Old Fond Eyes Beweep This Cause Again

If you lot had to give up on one of your sensory faculties, what would it be? Sight, odor, sense of taste, hearing, touch – take your option. Go on.

Out of the v, I'd imagine losing my sight to be the scariest (although losing any would be a grave inconvenience).

That's because incomprehension isn't just a concrete deficiency; it'southward a psychological nightmare, a dystopian mission to wander in a pathless labyrinth, where one never truly knows what to await with each step.

The ironic thing, though, is that most of us perfectly salubrious souls are afflicted with 'blindness'. It's just non blindness in the visual sense.

The 'incomprehension' that we carry effectually is a cognitive sort of bias, which manifests itself in different forms when activated in different scenarios.

Bias, by the way, isn't a negative thing per se – information technology's part of human subjectivity, and therefore, an inherent trait that we all possess.

In my mail service on Merchant of Venice , I discuss how Shakespeare portrays racial bias through the struggle between Shylock, the Jewish usurer, and the rest of Venetian order.

In another i of his plays, Male monarch Lear , the Bard examines the ills of confirmation bias, and specifically, the dangers of giving into this sort of bias too oft.

What is King Lear really about?

In this tragedy, the eponymous character fails to see true loyalty and devotion in his youngest child Cordelia, and instead falls for the flattery and sycophancy of his elder daughters Regan and Goneril.

At the start of the play, he is affronted by Cordelia'due south reluctance to say that she loves him and takes for face value his other daughters' words of affection.

Lear graphic PC: The Irresolute Palette/Bard on the Beach; sisters graphic PC: David Hurley in Nihon

He quickly sees the errors of his ways, however, every bit Regan and Goneril testify their true colours upon usurping their begetter's power.

Some other character, the nobleman Gloucester, makes a like misstep in judgement, as he buys into his illegitimate (and bitter) son Edmund'due south lie nigh his legitimate son Edgar plotting a patricide.

What has troubled many readers over the years is the irrational promptness with which both Lear and Gloucester denounced their children. Surely, every bit fathers, you'd know your children's personality well enough to know what they will or won't say and exercise, correct?

As with all Shakespearean drama, though, information technology's of import that we don't evaluate the characters equally if they were real people. They are, in a higher place all, condensed dramatic creations that offer the states clearer insight into the hidden caverns of our inner selves.

To understand why nosotros tend to autumn victim to our ain biases, let'due south examine several primal moments in this play:

• Act 1 Scene 4, when Lear explodes in anger over Goneril'due south boldness and order that he reduce his troops
• Act 3 Scene 7, when Regan and Cornwall gouge out Gloucester's eyes to punish him for helping Lear escape to Dover
• Act 4 Scene 6, when the bullheaded Gloucester is 'pranked' past his son Edgar into believing that he has miraculously survived a fall, afterwards which the 2 run across a mentally deranged Lear, driven mad and sad by his own tragic follies.

Act one Scene 4 – With simulated flattery comes true colours – "Where are his eyes?"

Upon gaining ability, Goneril sees no need to hibernate her disdain for Lear. Recognising "how full of changes [Lear's] age is" and "what poor judgment" has overcome him, Goneril hijacks the operations of Lear'southward courtroom and cuts his retinue by half.

Naturally, the king is outraged. Once he sees Goneril for who she really is, he expresses anguished regret over having been so blind to Goneril's wickedness and expects Regan to vindicate him.

This, of course, is a great case of dramatic irony, equally the audition knows from the 2 sisters' conspiring dialogue at the end of Human action one Scene 1 that Regan will do null of the sort for her grossly misguided father.

In expressing his outrage over having trusted Goneril, he cries –

LEAR

Doth any here know me? This is not Lear:
Doth Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes?
Either his notion weakens, his discernings
Are lethargied – Ha! Waking? Tis not and then.
Who is it that tin can tell me who I am?

FOOL

Lear'south shadow.

LEAR

I would learn that. For by the marks
Of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason,
I should exist false persuaded I had daughters.

Lear's reference to himself in the third person is telling: it severs Lear the grapheme into 2 'Lears', one with eyes and the other without.

Clarity of sight, so, is what determines a king from a gull.

And still, despite Lear's try at externalising his misguided 'doppleganger', we see that king and dupe are really the aforementioned person later on all.

This leveraging of tertiary-person externalisation is reminiscent of Hamlet's words to Laertes upon finding out Ophelia'due south expiry in Act 5 of the eponymous play, where nosotros  encounter the Prince 'bifurcating' himself into the existent 'I' and some other 'Hamlet' that he wishes to distance himself from .

Lear's cord of self-interrogative questions conveys at once the remorse and indignation he feels over misplacing his trust in Goneril, merely the bespeak here is how closely he associates the power to run across conspicuously with a stiff sense of cocky-identity: with no "optics", there is no "I".

With no eyes, there is no 'I'.

The problem with Lear, however, is his overweening trust in the "marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason" as king, when we know that kingship itself does not vaccinate one against the follies of bias and misjudgement.

Indeed, majestic station tends to fuel such tendencies all the more than with its natural affinity for attracting obsequiousness, which almost always clouds 1's judgment and leads to unsound decisions.

Lear is certainly right in recognising that he "should exist false persuaded [he] had daughters", simply is grossly misguided in his expectation that Goneril'due south waywardness will be compensated in any way past Regan'due south obedience, which we soon notice out is non the instance.

The scene ends with the desolation of filial disappointment, as Lear chastises Goneril with the incredible grief of a father who's been spurned –

LEAR

Life and expiry! I am aback
That thou hast ability to shake my manhood thus;
That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
Should brand thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee!
The untented woundings of a male parent's expletive
Pierce every sense well-nigh thee! One-time fond eyes,
Beweep this cause over again, I'll pluck ye out,
And cast you, with the waters that y'all lose,
To atmosphere clay.

The king, who supposes himself to exist this figure of steely manhood, is reduced to tears by a daughter's boldness.

The merism of "Life and decease!" shows the extremity in both Lear's emotion and sentence, the latter which is the root of his  sadness.

Had he tempered his disposition a niggling when adjudicating between Cordelia, Regan and Goneril's honey in the first Act, and took on board Kent'southward communication for him to "see meliorate", possibly in that location would be no need for "these hot tears" at present.

Lear's hyperbolic reference to "plucking out" his "quondam fond eyes" is also foreboding, equally Gloucester, his loyal nobleman, will have his violently eyes plucked out by his other girl, Regan (and son-in-law, Cornwall), equally punishment for protecting the king.

Human activity 3 Scene 7 – With blindness comes insight – "Pluck out his poor old optics"

Why is Gloucester blinded in King Lear ?

In Act three Scene 7, Regan and Cornwall gouge out Gloucester'due south eyes, enraged as they are that he had helped Lear escape ahead of their planned coup.

Gloucester, however, won't give in to the pair's brutal abuse without delivering a snub –

CORNWALL

Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.

GLOUCESTER

I am tied to the pale, and I must stand the grade.

REGAN

Wherefore to Dover, sir?

GLOUCESTER

Considering I would not run into thy vicious nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In hell-black night endures, would accept buoyed upwards,
And quenched the stelled fires:
Yet, poor old centre, he holp the heavens to pelting.
If wolves had at thy gate howled that stren fourth dimension,
Yard shouldst have said 'Adept porter, plow the key,'
All cruels else subscribed: just I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.

CORNWALL

See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair.
Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot.

GLOUCESTER

He that volition think to live till he exist erstwhile,
Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!

It's interesting that Gloucester, as a tertiary-political party witness to Lear'southward downfall, should see so clearly the king's state of affairs just be so bullheaded to his own. He is securely aware of how Goneril and Regan's evil has caused Lear bully suffering, and still remains oblivious to how Edmund's villainy has led to his ain plight.

Valiant though he is in refusing to "see thy [Regan'south] cruel nails/Pluck out [Lear'due south] poor onetime optics", Gloucester must at present become the scapegoat for his master'due south "poor old" sight, as he sacrifices his real eyes for Lear'southward lack of insight.

It's worth paying attention to the homophones of "bounding main" and "see" in Gloucester's response to Regan'due south interrogation –

"Because I would not run across thy savage nails/Pluck out his poor sometime optics"

"The sea, with such a storm as his blank caput/In hell-blackness night endures,"

What is the human relationship between "see" and "sea" in these lines?

The sea alluded to here is a stormy one that'southward dark, turbulent, non easily navigable but easy to go lost in. In such a sea, one would be at pains to see annihilation clearly.

By using the sea metaphor to reinforce the severity of suffering that Regan and Co. have imposed on their father ('yous've conjured upward a storm then great that sea waves would have risen up to extinguish the stars' fires'), Gloucester conjures upwards the image of ane being lost at sea, of floating without either a sense of direction or clarity of sight to re-orientate oneself onto the right path.

This sense of loss applies aptly to Lear'southward situation, but besides anticipates Act 3 Scene 7, when a blind Gloucester is portrayed at the spiritual nadir of his life, merely to exist 'saved' by the 'spring of organized religion' that his disowned son encourages him to accept.

What's almost ironic about this scene, all the same, is the fact that Gloucester immediately finds out about his misjudgement of Edgar and misplacement of trust in Edmund merely after he loses his sight –

GLOUCESTER –

All dark and comfortless. Where'south my son Edmund?
Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature,
To quit this horrid human action.

REGAN

Out, treacherous villain!
G phone call'st on him that hates thee: it was he
That made the overture of thy treasons to usa;
Who is besides good to pity thee.

GLOUCESTER

O my follies! So Edgar was abused.
Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!

One thing'due south for sure: Gloucester is no sceptic. He's so very quick to change his heed, and bizarrely trustful of whatever he's told on the spot.

Just as he had believed in Edmund's accusation of Edgar without batting and so much as an eyelid in Act 1 Scene 2, he is similarly quick to revise his stance of Edgar upon hearing Regan'southward remarks about Edmund'due south expose ("O my follies! And so Edgar was abused.").

This suggests that Gloucester is equally deeply distrustful well-nigh his own ability to judge every bit he is rashly trustful towards the words of others.

N otwithstanding his noble ranking every bit an earl, Gloucester is plagued with insecurity and a lack of cocky-confidence.

His confirmation bias, then, is rooted in a lack of belief in his own judgement. Meanwhile, his foolhardy readiness to believe in others makes him a victim to poisonous untruths.

Human action 4 Scene half-dozen – With no eyes comes the ability to see – "I see it feelingly"

In the famous 'Fields near Dover' scene, a bearded Edgar pushes the limits of his bullheaded father's imagination by having him 'simulated' a suicide autumn. By instigating a prank miracle, Edgar demonstrates the ultimate filial gesture, one that results in redemption for an old human with a cleaved soul.

Unable to see anything, Gloucester is forced to rely not only on his other sensory faculties, just well-nigh chiefly, on what he'southward ever lacked – his faith in himself.

Edgar, disguised in this scene as a peasant, guides his father on this spiritual journey by first telling him that he's walking towards the border of a real promontory –

EDGAR

Come on, sir; here's the identify: stand still. How fearful
And dizzy 'tis, to bandage one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show deficient and then gross equally beetles: half way down
Hangs 1 that gathers samphire, dreadful merchandise!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond alpine anchoring bark,
Diminished to her erect; her erect, a buoy
Almost as well small for sight: the murmuring surge,
That on the unnumbered idle peddles chafes,
Cannot exist heard so high. I'll look no more than;
Lest my encephalon turn, and the scarce sight
Topple down headlong.

This is a vivid tableau for what, in reality, is blankness.

But Edgar'south imagination enables him to imbue the surroundings with depth and perspective, from which he can imitation the fear and anxiety that comes with "the deficient sight" of looking from "so high".

We come across the details of one homo seeming like "no bigger than his caput" from the 'height' of where they stand up, of fishermen "appear[ing] like mice", and of the incremental zooming-out from a "tall anchoring bark/Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy/Almost too small for sight".

Notation, by the mode, how the anadiplosis of "her cock; her cock" reinforces the fluidity of Edgar's imagined perspective. These are observations which don't merely communicate the terror that comes with altitude, only likewise the insight that results from re-orienting one'south perspective.

Edgar and Gloucester at Dover Cliff (PC: Oliver Cuthberston)

From Edgar'southward speech, nosotros realise that the business concern of seeing isn't a straightforward affair – depending on where one stands, ane'south vantage could be radically different.

In that sense, literal blindness isn't that much different from perfect eyesight, considering the latter doesn't entail clear inner vision or 'truth' (and indeed, blindness seems to be the amend way to reach this, equally in Gloucester's case).

Paradoxically, Gloucester's fall is made blackly comic by its tragic quality. After he falls forwards (and assumes himself dead), he 'double-checks' with Edgar whether he has really fallen (and if he actually is, well, dead). In response, Edgar tells him that he has 'survived' a miraculous autumn, and strangely enough, asks his blind father to "practice but look upwardly" –

EDGAR

From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-pinnacle; the shrill-gorged distraction so far

Cannot be seen or heard: do simply look up.

GLOUCESTER

Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
To end itself past death? Twas nonetheless some condolement,
When misery could beguile the tyrant'south rage,
And frustrate his proud will.

Why, despite knowing full well that his begetter is blind, does Edgar still tell Gloucester to "look up" – twice? Gloucester's thing-of-fact response ("Alack, I accept no eyes") misunderstands his son's words.

This is axiomatic from the paradox of Edgar'southward comment – "the shrill-gorged lark so far/Cannot be seen or heard: do just look up": if the lark tin't be seen, and so what is in that location to see if one were to wait upwardly?

Perhaps what Edgar means isn't looking up to actually see, merely rather, wait up to feel – from the cock of 1's neck – the kinaesthetic awareness of still being alive.

The emphasis here isn't on sight, just sensation, which is something that Gloucester later recognises in his response to Lear'due south taunting control for him to read the alphabetic character: "I see it feelingly."

Later on, Gloucester "feels" Lear's ruined state but by listening to the male monarch's raving spoken language –

GLOUCESTER

O ruined piece of nature! This not bad globe
Shall and then wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?

LEAR

I call up thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny
at me? No, do thy worst, bullheaded Cupid! I'll not
dearest. Read thou this challenge; marking but the
penning of it.

GLOUCESTER

Were all the messages suns, I could non encounter 1.

EDGAR

I would not accept this from report; information technology is,
And my heart breaks at it.

LEAR

Read.

GLOUCESTER

I run into it feelingly.

LEAR

What, art mad? A homo may encounter how this world goes
with no optics. Look with thine ears: see how yond
justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in
thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which
is the justice, which is the thief? Grand hast seen
a farmer's dog bark at a ragamuffin?

GLOUCESTER

Ay, sir.

It is both poignant and remarkable that Lear, afterwards experiencing the disillusionment of filial expose, should acquire such sharpness of insight that he so lacked at the get-go of the play.

Even so, the irony of his advice to "look with thine ears" is unmissable.

His tragic downfall is precisely caused past 'looking with his ears' – buying into Regan and Goneril'due south flattering, but disingenuous, rhetoric, only not seeing the value of what he didn't hear – Cordelia'south refusal to say that she loves him, despite the fact that she really does.

Clearly, this approach to "look with thine ears" didn't work out also well for him.

Lear gone mad (PC: De Agostini Moving picture Library)

What's true, though, is that both Lear and Gloucester are merely able to see the world for what information technology truly is subsequently they lose some of their physical capabilities – the sometime, his sanity; the latter, his sight.

In whatsoever case, this is such a heartrending scene, and its tragic intensity is compounded by the hypothetical metaphor and internal rhyme in Gloucester'south response to Lear's absurd request for him to read – "were all the letters suns , I could not see one ".

No amount of low-cal, not fifty-fifty the strongest source in the whole of the universe, can always revive Gloucester's sight, and this unchangeable fact is sealed, as it were, in the static couplet of "suns/one".

Coda

In 1667, about lx years later the first functioning of Male monarch Lear , a blind poet by the proper noun of John Milton published an epic work about the Christological origins of man.

Titled Paradise Lost , it is the 'backstory' to the famous narrative of Adam and Eve's fall.

In Book 3 of this epic poem, the poet alludes to his own incomprehension as the source of his deep insight into human nature and the inspiration for his aggressive 'preface' to the Bible:

So much the rather chiliad Celestial light
Shine inward, and the heed through all her powers
Irradiate, in that location institute eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may run across and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.

With a "Celestial light" that "shine inward" in the mind, Milton is able to "see and tell/Of things invisible to mortal sight".

And we see this played out no less poignantly in Gloucester's case.

PC: Slate, the changing palette, The Hare, Open Library.org, wikipedia, David Hurley in Japan

wilsonyoutind.blogspot.com

Source: https://hyperbolit.com/2020/07/19/what-does-king-lear-show-us-about-blindness/

Share this post