Answers to Questions Analyzing Shakespeare´s King Lear

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Question 1:
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...

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...ongruous image. Lear compares his scene to the setting of the afterlife, heaven and hell. He believes that he is in hell, where everything in his life has basically burned down in flames; However, Cordelia is there for balance. Even though Lear hallucinates believing he has died and is now living in hell, he is confused by the presence of Cordelia comparing her to a improperly positioned angel. When Cordelia asks how he feels, he replies with “You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?” having sure confidence that the absolute only pathway he would ever be able to see Cordelia again would be in another life. By seeing Cordelia, his only caring daughter, he thinks this amount of happiness could never be reached unless he’d be dead. In a way, Shakespeare uses the fires of hell and the bliss of Cordelia’s soul to emphasize and examine the impact one has on the other.

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