King Lear -- Sympathetic Characters - 943 Words

King Lear -- Sympathetic Characters A sympathetic character, is a character that the writer expects the reader (in this case watcher) to identify with and care about. In Shakespeares play King Lear, the characters Gloucester and King Lear both start out not being liked by the reader because they come off as mean and cold. By the end of the play, the reader does sympathize for both of these characters because of how they have been betrayed by their children. Both King Lear and Gloucester turn out to be prime examples of a sympathetic character by the end of the play. King Lear first appears in the play while he is splitting up his kingdom between his three daughters, he ends up not giving any of his kingdom to Cordelia because†¦show more content†¦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 decision s 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. Gloucester and King Lears fate run parallel because they both misjudge which of their children to trust, and they both suffer from their mistakes. They are both sympathetic characters because by the end of the play you feel sorry for them and what they have to go through, even though they initially made mistakes. These characters show that even if a character starts out seeming mean, impulsive and angry, the reader can still come away feeling bad for them because of what happens from their decisions. King Lear and The Earl of Gloucester in Shakespeares play King Lear are perfect examples of sy mpathetic characters. uscero his daughters, and they just betrayed him, and didnt give him any respect as a king, or even as a father. to giveShow MoreRelated Sight and Blindness in Shakespeares King Lear - Lack of Vision1477 Words   |  6 PagesSight and Blindness in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚   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.    These classic tropes are inverted in King Lear, producing a situation in which those with healthy eyes are ignorant of what is going on around them, and those without vision appear to see the clearest. 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