In The Tragedy of King Lear, Shakespeare portrays the character Gloucester, the father of Edgar, his legitimate son, and Edmund, who is deemed a bastard. Throughout the events that occur in the play, the power that Gloucester processes parallels his sight-- both figuratively and literally. As the story develops, the dreadful consequences of Gloucester’s inability to see what is happening around him are shown to be caused by the power he processes and his overall incompetence, which helps to convey Shakespeare’s overall message that too much power can corrupt anyone.
Initially, Gloucester is introduced as a man with a large amount of power, who, at the same time, is very gullible and overall unaware of the reality of the events occurring around
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In Act III Scene VII, Cornwall is enraged by Gloucester’s actions and decides to punish him. Once Gloucester is captured, he is brought to Cornwall who, furious, decides to torture him by gouging his eyes out. Now blind, Gloucester is finally made aware of Edmund’s true intentions and he sees what he has been doing this entire time. Only when Gloucester is literally blind and stripped away from his power is he able to see Edmund for who he really is-- a backstabber. Under this realization, Gloucester can recognize that he himself played a part in the betrayal that unfolds in this play, as his ignorance and unwillingness to consider his situation for more than a moment has caused Edgar’s side of the story to be completely neglected, which resulted in his banishment. Gloucester’s overdue understanding of everything that has occurred in play thus far (and the repercussions that come along with them) is addressed in the next act when, alone, he reflects on his life and actions, which fills him with so much despair that he feels as though all he can do to ease the pain is commit suicide. Gloucester, now completely blind and powerless, realizes the consequences of his actions and recognizes that there is no realistic way to mediate them; his delusion, caused by his overwhelming amount of power, caused him to be so misguided that he has destroyed every connection that he once had. Overall, The Tragedy of King Lear tells the story of a man who is figuratively blind to the true nature of his son and his actions which, as a result, leads to him becoming literally blind. This cautionary tale helps illustrate the overall message that too much power has the ability to corrupt people-- ruining their relationships and their