Blindness In King Lear Essay

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King Lear also sets to examine how far we have progressed, in terms of doing what is morally correct,regardless of what social conviction we might face.. King Lear has one of the most crucial flaws in the play and yet has held the most power. If Shakespeare set out to criticise the monarchs of the tudor period, this is a clear driving force that is established through King Lear’s metaphorical sight. Fintan provides “The world of King Lear, [is] where blindness is sight and folly is wisdom...”. This is a statement I agree with fully. It is fair to say, that characters in this play who are most successful (in terms of power) are those who are metaphorically blind and those who are the least successful are those with the ability to see truth more clearly. In Act 3 Scene 4 …show more content…

A King is supposed to be someone with noble characteristics, so it interesting to see that Lear identifies that perhaps he isn't fit for the role in his soliloquy. King Lear states “Man’s life is cheap as beast’s” to establish that the Chain of Being is broken, to define the true worth of himself and hints at what is truly necessary for life. This dialogue furthermore endorses that the chain of being is a very flawed system to categorize people by as he is ‘born’ into this role of Kingship, but can't even maintain his own mental stability. This section non-specifically states that just because something is practised by a majority of society, does not justify application. Historically, humanity has gone through phases where in hindsight, the population is able to identify the flaws within history; King Lear and the Chain of being are simply representative of that fact. Through the issues of sight and blindness, Shakespeare develops a message that explores specifically, the detrimental effects of categorising people by superficial

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