The Blindness of King Lear

In the classic Vincent Price horror flash, THEATER OF BLOOD a imbalanced Shakespe arean actor murders critics who turn over savaged him in the past with a series of gruesome traps based on death scenes from Shakespeares work. At the films conclusion, a critic faces permanent artificeness as penalisation for being blind to the actors vastness in the uniform way King Lear was blind to his squander in folly and ego.When one reads the cataclysm OF KING LEAR, one preempt escort that the curse of Lear is that he was blind to the full spectrum of the consequences of his actions. Lear had a single minded approach to how he be his outlook of the world and such blindness lead to the deaths of his friends and family as vigorous as the creation of a needless war with France.At the beginning of the play, Lear wishes to split up his throne amongst his three daughters. Lear opts to tie the division of his throne into the performance of his daughters in a speech deli very(prenominal) contest and this raises the ire of Cordelia, as she refuses to maintain part in such a contest. This results in Lear disowning her and that hardened into motion 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 shockable 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 manner that was impetuous and ego driven. His inability to find that he was non being insulted or rejected by Cordelia, entirely rather Cordelia ( a character who is clearlydefined as having a strong moral core) was rejecting the nonion that she should compete with her sisters for her fathers rewards.The badinage to this is that be bowel movement King Lear saw an enemy where an enemy di d not exist, he provide the real enemy (France) with the justification it was loosely looking for in prescribe to take an action against Lear.FOOLNo, hes a yeoman that has a gentleman to his in enumerateigence for hes a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman origin every toldy him.The character of the soak up often represents Lears subconscious, as it is the character of the mark that impresses upon Lear the importance of paying attention to what actually is and what rightfully exists in the world, as opposed to paying too much attention to what is merely his own personal perception of reality a perception that is tailored by Lears desire for what he wishes to be line up. That is, what exists and what one wishes to exist are two separate creatures.Conversely, this is not to infer that Lear is merely paranoid. There is great need to be wary of foreign invaders and influence. History has shown that the world has suffered my royal expansions into sovereign territories and i t would not be outside of Lears proper solid ground to worry that a foreign power would wish to braten the constancy 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 at last were not helpful to him (his close associates) and, essentially opted to ignore the advice of the person who had his best interests at heart the turn in.FOOLHes mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horses health, a boys love, or a whores oath.With that statement, The countenance 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 unfeignedly is the wisest person in the cast of characters, yet is outwardly dubbed a fool, small-arm those who should know better are in decisive or immediately wrong.At certain points, Lear does at least 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, sit 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 behind and has ultimately seen the truth. The Fool has made a wise-man of the king, as the king appears to finally go through the concept that a clear understanding of a real threat vs. a perceived threat is reached. Lears problem, however, is that he is always pursuance third partyvalidation of his beliefs. He will prescribe to the Fools advice for a short time, however then will emission and side with his associates who are more(prenominal) willing to tell him what he wants to hear. This allo ws the Fool to become symbolic of a moral conscious. When the Fool appears and reappears throughout the play, it symbolizes Lears cardinal, endemic problem reason, logic and clarity of thought are unconformable with Lear. As a leader, is judgment is not sound and prone to mathematical group 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. All of this provides a scenario that is more damaging to Lears self-preservation than he initially perceived. In other words, he never should give directed his venom towards Cordelia, but did so because of his complete(a) blindness towards what actually is v s. what he perceives reality to be. In reality, the threats lie with the trusty daughters such as Goneril, as evidenced in the following communion where it is clear she shares little regard for the value of Lears life.GONERIL By twenty-four hours and night he wrongs me every hour He flashes into one perfect(a) crime or other, That sets us all at odds Ill not endure it His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids usOn every trifle. When he returns from hunting,I will not cover with him say I am sick If you come slack of author services, You shall do well the fault of it Ill answerIn the following passage, a clearly nauseated 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 onward to prison We two alone will sing like birds i the cage in When thou dost ask me b lessing, 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 speak of court news and well talk with them too, Who loses and who wins whos in, whos out And take upons the mystery of things, As if we were Gods spies and well wear out, In a walld prison, packs and sects of great ones, That moderate 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 human 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 tarry 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 ef fect response to the word no to where any negative position would result in retaliation to the (perceived) threat.Ultimately, Lear realizes his error when he loses his thrown, sees his family fall isolated and then has to contend with internal soul searching in evidence to find some sort of moral lesson that could at least turn off the entire experience within his own heart as having ultimately been worth 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 reac hed. This is why the story of King Lear is called a tragedy.