King Lear (Blindness) - Essay Writing

Emma is busy finishing G6. She did LitDram, Essay Writing, Classical Studies at Studio, and participated in Story of England, 2016. She has signed up for Ancient World in summer 2017.

Emma wrote this article in G5, when she was taking Jeremy Wong's Essay Writing class during winter school.

“See better, Lear, and let me still remain the true blank of thine eye.” This quote, by Kent, shows how “blind’ Lear is and foreshadows Gloucester’s true blindness. Blindness is an important theme in the play “King Lear” that is easily shown through the characterization of King Lear, the characterization of Gloucester, and King Lear’s actions. This in turn teaches us an important lesson: You should never see things on the surface, instead, you should think things carefully and clearly before making a decision. 

King Lear is the aging king of Britain and the protagonist of the play. He is full of authority and doesn’t like to be opposed or challenged in any sort of way. “Hear me, recreant!... Away!” He is very stubborn and is spiritually blind and only bends to flatter. King Lear is foolish, easily manipulated and is losing touch with reality. “I am a very foolish fond old man, fourscore and upward, not an hour more or less. And to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind.”

Gloucester is an earl in Lear’s court, who is weak and proud. Gloucester and King Lear have nearly identical family situations and are naively blind to their evil children. Lear did not know about how his daughters would act when he gave them lots of land, and Gloucester didn’t know about Edmond planning against him and Edgar just because he wanted to inherit Gloucester’s place and wealth. Both characters are fairly shallow and certainly trusted evil children too much and are quite arrogant. The main difference between them is King Lear is a king (very powerful)  and Gloucester is just an Earl (not as powerful). Some of Gloucester’s quotes about blindness and insight is “out, vile jelly!”

King Lear’s actions certainly told me that one of the themes is blindness. For example, King Lear gave all his land evenly to Goneril and Regan just because they said lot of things that aren’t true. Hearing all this flattery, King Lear is so happy. He trusts only the ones that will betray him, and he inspires loyalty in subjects such as Gloucester, Kent, Cordelia, and Edgar, all of whom are risk lives for him.

“And in thy best consideration check the hideous rashness.” In the play King Lear, the main theme is certainly blindness, and that is easily shown through the characterization of Lear, the characterization of Gloucester and finally, Lear’s actions.

Mr Wong’s comments

This essay is excellent and shows a level of maturity well beyond your years. Be careful to fully explain important questions, and always conclude your paragraphs by implying your argument or reminding your reader why you chose to include various moments of the text in your essay.

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