78) Moreover, blinded by his own vanity, he is extremely displeased with the sensible words of Cordelia, who, despising the empty declarations made by her sisters, tells her father that she only loves him as much as a daughter should love a good parent and no more: "Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty / According to my bond; nor more nor less."(I. i. 94-96) Enraged by Cordelia's simple statement, Lear fails to see her for the wise and modest person that she is. Cordelia tries to warn him against her sisters' obviously false and exaggerated flattery, pointing out that such a love as they profess would not only be impossible but also unnatural, as the sisters have husbands that they should honor on a pair with their father. When the faithful and wise Kent attempts to intervene in Cordelia's favor, Lear is even more enraged and banishes him without further consideration. Before leaving, Kent warns Lear that he should "see better" and keep him as a counselor to serve him as a second eye: "See better, Lear, and let me still remain / the true blank of thine eye." (I. i. 157-58)

Kent however is so faithful that he does not leave his master and only changes his appearance so that Lear might not recognize him and remains with his as his servant. The fact that Kent changes his appearance and puts on a disguise is symbolic: Lear is so easily beguiled by appearances, that he is likely to see the truth better if it wears a disguise. Also, the words that Kent in his new disguise addresses his master are very relevant. He professes thus to be exactly what he seems, hinting thus at the king's blindness: "I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve / him truly that will put me in trust: to love him / that is honest; to converse with him that is wise, / and says little; to fear judgment; to fight when I / cannot choose; and to eat no fish."(I. iv. 12-16) Thus, despite his changed appearance, Kent is the same honest man but Lear still fails to recognize him.

Interestingly, the second scene parallels the first one. This time, the same mistake is made by Gloucester. Although he is a good man and a loving father and although he loves his son Edgar very much, he is, just like Lear, easily convinced that his son intends to betray him and even plot his murder. However, whereas Lear trustingly gives all his fortune away to his daughters believing their empty professions of love and not suspecting that they might have a material interest, Gloucester's fury is ignited precisely by the suspicion that Edgar wants to steal his fortune away. The intermediary in all this is Edmund, Gloucester's illegitimate son who manages to fool both his brother and his father. Only reading the forged letter composed by Edmund, and without any further thought, Gloucester is convinced of his son's guilty intentions: "O villain, villain! His very opinion in the / letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, / brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah, / seek him; I'll apprehend him: abominable villain! / Where is he?"(I. ii. 76-80)

Just like Lear thus, Gloucester's lack of insight produces a disaster. Eventually, as Lear is punished with madness first and finally death, Gloucester is punished, symbolically, with blindness. Cornwall plucks his eyes out, and thus deprives him of sight, leaving him to wander blindly upon the heath. Another parallel between the two stories is the fact that Gloucester too is protected by his faithful son in spite of the injustice he has done him. In a poor, ragged disguise he follows his father and guards him from the perils that menace at every step.

Thus, all through Shakespeare's play vision and sight are used as metaphors to indicate the distorted perception of Lear and Gloucester especially. Lear's drama is thus a very complex one: as it is well-known, during the Renaissance, the king was considered a sacred figure instituted in his function by the divinity. As such, the fall and humiliation of Lear was a real tragic motif that causes a powerful impression on the audience. Strangely, it is when Lear starts losing his mind and becomes a "fool" that he starts to reason correctly and insightfully. His speech is at once very dramatic and symbolic. After Gloucester loses his eyes and both of them wander randomly, Lear urges the now blind man to read his letter. Lear wisely realizes his own situation no, stating that he himself had been blind although he does have his sight: "King Lear: Read. / Gloucester: What, with the case of eyes? / King Lear: O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your / head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in / a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how / this world goes..."(IV. vi. 159-164) as his madness progresses so does his insight. Without having the power to discern immediate truth because of his lack of reason, he does see beyond the appearances now: "What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes / with… READ MORE

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