King Lear: Greed and Blindness into Madness

Edmund’s madness for power was confirmed during his realization of the truth. According to Edmund, his madness was initially ignited by his desire to rid his title as the bastard child and his desire to become the legitimate child. Edmund thought that society and nature prohibited this change, so, he resorted to obtaining power and wealth to compensate for his desires. Secretly, Edmund only wanted to be equal with his brother. This was proved in Act 5 when Edgar suggests them to “exchange charity” (5.3.177). As Edmund was defeated by Edgar, he begins to regret his actions and comes to the realization that Edgar was the loyal one from the beginning. At that instant, he learned of Regan and Gonreil’s death. In the end, the power, the woman, and the wealth that Edmund wanted most was dead or destroyed, like Britain, and his regrets were with France. Therefore, what Edmund sought in life, ironically links back to the person he despised the most, Edgar.

Secondly, King Lear’s blindness creates an opening path to bring about his foolish and unjustified decisions. Lear says, ``Thy banish`d trunk be found in our dominions…This shall not be revoke`d”(1.1.176-179).  King Lear mistakenly banishes Cordelia, his youngest and most loyal daughter, only because she was honest about her love for him. Kent tries to persuade Lear that he is making a mistake stating, “Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least” (1.1.151). Unfortunately Lear’s hamartia denies him from the true intentions of his other fraudulent daughters. King Lear’s journey into madness caused him to make vital mistakes such as, going to Regan for redemption, stripping in a thunderstorm, and most importantly, losing hope for his kingdom. Further into the play, it is visible that King Lear has constantly been neglected by his two daughters - whom now he knows he wrongfully perceived. In addition, King Lear’s blindness negates him from seeing the truth which in return, painfully strips him of his power and dignity. As Lear’s character change further in the play, so does the overwhelming realisation that he has been deceived by his own daughters. This is the initial point to his insanity.

King Lear’s madness is evident within almost every aspect of the play. With his peripeteia, he becomes a lunatic and curses Regan and Gonreil through the use of nature. For example, the protagonist had multiple scenes where he indicated his upcoming and occurring madness: “I would not be mad!” (1.5.42) and “I shall go mad” (2.4.283). Therefore, this further explains the results of his hubris which ultimately contributed to his downfall.

King Lear had a similar awakening to that of Edmund’s. With the assistance of his daughter’s betrayal, immediately he stated, “I did her wrong” (1.5.22) as he referred to his banishment of Cordelia. Additionally, the thunders of the storm to which he called upon symbolized his grief, agony, and lunacy. This pathetic fallacy revealed to the audience the epiphany of his experiences through pathos. The insanity caused by his blindness eventually brought him down to the position of a beggar. This experience taught him much wisdom through humiliation of his title as King. According to King Lear himself, “O, I have taken too little care of this!” (3.4.33) and “I have one part in my heart that’s sorry for thee” (3.2.72-73) declared that beggars are not as worthless as they appeared to be. Ultimately, he realized his anagnorisis due to false perception and that is why blindness ultimately led him into his realization of the truth.

All in all, the play of King Lear by Shakespeare clearly illustrates greed and blindness to expose the anagnorisis and nemesis of discrete characters. These characteristics open the eyes of Edmund and King Lear, to the realisation that they were acting out of evil. In the end, both were led to an understanding of who, what, when, where and why they went into such a state of utter and horrific absurdity.