A Literary Analysis of the Major Themes in Shakespeare’s King Lear

Blindness and Sight

Gloucester loses his eyes in the play to symbolize the blindness he has had toward Edmund’s deceit up to that point. Edmund widely manipulates Gloucester throughout the play. He allows Edmund to do this easily because he simply accepts what Edmund tells him as the truth without thoroughly investigating Edmund’s claims. Gloucester allows himself to be blind to the truth and rejects his son, Edgar, at the word of his other son, Edmund. Later in the play, he reinforces this idea of blindness when he cannot identify his son Edgar when Edgar is disguised as Poor Tom. Gloucester can still physically see at this point in the play, but what he can see physically blinds him to the tricks and deceit surrounding him. It is not until his eyes are painfully and physically removed that he can see through the lies Edmund has been telling him and see the truth about Edgar’s innocence. His physical blindness restores his sense of faith. To have faith, one must trust what one cannot see. Therefore, in the scene in which Edgar leads Gloucester to a small cliff and aids him in jumping off of the ledge, Edgar aids in restoring Gloucester's faith in what he knows and believes to be true, his inner sight, rather than what he physically sees. It isn’t until after he jumps off the ledge that he parts with the persona of Old Tom and is ‘reunited’ with Edgar, further symbolizing the blindness and lack of faith that Gloucester has experienced throughout the play.

The Death of Innocence

Cordelia must die to demonstrate the real tragedy of Lear’s character at the end of the play. From the very first scene in the play, Cordelia represents the ideas of honest love and courage. It takes courage for Cordelia to confess her genuine feelings toward her father aloud. Her line in which she says “love, and be silent” is made all the more tragic later in the play when the reader realizes Cordelia is the only child Lear has who really loves him (Shakespeare, ln 60). Therefore, Cordelia represents the only true thing in Lear’s life, even despite his harsh rejection of her. She is the only thing clear among his madness and the chaos of everything else in his world. Lear treats Cordelia horribly, yet she is there for him at the end of the play. Lear has lost everything he held important at this point in the play, and it is at rock bottom that he realizes the love of Cordelia, the only family he has left, is the only thing that matters. After this realization, for Lear to still lose Cordelia at the end makes this play so tragic. He loses the only person who loved him, and with this loss, the last thread of his sanity breaks, and shortly after, he loses his life. 

Innocence Embodied

The two characters that are significant representations of innocence in the play are Edgar and Cordelia. These characters experience blame and punishment throughout the play for circumstances outside their control. Despite their treatment and the manipulative environment they each experience, these characters are the most genuine people in the play. 

Edgar is forced to run from his home and adopt the persona of Poor Tom to protect his own life from his plotting brother. Edgar is a good man and has been a good brother to Edmund. The point of contention between the two brothers is the fact of Edgar’s legitimacy in contrast with Edmund’s illegitimacy. To sway their father's opinion, Edmund manipulates Edgar and Gloucester. However, Edgar remains innocent throughout the play and even elects to protect and save his blind father when they meet on the road. 

Similarly, Cordelia’s only supposed crime is the refusal to flatter Lear in the play's first scene. However, her refusal to do so cannot be viewed as a crime because she is the only daughter who speaks truthfully in that scene. Cordelia’s older sisters commit the actual crime; they give Lear what he wants, flatter him, and, in the process, misrepresent their real feelings toward their father. Goneril and Regan are the ones who manipulate and deceive Lear throughout the play. Therefore, Cordelia remains innocent despite her sisters’ crimes and is therefore punished for telling the truth. However, like Edgar, Cordelia demonstrates her goodness and innocence by accepting Lear at the end of the play before her tragic death. 

Rain and Clarity

Rain holds a lot of symbolic significance in “King Lear.”  The theme of rain is essential because it represents both the chaos surrounding Lear and the clarity that comes after the rain has finished. Firstly, it is essential to note the storm throughout the middle of the play. Right before the storm happens, Lear realizes the betrayal of Goneril and Regan. While he and his party, including Poor Tom, attempt to seek shelter from the storm, Lear’s sanity snaps, and he disappears into the stormy night. Gloucester is then captured and blinded, and the character of the fool dies. All of this happens after the storm emerges, which leads the reader to conclude that the storm represents the physical manifestation of the chaos surrounding Lear and the madness taking hold inside his mind. 

His life is falling apart, and many drastic plot details occur during the storm. The storm is a metaphor for how tumultuous and unpredictable the world in which these characters live has become. The weather reflects how no character can escape the trajectory of the play, specifically how Lear cannot escape from his mind and madness. 

After the storm ends, clarity begins to form for each character. Edgar begins to understand why he was cast out of his home and can reconcile with these events. Gloucester is physically blinded, forcing him to rely on his other senses to help him see clearly, and Lear reunites with Cordelia. Additionally, the manipulation and deceit spun by the characters of Edmund, Goneril, and Regan throughout the play wash away, and their plans begin to unravel. The reader is left to wonder if the play ever could have reached its conclusion without the chaos that came before. The resolution's clarity depends on the deceit and chaos of all the earlier scenes in the play. Chaos and clarity are both different sides to the same coin, and, as it is with rain, clear skies are often a result of a massive and unpredictable storm. The play forces the reader to confront the reality that, often, you may only arrive at clarity when you have ventured through a period of madness.