The Better to See you with...

GLOUCESTER gets his eyes gouged out. This is not a normal thing, even for Shakespeare. 

This horribly, bloody, terrible event that happens had to have a specific purpose.

we can see without our eyes.
"O dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abused father's wrath!
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I'ld say I had eyes again!"- act IV scene I


He was blind metaphorically, and wrongly accused his righteous son, until he was blinded literally, and saw the truth. 

"What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes
with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond
justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in
thine ear" -act IV scene VI


Lear, in his mad, primal state, half lost his mind tells Gloucester still how there is life to see beyond what we experience only through our eyes. 


"Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

Their precious stones new lost: became his guide,
Led him, begg'd for him, saved him from despair;"

act V scene III

His newly lost eyes, became his guide. 

Gloucester pleads with his son, Edgar to let him stay and rot under a tree, and Edgar replies, 

"What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure

Their going hence, even as their coming hither-"act V scene II

Men must endure. 

This disturbing and unsettling play has a purpose in its gruesomeness. Even though our own mistakes create the misery in our lives, we must still go on. 

Shakespeare's Specific Series'

Shakespeare is very good at having his characters really EMPHASIZE their points with series'. for example: Glouster says, "we have seen the best of our time:" this alone might have made his point. BUT he takes it a step further with this:
 "machinations, hollowness, treachery and all ruinous disorders follow us disquitely to our graves" (Act I scene II)
He did not have to give us that detailed description of what is left, but because he did, it gives the reader/audience memeber a sense of much deeper, and much more specific despair.


He uses series to make a local point very global:
"love cools, freidnship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond craked 'twixt son and father" (act I Scene II)
So many problems in the world, and he compares a bond broken between a father and son to treason in a kingdom. We then get a sense of how deeply he feels betrayed because of this juxtaposition.

To emphasize loyalty: Kent could have easily just said, "I will serve loyally" but instead takes it that much further, and swears loyalty in a much stronger way when saying:
"to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise and says little; to fear judgement; to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish"(act I scene IV)


Shakespeare creates a witty fool with wordplay:"they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying, and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace" (act I scene IV)


In empasizing incredulousness at his daughters' lecherous behaviour:
"They durst not do't;
They could not, would not dot; 't is worse than murder" (Act II scene IV)


By use of word-play and series, Lear's  feelings are magnified and maddened. Truely creating a clear image of frustration and anger (even without seeing an actor perform it)
"You think I'll weep; No, I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall brake into a hundred thousand flaws,
 Or ere I'll weep." (Act II scene IV)

Powerful Men with Short Tempers

Shakespeare seems to like setting up his characters with outrageous and fatefull stubbornness. I noticed strong parallels between King Lear and Leontes (from The Winter's Tale)

LEONTES is convinced that his faithful wife is cheating on him with his best friend. He rashly accuses her, puts her in prison, banishes their child, and nothing anyone says can sway him otherwise. He gets caught up in pride, and the idea of being decieved and played a fool, makes him so mad, that he in fact becomes the fool.

Leontes and his bewildered accused Queen Hermione

"Go, play, boy, play: thy mother plays, and I
Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and clamour
Will be my knell. Go, play, boy, play.
There have been,
Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now"

KING LEAR is suddenly convinced that his most virtuous daughter does not love him, because she was honest in the amount of love (unlike her two scheming sisters, who in fact did NOT love him as much, but could flatter). Lear disinherits her, and not even his faithful, long-serving companion could sway him otherwise.

Two mean daughters, and the nice one

"Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
As thou my sometime daughter."

I'll bet we'll see a similar downfall as we did with Leontes. But maybe without as forgiving an ending...