The Blindness of King Lear

In the classic Vincent scathe horror film, THEATER OF BLOOD a demented Shakespearean actor murders critics who have savaged him in the aside with a series of gruesome traps based on death scenes from Shakespeares work. At the films conclusion, a critic faces permanent blindness as punishment for being blind to the actors greatness in the same way King Lear was blind to his birth folly and ego.When one reads the disaster OF KING LEAR, one can see that the curse of Lear is that he was blind to the full spectrum of the consequences of his actions. Lear had a whizz minded approach to how he defined his outlook of the world and such blindness lead to the deaths of his friends and family as well as the creation of a needless war with France.At the beginning of the play, Lear wishes to divide his throne amongst his trine daughters. Lear opts to tie the division of his throne into the performance of his daughters in a speech delivery battle and this raises the peevishness of Cordelia, as she refuses to discern part in such a contest. This conclusions in Lear disowning her and that set into question a chain of events where Cordelia marries the leader of France which provides France with the justification to invade Lears country to seize territory these events would never had been possible without Lears narrow-minded paranoia governing his psyche and his actions.From this, it is evident that Lears blindness to his daughters feeling lead to the blindness in being able to see the consequences of his actions. Lear conducted himself in a way of life that was impetuous and ego driven. His inability to understand that he was non being insulted or rejected by Cordelia, but rather Cordelia ( a character who is clearlydefined as having a strong good core) was rejecting the nonion that she should compete with her sisters for her fathers rewards.The irony to this is that because King Lear saw an enemy where an enemy did not exist, he fed the real enemy (France) with t he justification it was loosely looking for in order to take an action against Lear.FOOLNo, hes a yeoman that has a gentleman to his watchword for hes a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.The character of the Fool often represents Lears subconscious, as it is the character of the play around that impresses upon Lear the importance of paying attention to what actually is and what sincerely yours exists in the world, as opposed to paying likewise much attention to what is merely his own personal perception of universe a perception that is made-to-order by Lears desire for what he wishes to be true. That is, what exists and what one wishes to exist are two pick creatures.Conversely, this is not to infer that Lear is merely paranoid. There is great need to be wary of foreign invaders and influence. archives has shown that the world has suffered my imperial expansions into sovereign territories and it would not be outside of Lears proper reason to nark that a for eign power would wish to threaten the stability of his kingdom. It had not been without precedent that members of royaltys own family conspired against them, so Lears result was not without merit. Lears problem, however, derived from the fact that he saw enemies where enemies did not exist (as wasthe case with his daughter), took the advice of those who eventually were not helpful to him (his close associates) and, essentially opted to ignore the advice of the person who had his best(p) interests at heart the Fool.FOOLHes mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horses health, a boys love, or a whores oath.With that statement, The Fool provides a cohesive logical center to the character of Lear, who has gone blindly adrift amidst his own conspiracy theory passions. It is ironic that the Fool sincerely yours is the wisest person in the cast of characters, yet is externally dubbed a fool, dapple those who should know better are in decisive or outright wrong.At original point s, Lear does at to the lowest degree initially make an attempt to take the advice of the Fool or at least give the Fools advice serious contemplation as evidenced in the following response to the Fools commentaryKING LEAR It shall be done I will arraign them straight. Come, nonplus thou here, most learned justicer Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxesAt this point, it appears that Lear is leaving some of his blindness female genital organ and has finally seen the truth. The Fool has made a wise-man of the king, as the king appears to finally understand the concept that a clear understanding of a real threat vs. a perceived threat is reached. Lears problem, however, is that he is always seeking third partyvalidation of his beliefs. He will prescribe to the Fools advice for a short time, but then will waiver and side with his associates who are more volition to tell him what he wants to hear. This allows the Fool to become symbolic of a moral conscious. When the Fool app ears and reappears throughout the play, it symbolizes Lears central, endemic problem reason, logic and clarity of thought are inconsistent with Lear. As a leader, is assessment is not sound and prone to radical faltering.A great deal of the irony of the play derives from the fact that while Cordelia appears to be the instigator of the loss of Lears throne, it is actually she who is the one who seeks to restore Lear. Lears other daughters, Goneril and Regan, ultimately prove that their loyalties lie with the material aspects of the throne and their true natures surface when they start to squabble amongst themselves over the affections of Edmund. on the whole of this provides a scenario that is more damaging to Lears self-preservation than he initially perceived. In other words, he never should have directed his venom towards Cordelia, but did so because of his perpetual blindness towards what actually is vs. what he perceives reality to be. In reality, the threats lie with the good daughters such as Goneril, as evidenced in the following talks where it is clear she shares little regard for the value of Lears life.GONERIL By day and night he wrongs me any hour He flashes into one gross crime or other, That sets us all at betting odds Ill not endure it His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids usOn every trifle. When he returns from hunting,I will not speak with him say I am sick If you come slack of former services, You shall do well the fault of it Ill answerIn the following passage, a clearly unhinged King Lear tries to make sense of the disastrous situation that he finds himself in, all the result of the foolish wedge he drove between himself and his daughter(s) when he conceived of the ill-advised and ill-fated speech contestKING LEAR No, no, no, no Come, lets away to prison We two alone will sing like birds i the henhouse When thou dost ask me blessing, Ill kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness so well live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news and well talk with them too, Who loses and who wins whos in, whos out And take upons the riddle of things, As if we were Gods spies and well wear out, In a walld prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon.Unfortunately, as much as he wishes it were possible, Lear can not correct the past. It has been said that all benignant beings develop their core, central beliefs revolving around the fact that their life experiences create their perception of the world.In Lears situation, as a King and leader of a nation, he was never used to hearing the word no as those looking to remain in the favor of the king and avoid his wrath would simply not take up a position that the King would perceive as threatening. Hence, King Lear developed a predictable and thoroughly unhealthy cause and effect response to the word no to where any ostracize sentiment would result in retaliation to the (perceived) threat.Ultimately, Lear realizes his error when he loses his thrown, sees his family fall apart and then has to fare with internal soul searching in order to find some sort of moral lesson that could at least rationalize the entire experience within his own heart as having ultimately been outlay a greater good. That greater good is, essentially, Lear realizing the error of his ways, but his realization does nothing to reverse the damage. In fact, the final result of all the conflict in the play yields the death of Cordelia, the only daughter who truly loved him.As such, Lear eventually must give up his blindness to what his emotions have created and see the world for what it truly is. Unfortunately for King Lear, these realizations come very late in the equation and his lessons are learned at a point that is far beyond where a benevolent conclusion could have been reached. This is why the yarn of King Lear is called a tragedy.