This is a comparison and contrast of two different views of the character, Gloucester in the play King Lear. It will show the different ways that Gloucester has his eyes ripped out. It will also show the different ways the lighting is used and what kind of scenery. It will also show the difference in the ages of the character. Let’s not leave out the wardrobe and the difference between both productions. It will show how Gloucester ages and has similar problems as that of the King.
In the first part of the play Gloucester receives a letter from Edmond, his bastard son, as the first plot towards the down fall of his father, Gloucester. In the BBC version Gloucester seems to be somewhere in his seventies, where in the PBS version Gloucester seems to be in his sixties a much younger man. This letter makes Gloucester believe that his ligament son has betrayed him, which makes Gloucester very angry and hurt because he loved his son. This just seems to take a lot out of him. As the play continues, Gloucester serves the King with everything he has in him. When the King goes mad, due to his daughters betraying him, Gloucester shows his loyalty to the King by taking him to safety. Oswald is the one who conveyed the message, that Gloucester hid the King from his daughters. Due to this Reagan and the Duke of Cornwall (her husband) declares Gloucester a traitor. Reagan sends for Gloucester and they bring him in to face his accusers. Gloucester faces Reagan and the Duke when he is charged with treason. Gloucester says I would rather be blind rather than to see how his daughters are treating their father. Of course I am paraphrasing the exact statement. The exact statement goes like this “Because I would not see thy cruel nails Pluck out hi...
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...o well. The PBS and BBS versions of the play have many differences alone with the same meanings and reasons. Each version gave the play a new twist. Twist such as being blinded, yet still will to help others. Gloucester and the King had a lot in common. They both had children who betrayed them just not the one they thought did. They were also very old and feeble. In the end they both lose a child(ren) to death. This is a sad story that will change anyone’s way of thinking when it comes to family.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespear. The Tragedy of King Lear. Second edition. W. W. Norton & Company. New York. London 2008.
William Shakespeare:Tragedy King Lear. Produced by BBC & Time-Life films.
McKellen, Ian, Nunn,Treyor. King Lear Great Performances. Produced by PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/king-lear/watch-the-play/487/
First power, amongst the royal family the mother, Eleanor is the Queen; the father is King Henry, the youngest son John, middle son Geoffrey, and oldest son Richard. In the play not one, but all of these characters have power in some kind of way. King Henry spent his life conquering many regions and wants to continue to conquer by passing king down to one of his three sons. A quote from the play that shows the greed that having power can create Henry asked, “Isn’t being chancellor power enough?” Geoffrey replies, “It’s not the power I feel deprived of. It’s the mention I miss.” Geoffrey does not think he will receive enough respect if he is just the chancellor and his younger brother John is king. When he comes to Richard, the oldest brother he thinks he should be king because of his army he has behind him, but this is where futility comes into play. It is not always about war and killing people to prove your powerful, but in Richards’s ways that is the only way. Richard says, “I am a constant soldier, a sometime poet, and I will be king.” This quote describes the type of person Richard wants to be, he wants to have all the power to rein over the castle and do it through war. Each of the family members is jealous of one another especially the children of the king and queen, it is pretty much a sibling rivalry between them. Having power can be a good thing or bad thing, in this situation the king and queens children have a different view on having power and what they would do if crowned
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare). Simon & Schuster; New Folger Edition, 2003.
Shakespeare, William. "King Lear: A Conflated Text." The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York:
Shakespeare’s intentions towards the portrayal of both kings are apparent, and he is able to successfully convey the contrast between the noble King Henry V and the notorious King Richard II. Both kings are very dissimilar from one another and it is essential to compare the two in order to distinguish the characteristics that are necessary to be a honorable ruler.
His blindness began when Edmund convinced him by the forged letter that Edgar was planning to kill him. His lack of “sight” caused him to believe that Edmund was the good son although all he wanted to do is to take over his power. Near the end of the play, Gloucester finally regained his sight and realized that Edgar saved his life and loved him all this time and Edmund was the evil of the two. His inability to see occurred when he had physical sight, but when he finally could see things clearly is when he had his eyes plucked out by the Duke of Cornwall.
Gloucester knows that he will get in trouble for helping Lear. “Go to say nothing there is Davion between the dukes”. Edmund already knows of the strife between Cornwall and Albany. Gloucester has received a letter which promises that punishment will come to those who have hurt the King.” And a worse matter that than… I have received a letter this night-tis dangerous to be spoken-I have locked the letter in my closet”. Therefore, this results Gloucester to console Edmund to side Lear, telling him that Lear is bound to retaliate. Therefore, the army has arrived to aid the king.” Injuries the king now bears will be revenged name. There is part of a power already footed. We must incline to the king”. This proves Gloucester then tells Edmund that he will secretly find Lear and offer him support. He then asks Edmund to keep the king busy o be won’t notice that act of kindness.
2. Shakespeare implies a parallel between the two themes of Blindness and Madness. The two characters who suffer the most in the play are Lear and Gloucester. Their stories are similar in many ways; however, while Lear slowly goes mad, Gloucester is blinded but remains sane. Lear and Gloucester both seem to be able to perceive certain things more clearly after they lose their faculties. Lear realizes only as he begins to go mad that Cordelia loves him and that Goneril and Regan are flatterers. He comes to understand the weakness of human nature at the same time when Gloucester comes to understand which son is really good and which is bad at the very moment of his blinding.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square, 1992. Print. The New Folger Library Shakespeare.
Not only is the audience able to see the dominating theme of blindness affect the lives of King Lear and the Duke of Albany, but one is also able to see the downfall of Gloucester due to his blindness and poor decisions on situations he is oblivious too. In King Lear, Gloucester is not only blind in mental terms, but he is also physically blinded by Goneril near the end of the play. Firstly, Gloucester’s blindness denies him the capability to see the good in his son Edgar and the evil in his son Edmund. Gloucester’s inability to see causes him to hunt down his son Edgar in order to try and kill him, when in reality the son he is trying to kill, is the son that has the right intentions. Edmund, Gloucester’s evil and illegitimate son plans to kill Gloucester to take his wealth and riches thought out the whole play. When Gloucester is angered by the letter Edmund claims Edgar wrote, he screams,
Gloucester’s renewal of sight is described by the line “I stumbled when I saw”. I saw that this line could be interpreted in two ways. First, it is meant to say that when he could physically still see, he had been following the wrong path. Gloucester made continuous mistakes when he had his eye sight, trusting and assuming much too quickly. It was then until his eyes wore literally plucked out but the Duke of Cornwall, that the truth finally came to surface. This famous line explains that when he was not blind yet, he kept stumbling on the lies and disguises of both Edmund and Edgar. Alternatively, “I stumbled when I saw” could also be a reflection how he mentally sees who has been in the truth all along, but it took him to be paralyzed in vision to see, where he must now “stumble” to survive. In either interpretation the same message is that Gloucester no longer desires eye sight is he can see more clearly without them. The confidence that his eye sight once gave him only mislead his belief of reality. This entire event changes Gloucester’s morals completely. His vision is more improved using his mind instead of his eyes. In line 19, it is apparent that he is in full remorse: “I have no way and therefore want no eyes” shows that Gloucester accepts his faults and rather than pities himself, becomes more acknowledgeable in others. Gloucester states, “Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I’ld say I had my eyes again!” Because Gloucester finds that Edgar had been innocent all along, this line shows how truly sorry he now is and how to see feel Edgar for one more moment would be equal to having vision. Nothing else in the world matters to Gloucester anymore. The change in personality shows when he believes that he i...
Shakespeare’s character Gloucester has two sons, Edmund and Edgar. Edmund is the illegitimate son, the result of Gloucester’s affair with his mother. Gloucester doesn’t let this idea rest, as even when he introduces his bastard son to Kent at the beginning of the play it’s mentioned. “Though this knave came something saucily to the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged” (I.I.21-24). Gloucester openly denotes Edmund and puts him in his place as illegitimate and unfitting to take his crown. Edgar, however, is the more beloved son, and is the next in line to receive the father’s land and power. This battle between legitimacy and illegitimacy is difficult, because other than the fact that Gloucester is married to Edgar’s mother, the two boys are considered moderately equal. Edmund argue...
...not truly be seen with the eye, but with the heart. The physical world that the eye can detect can accordingly hide its evils with physical attributes, and thus clear vision cannot result from the eye alone. Lear's downfall was a result of his failure to comprehend that appearances do not always represent reality. Gloucester avoided a similar demise by learning the relationship between appearance and reality. If Lear had learned to look with more than just his eyes before the end, he might have avoided this tragedy. These two tragic stories unfolding at the same time gave the play a great eminence.
Gloucester also experiences family problems. His illegitimate son, Edmund, cheats him to believe that his legitimate son, Edgar, is trying to kill him and robs his property. So he readily place trust in what Edmund said and set Edgar out of the country. Without any method Edgar makes up himself as a craz...
A Consideration of the Way Shakespeare Presents and Develops the Theme of Blindness in King Lear