Blindness in King Lear

Blindness in King Lear

In William Shakespeare's play King Lear, common notions of sight and blindness are complicated and subverted the story of the Earl of Gloucester, who has his eyes gouged out following his betrayal at the hands of his illegitimate son Edmund. When he is able to physically see, Gloucester is blinded by the machinations of Edmund, Goneril, and Regan, and it is only when he is blinded does he come to understand the reality of the situation. By examining the first scene of Edmund's scheming against Gloucester and Edgar, Cornwall's gouging of Gloucester's eyes, and Gloucester's eventual death at the climax of the play, one may see how the play warns against the illusory nature of appearances and the unreliability of sight, a warning made implicitly in the central plot through Goneril and Regan's false proclamations of love for Lear but demonstrated explicitly in the parallel story of Gloucester and his sons.

The centrality of sight and blindness in Gloucester's story comes when Edmund forges a letter supposedly in Edgar's handwriting professing a desire to murder Gloucester and divide his property. Edmund plays at hiding the letter from Gloucester in order to appear reluctant to incriminate his brother Edgar, but Gloucester insists on seeing it, telling Edmund "Let's see: come / if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles" (1.2.34-5). Thus, Gloucester reveals his weakness by insinuating that truth, or at least information worth knowing, is centrally obtained through sight.

Edmund uses this to his advantage by playing on Gloucester's reliance on vision as the primary means of understanding when he tells Gloucester that he finds the letter "not / fit for your o'er looking," which is precisely the kind of thing that would pique Gloucester's interest such that he finally just says "Let's see, let's see," and Edmund finally shows him the letter (1.2.38-9, 43). Of course, Gloucester's reliance on sight is immediately shown to be useless, as he is unable to tell that the letter is a forgery and must rely on Edmund to determine whether or not it is actually written in Edgar's handwriting (1.2.64). Even the subsequent contrasting conceptions of Nature expressed by Gloucester and Edmund reveal Gloucester's weakness for vision, because he believes the obscuration of light in the form of lunar and solar eclipses are the cause of the recent treachery and injustice seen in the play (1.2.106-7).

Ironically, Gloucester's overreliance on sight leads to his blinding; his utter credulity regarding Edmund's forgery and performances leads him straight into the hands of Regan and Cornwall. However, this scene also foreshadows Gloucester's eventual triumph, because although he is physically blinded this scene marks the beginning of Gloucester truly "seeing" the truth, and when considered alongside a later scene demonstrates Gloucester's evolution from one who favors sight but is blind to the truth to a character who is physically blind but blessed with the light of truth (another of the paradoxical dichotomies in the play, such as the Fool's wisdom or Lear's reasonable madness).

With the reality of Regan and Cornwall's treachery revealed to him, Gloucester states that "I shall see / The winged vengeance overtake such children," and later, once he has realized that Edgar was unjustly accused and banished, he proclaims that "Might I but live to see [Edgar] in my touch, / I'ld say I had eyes again!" (3.7.71-2, 4.1.24-5). Obviously, Gloucester still favors sight in these lines, but in a more mature and nuanced way than his previously naive consideration of vision and truth. He realizes the limitations and dangers of relying on physical vision, and instead desires to "see" truth through whatever means may reveal it (in this case, touch). The play actually rewards Gloucester for this maturation, but in order to see how, one must examine the scene of his death.

Gloucester's death is not seen in the actual play, but is narrated by Edgar after he reveals himself to the remaining characters in the final scene. Having learned that Edgar is alive and preparing to confront the various villains of the play, Gloucester's "flaw'd heart, / Alack, too weak the conflict to support! / 'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, / Burst smilingly" (5.3.28-31). Though one may be inclined to read Gloucester's death as tragedy, considering that he was previously planning on throwing himself off a cliff, this death is generally a happy one because not only does Gloucester's earlier prediction regarding vengeance come true, but he is able to say he "had eyes again" upon realizing Edgar is not only alive but has actually been assisting him throughout.

Thus, only when Gloucester is forced to give up his reliance on physical vision and give himself over to blindness is he blessed with the sight of truth and justice in the form of Edgar, revealing the play's overall argument concerning the dangers of believing too strongly in the performances and visual manipulation of others. In a sense, Gloucester is "blinded" by Edmund's machinations and is only able to escape them and find the ending he desires once he can no longer be tricked by his eyes.