Expectations and Blindness in King Lear

Shakespeare, with his brilliant portrayal of Lears conflict with two opposing forces esthetics and reality, continues to draw both readers and audiences with Lears many meanings and interpretations. The important character, poof Lear, is the object of common credit with his obliviousness as to who people rattling are, and the disco real of truth. It is this identification that exceeds the Elizabethan period, making King Lear a play for all times.With his macrocosm about to be shattered, Lear will realize that the world he was brio in as King, is non so nice as it opinems. King Lear is the story of how a man once obsessed with image and spring(Hamilton 175) is forced to leave that those around him are non who he believes they are. The bulge out of vision and in freshet, and the absence of it, is a major floor in Lear. This theme is portrayed through the characters of King Lear, Gloucester and Edgar. The lack of insight, or subterfugeness, is very symbolic.Blindness is de fined as unable to see lacking the sense of sight(Dictionary). For Lear, blindness was non physical it was his flaw. Lears blindness to see who a mortal very was, based on their character and personality, was obvious at the initiatele of the play regarding Cordelia and Kent. Gloucester, on the other hand, was originally blind because he besides had a flaw against seeing the truth. He is physically blinded by Cornwall, only if after he gains the vision that Lear lacks.Lears agniseing that vision is not only physical came too late, and is the cause of his downfall. Lear knows absolutely that he is not only a King, nevertheless the father of the family unit, the patriarchal figurehead. He believes these titles makes him emend than everybody else, that everyone else bows to him. Because of this, he demands high levels of populace affection, that he wholly expects to receive. Lear emphasizes his expectations at the start of the play, repeatedly referring to spirit and offices of nature(2. 4. 94-202) to which he thinks everyone must listen to because it would be unnatural to ignore them. (2. 4. 320) Lear thinks it is his right for others, especially his family, to bestow pure and unmeasured hunch and devotion on him it is this belief that causes him to split the Kingdom which to the Elizabethan audience would be something only crazy people would do. Lears oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, as trained, everyplacedraw their tintings by proclaiming their love for their father exceeds all others, and they are rewarded for their expressions ith wealth but with the power to dictate the conditions of public life, the power to make a bracing kingdom in the shell of the old, to become the new Lears. (Basney 18) Sharon Hamilton compares Baptista (The Taming of the Shrew) and Lear, explaining their behaviour In both plays, the fathers show preference to the hypocritical daughters and set down, by point statement and implication, the public role that the y want them to play. Both Baptista and Lear flatter themselves on being good fathers, and both see as the test of their strength the daughters compliance with her prescribed role.Above all, from each one man values reputation and stipulation and eschews any word or act that reflects badly on his public image. The shallowness of their outlook is revealed by the presence of a sister who is the. daughters sullen opposite(Hamilton 93). Lear then turns to Cordelia, and knowing she loves him he demands the same thing to communicate her love for him to recieve a portion of the kingdom. However, un uniform her sisters, Cordelia is not going to decipher her fathers expectations. Cordelia raises the issue of obligation itself in an unprotected.. way.She states the moral framework(Basney 18) of how she hobot love Lear all forever her love will be split when she is wed like how her sisters should prepare been. Of course, Lear is outraged by the thought that his expectations, that Cord elia fawn over him and flaunt her love for him publicly, will not come true. Lear then disowns Cordelia. Kent, having much insight than Lear, is able to see the honest love Cordelia has for Lear. Kent tries to prove to Lear that he is making the wrong choice in disowning his daughter and he is not seeing her love for him.Lear replies angrily with Out of my sight (1. 1. 179) to which Kent answers, receive better, Lear, and let me still remain/ The true blank of thine eye. Lears windows to reality, Kent and Cordelia, are banished and for now, Lear just is able to make his own decisions. Meanwhile, Gloucester is also a victim of blindness. akin Lear, Gloucester shadowt see which of his two sons truly love him. Edmund forged the earn that was allegedly written by his brother, saying Edgar is planning to kill Gloucester.His father sees the letter and is instantly convinced. He was made to believe, by his blindness and some succor from Edmund, that Edmund loved him and Edgar was t he son plotting to kill him. G. Wilson Knight comments on the parallels between the main plot of Lear and Gloucesters sub-plot The Gloucester-theme is a certain indication of our vision and helps us to understand, and feel the enduring agony of Lear Now all the Lear effects are overstated in the Gloucester theme. (Knight 139)Unlike Lear though, Gloucester is blinded by the Duke of Cornwall from that moment on, Gloucesters vision starts clearing up. I have no way and therefore want no look I stumbled when I saw(4. 1. 19-20) is the climax for Gloucester as he can now see the truth. Gloucester realized he was blind to the truth and how he was more blind when he could see physically. He knows now that he doesnt need his eyes to see and understand because he can understand better in his mind, without the aesthetics, or the outward appearance, to trick him.Eventually, Lears strong place in his expectations eventually spirals down into severe instability and madness as he figures out b y the events of the play- that his expectations cant be achieved. Lears downfall caused is because of this fault of his mind, And he knows it O Lear, Lear, Lear Beat at this gate that let thy folly in, And thy skilful judgement out. (1. 4. 287) Lear now sees his daughters as aspects of his self, now tainted(Hamilton 118). The insanity he goes through is the punishment for his blindness.Lear was once a master of nature itself, as he believed, as a God he realizes that he is slave to nature in the form of weather. The arduous, painful power of the storm drowns him, in desperate fallacy, and creates a strong nostalgia and the extreme longing for affection. Lear sees how this world goes like blinded Gloucester, sees it feelingly. (4. 6. 162-4) The blinding of Gloucester was an exaggeration of rigourousness, the same horrible cruelty that led Lear to madness. Lear and Gloucester gain sympathy from the audience, adding to the heaviness of the tragedys ending.Edgar and Cordelia are the r ays of hope in Lear, because even after their fathers have wronged them because of their blindness, the children return to their fathers and put all their efforts into satisfying and restoring them. (Hamilton 174) The irony of Lear and Gloucesters blindness is made even more sad because Kent, Cordelia and the dupe are aware of their ignorance. These three characters can tell what is going on, but they cannot do anything to fix it. Lear is blind to Cordelias honest love for her father, instead cover Goneril and Regans expected proclamations of, what really is false love.As Lear goes mad, he finally sees what he has through by placing roles on those around him, and sees the roles his daughters play, that he created, are not who Regan and Goneril truly are. Yet as soon as he realizes his mis inject, shredding his blindness, insanity moves in. The put on and Kent both remain truehearted to Lear, always trying to make him see what is really going on. Lear is constantly reminding us with convincing representations of obligation, fealty, and care, without allowing us to take the kind of comfort from them that we want. (Basney 27)What Basney means here, is that while Cordelia, the Fool and Kent show their faithfulness in Lear, while Edgar cares for his blind father, Lear and Gloucester are not aware that they have people who care for them and love them unconditionally. The audience wants Gloucester and Lear to see that the most loyal people have never left or betrayed them. However, Kent and Edgar must go underground. The disguise of goodness is the principle of Lears new kingdom. (Basney 20) Through Cordelia, the Fool, and Kent, Shakespeare created a fellowship for the audience to sympathize with, drawing the audience emotionally closer to each character.With every piece of advice disregarded or neglected, a feeling of indispensability rises, until the audience can only hankering that there is hope somewhere. Everyone sees what they wish to believe that is , peoples expectations shape what is actually in front of them, so that they see what they want to see. Its these factors that makes Lears characters so relate-able. G. Wilson Knight expands on this Our vision has thus been unequivocally focused to understand that vision of the grotesque, the incongruous, the fantastically horrible, which was the agony of Lears mind (Knight 142).We can feel Lears pain, we can sympathize with him. This play shows that we need to look beyond what our eyes can see and pay more attention to what is really going on. We must avoid seeing what we should not see, and stop not seeing what we should. We must be able to see blinded and not be blinded by sight. In King Lear those who appear blind have the best vision, those who seem fools are the wisest, and those who dont speak much really know the most.