Shakespeare's King Lear

Shakespeare's King Lear is known as one of his greatest tragedies. The story is full of misfortune, deception and death. The story also contains two plots, a main plot with King Lear, and a subplot with a character referred to as Gloucester. The main plot and subplot in King Lear may have minor differences but the two main characters of each plot share the same fundamental theme of blindness.

The theme of a story is the main subject or idea the author is trying to get across. In King Lear there are quite a few themes. Some of these are easy to come across and others you have to search for while truly understanding Shakespeare's words. When comparing and contrasting the plots, the same themes occur on both sides of the story. One of these themes is blindness. It is important to comprehend what Shakespeare has meant by using this word. Throughout the story there are literal and metaphorical forms of blindness impacting the characters. Thematically, blindness refers the obliviousness or the unaware outlook the two fathers have on the things going on around them.

We can start with King Lear himself and analyze his disability to see the authenticity in his daughters. This disability evidently arises when King Lear decides to split his land between his three children. Before he divvies up the land, each daughter is asked pronounce their love for their father in front of the other dinner guests. Any sensible person can see that the idea of forcing a loved one to share their feelings for you, in order to receive a piece of land is…not a good idea. King Lear though, has no sense of what could possibly come from pinning his daughters against each other. He continues to be unaware as his daughters, Goneril and Regan, lie with exaggeration...

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...bt, reflects Shakespeare’s personal opinion, which themes often do. Lear states “A man may see how this world goes with no eyes.”

To this day, King Lear is known for its tragedy and gripping portrayal of the suffering two families must endure. Although these families and their fictional lives mirror each other, each character has traits that set them apart. When comparing the fathers of the main plot and subplot in King Lear and their relation to the theme of blindness, there are more similarities than differences. Shakespeare truly created an intriguing piece of work with an in depth message projected by King Lear and Gloucester.

Works Cited

http://www.ldoceonline.com/Literature-topic/theme http://ienglish.ie/2010/03/26/king-lear-sample-answer-the-main-plot-and-the-sub-plot-of-king-lear-mirror-each-other-in-many-ways-discuss/ http://www.shmoop.com/king-lear/