King Lear Sight and Blindness see better Lear

King Lear Sight and Blindness

‘see better, Lear’ The importance of seeing yourself and the world clearly is a key theme in the play. The play is filled with images of sight, blindness, weeping, eyes, light and dark.

‘Out of my sight’ Lear fails to ‘see’ the truth about his daughters in Act I. His reference to ‘Apollo’ during his clash with Kent is ironic, due to his inability to ‘see’ what is happening around him. Unable to see anyone’s merits or faults clearly, Lear refuses to look upon those who have offended him.

Act IV Scene 4 Pages 337 -338 After the storm, Lear’s ability to see more clearly is apparent when he meets Gloucester. The ‘dark’ references to heightens the pathos of the old men’s sufferings. Gloucester and Lear now ‘see how the world goes’.

Gloucester’s Blinding Gloucester’s blinding is the physical manifestation of the mental torture Lear endured on the heath. We are prepared for it by the references to eyes in Act III Scene 7, beginning with Goneril’s ‘Pluck out his eyes!’

‘Old fond eyes…I’ll pluck ye out’ His desperate struggle against weeping can be read as a sign of Lear’s determination not to be vanquished by his daughters. He eventually cries when he is reunited with Cordelia. An indication, perhaps, that he now sees himself and his daughter more clearly.

Act V Here Lear is defiant again; he and Cordelia will not weep in prison. It is only when she is hanged that Lear gives in to his grief: “Howl, howl! O, you are men of stones! Had I your tongues and eyes I’d use them so That heaven’s vault should crack”