Many intriguing
things can be seen in Shakespeare’s play "King Lear", such as vanity
and folly, but along with these comes Shakespeare’s displaying of sight. This
he uses throughout the play, through a variety of characters; from Gloucester
to King Lear, from Regan to Goneril vision plays an important part.
The irony brought
on Gloucester actually resulted from his eyes. Once they were wrought out and
his vision destroyed, he could finally see. Until then he hadn’t realized his
beloved son’s own affection and his treacherous bastard’s own ambitions. His illegitimate
whelp manage to destroy reason and foster suspicion until the truth was released
to Gloucester, at which he then gained true sight and accompanying sorrow.
Another being
affected by his vision was his majesty, King Lear. At first Lear’s perception
was disrupted by the innocent amorous visages of his two "faithful"
daughters. This image he created couldn’t be deconstructed by the information
(and consequently truth) of many dear friends, such as the Earl of Kent, the
Fool, and the disguised Kent. All of their heeds went unwarranted until he
finally confronted his two daughters about the situation. This conversation,
opening his eyes, also entered another door, this one to of open insanity. From
here on his vision was, yet again changed. Here, however, his sight brought forth
open illusions and hallucinations he happened to describe to spectators.
Along with the
others, the Duke of Albany also received a "revelation" of sight.
Here he, though known to him, witnessed his on wife treachery and made a
self-vow to change her misdeeds.
Finally, the sight
of Regan and Goneril was affected, but unlike the others it was from foul doing
done to them. Instead it resulted from a boy named Edmund, Gloucester’s bastard
son. Before Edmund’s "promotion" the whore’s son was a nobody, which
resulted in the utter ignoring of him by the King’s daughters, Regan and Goneril.
But once he gained his position, through his devious actions, the eyes of both
Regan and Goneril "opened" to him. With Goneril’s distaste in her
husband and Regan’s untimely widowing the two start their bickering of the boy,
who, like stated above, without his position would be unknown to them and their
for be of no interest.
Without Shakespeare’s clever use of sight, could the story be whole? Most likely not, which could be a reason that he not only blinded Gloucester, but also heavily focused on this lack of sense.