Shakespeare’s King Lear is an emotional and bizarre play witch tells a moving story about the unfortunate decisions which are made by two fathers whose choices run close to each other as the play unfolds. While the main plot is about France and England at war and mainly involves King Lear’s family, the main theme which reoccurs multiple times throughout the play is blindness and is portrayed most evidently by both Gloucester and Lear. In Lear's case, two of his daughters, Regan and Goneril fool him into believing their lies, and then Lear shuts out his third daughter Cordelia because she cannot “love him enough” into such words he wants her to. Gloucester, coincidently, disowns the son that truly loves him, Edgar (legitimate), while putting all his trust into his other son who betrays him, Edmund (bastard). Both Lear and Gloucester lack the direction, insight and intuition that is necessary to see reality, instead they see …show more content…
Gloucester and Lear are examples of how a lack of perception and insight can cause a lot of problems for not only the men who cannot see but for those around them as well. It takes more than physical sight to distinguish between appearance and reality. Shakespeare conveys that logic, reason and intuition have roles in sight along with your eyes. Both Lear and Gloucester learned this lesson. Gloucester’s brutal eye gouging shows the most extreme case of imagery used in the literal meaning of the theme of his and Lear’s disgraceful actions. Lear is an example of what can happen when you learn too late in life how important it is to have insight. It takes Lear to become homeless at the hands of Regan by the time he has realized that his two evil daughters have total control over his kingdom. Life is not always black and white, and this message from Shakespeare is very