King Lear Theme Analysis

1. King Lear commands his daughters to profess their love for him, illustrating that Lear is selfish and foolish. Cordelia, King Lear’s daughter, refused to give a speech about how much she loves him, resulting in a loss of a dowry. She loves her father the way a daughter should and believes that words cannot express love. Cordelia’s morals keep her from expressing insincere praise in order to receive a portion of Lear’s kingdom, revealing that Cordelia is honest and virtuous. Cordelia mentions that her father “begot”, “bred”, and “loved” her, actions that King Lear took to raise her, and she plans to take care of him the way he did. She feels that flattering her father is unnecessary because no description can describe the love and care that

Throughout King Lear, the theme of appearance versus reality is present in the way Lear thinks about his daughters and how he thinks of himself. In the passage, the fool speaks about illusion and implies that people tend to base their actions on how reality appears. The fool points out that Lear should not have given up his land. Lear became old before he was wise. The fool gives others advice and tries to help Lear gain wisdom. The fool mentions that an ant worked all summer to provide for the winter, a lesson illustrating to prepare for the future. He refers to King Lear’s knights who can see where they are going unless they are blind. King Lear’s knights can see that Lear is losing power and realize they cannot gain anything if they stay loyal to him. The fool continues by stating to let go of a large wheel when it is rolling downhill, or it will “break thy neck,” suggesting Kent to avoid King Lear, whose life is going downhill, because Kent’s life will also be ruined. The fool advises Kent to become acquaint with a man with good fortunes, as Kent’s life will improve. The fool indirectly calls Kent a fool for continuing to serve Lear, but expresses that Kent is a good man for staying loyal. Kent is serving Lear because Kent loves him, revealing that love can be detrimental. It is ironic that the fool is the wisest character in the play, as he is advising the King. Shakespeare places the Fool into the play to emphasize that Lear is not wise. The real fool is King Lear,

Shakespeare illustrates that clear vision through physical sight does not guarantee clear sight of what is actually going on. Before Gloucester lost his eyes, he could not see what was occurring. He only saw what was presented to him on the surface, but did not realize Edmund’s villainous plans. Gloucester quickly assumes that Edgar was planning to kill him in order to gain Gloucester’s land and wealth when Edmund shows Gloucester a forged letter. Gloucester does not consider whether Edgar would commit such a deed, revealing that Gloucester is gullible. When Gloucester loses his eyes, his vision clears and he learns to see by using his heart and intuition. He realizes that when he had eyes, he was confident that he could see, while in reality, he could not see until his eyes were removed. Gloucester recognizes that the actions he took and statements against Edgar were