《李尔王》人物性格中的盲目

《李尔王》人物性格中的盲目

［Abstract］In King Lear, the fault — blindness in characters leads them in the wrong direction. Although there is nothing wrong with his eyesight, he is a blind man because he doesn’t have the correct insight and understanding. On the contrary, Gloucester becomes physically blind but gets the ability of discernment that Lear does not have. This bifurcation of character results in Lear and Gloucester’s respective identity crisis. Through the play, Shakespeare initially deconstructs the principle of unity inherent in the notions of blindness and sight; he also restores their unity at the end of the play.

［Key words］King Lear,blindness,Shakespeare

I. Introduction

Of all Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth is the most rapid in movement, while Hamlet the slowest. Lear combines length with rapidity, — like the hurricane and the whirlpool absorbing while it advances. It begins as a stormy day in summer, with brightness; but that brightness is lurid, and anticipates the tempest.\[1\] When talking about “blindness” in the tragedy King Lear, we use this term in a totally different way. It is not a kind of physical disability, but a shortcoming of the characters’to use their thoughts and emotions to see a person as they truly are. They can

only read what is presented to them on the surface. King Lear, Gloucester and Albany are three prime characters that suffer most by having this flaw. Their blindness to the truth and to others who once try to help them see bring them to their downfalls. Throughout this play, the great writer and dramatist Shakespeare wants to tell us that it’s not enough to perceive the world only using your eyes. The true nature of people can be hidden under some masks, therefore, we should think with the mind.

Ⅱ. The Clarity of Vision: Gloucester

Gloucester’s tragic flaw is a special kind of lack of insight. Gloucester is not a stupid man, but he is a man who does not ask enough questions, who takes evidence at its face value, and confounds appearance and substance.

His whole history is consistent. Long before the time of the play, he enjoys an adulterous liaison of which Edmund is the fruit — a liaison which indicates that he views sex morality entirely as a man of the world. His unperceptive worldliness is the opening note of the play: in the first lines he talks to Kent about his escapade with Edmund’s mother even within the earshot of Edmund. Gloucester does not take the trouble to go beneath the surface. He easily falls in with whatever is going on about him: this is his way of avoiding the responsibility. When Edmund makes a specious case against Edgar, Gloucester falls right in with Edmund’s