The death of one’s father and a ghostly visitation thereafter are events that would challenge the sanity of anyone. The circumstances of King Hamlet’s death render it especially traumatic. The late King seemed to be an idol to his son; Hamlet looked up to him and aspired to have the same qualities. Hamlet doesn't like King Claudius and sees him as a swindling usurper who has stolen not only the dead King’s throne, but Hamlet’s as well(2.4). Hamlet shows Gertrude that she has lowered her standards by marrying Claudius, When he refers to old Hamlet as, “A combination and a form indeed / Where every god did seem to set his seal” (3.4.55-61).
Even though Cordelia refused to speak, she possessed the most integrity out of the three daughters, while Goneril had the least, leading Regan to also betray Lear. As she listened to Goneril and Regan answer to King Lear’s “test”, Cordelia, in an aside, explained that her love was bigger than her words, and that she didn’t need to use flattery to impress her father, “…And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love’s/ More richer than my tongue” (1.1.81-82). When asked to speak by Lear, Cordelia declared that she had nothing to say. The king was surprised by her response, thus letting her speak once again. Once more, Cordelia explained that she did not have a talent for putting her feelings into complex, flattery statements, and that she loved Lear as any child should love their father.
Lear also demonstrates his awareness that he is losing his mind when he thinks about the pain his daughters put him through: “On such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril, Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all—Oh, that way madness lies. Let me shun that. No more of that” Edgar’s “Madness” is different from King Lear’s. Edgar has to convince others of his insanity in order to avoid being captured and executed.
He comes to understand the weakness of human nature at the same time when Gloucester comes to understand which son is really good and which one is bad at the very moment of his blinding. Gloucester’s physical blindness symbolizes the metaphorical blindness that affects both Gloucester and King Lear. The parallels between the two men are made very clear to the audience: both are blind to the truth, both have loyal and disloyal children and both end up banishing the loyal children while making the wicked ones their heirs. Only when Gloucester has lost his sight and Lear has gone mad does each realize the errors they’ve made and who should be held accountable. Betrayal rears its ugly head in more ways than one in a tale about two men blinded by false acts of love.
Moreover, the older sisters implicitly inferior status in his affections is immediately obvious to the member of the court in attendance.” (Newman 1) Lear does not realize that he is destroying his relationship with his daughter Cordelia, but also he is not realizing that Goneril and Regan’s mischief will lead him into insanity, which later causes the loss of father-daughter bond in the play. As a result King Lear is driven mad with regret and his life will ultimately change due to his initial naivety to the truth. Gloucester gullibility also leads him to mislead his family. As a father he is blind to see the truth
Discuss the importance of appearance and reality in King Lear. The battle between appearance and reality runs throughout the play of King Lear. Lear’s ignorance and lack of interest of reality, and the obsession of his appearance, lead him to his downfall as it causes him to put all of his power in the hands of the two daughters that do not care about him. August Wilhelm Schlegal claimed that appearance and ‘humanity is stripped of all external and internal advantages and given up prey to naked helplessness’, in order for lear to come to terms with humanity and its reality. Lear is not necessarily blind to reality, the fact is that he just chooses to ignore it.
Oedipus, like many men, has his flaws. His tragic flaw is what makes him a tragic hero and what leads to his downfall. From his rashness to overbearing pride, Oedipus is not perfect. And it is these flaws that bring his expected descend from glory, not destiny nor fate. It wasn’t fate that caused him to kill Laius, or took him down the path to Thebes, or even to leave his home land with no prior plan to go anywhere, it was his rashness and pride that caused him to act out on anger and little thinking.
So the true causes of evil are her father trapping her and keeping her away from people and men so long that she literally ends up crazy. Her father was apparently a cruel old man who never wanted his daughter to find true love and move away from him. “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” (48) “So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.” (49, 50) These two quotes show that her father was a real evil man who never saw any man well enough for his daughter and by the time she was thirty she was still single and really did not have a clue what she had been through and that she
Along with his horrible fate was an equally tragic prophecy. The prophecy revealed he would be the murderer of his own father, and married to his mother. The fatal flaw of Oedipus being his ignorance and ego blind him from seeing the true consequences of his actions, but he acts as if he knows what he is doing. All through the play this is proven and paired with a cocky pride that becomes more visible for the reader. Robert Kane
Sophocles informs the reader that Oedipus is blind to the truth just as Teiresias is blind to the world. Teiresias convicts Oedipus: “But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind”. (1318) He references not his physical state, but his mental state. Teiresias continues saying: “You cannot see the wretchedness of your life” referring to Oedipus’ depraved relationship and the murder of his father, Laius. (1318) Blindness could also mean unknowingly done or forgotten.