The conceit that it is only through suffering that one can gain true insight is as old as the invention of purgatory and as wise as the directive to walk a mile in another person’s moccasins and as entertaining as that Christmas cartoon about the Grinch. This concept of purchasing a little slice of amazing grace by acquiring the ability to see clearly where once you were blind is a central theme of “King Lear.” Since the play is a tragedy, however, not every character who demonstrates metaphorical blindness acquires insight through suffering and the two characters who suffer the most enjoy no benefit of a happy life upon receiving sight.
Shakespeare lays the foundation for an exploration of themes related to vision and suffering early when Goneril declares “Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter,
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty” (I. i. 55-56). Such flattery will get Goneril everything, temporarily, but it is her blindness that will bring her tragedy. The trek that Goneril takes from the lowball price she sets on her own vision to the costly underestimation of seeing the real value of her father is likely a short one. Her inability to see her own folly is exhibited in pronouncements like “Old fools are babes again, and must be us’d With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abus’d” (I. iii. 524-525). The tragedy of “King Lear” for Goneril is that she is so blinded by ambition that she not only fails to see the genuine qualities of her father, but also fails to recognize that suffering for this lapse is her only hope for enlightenment.
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Goneril is hardly the only character who experiences the effects of blindness without being put to the test of suffering as a means of attaining enlightenment. Even Cordelia—arguably the only character in the entire play who is not deserving of being made to suffer—demonstrates a strange form of blindness when she can’t see the obviously right thing to do in order to appease her father and avoid a messy domestic situation. Those whose blindness is not cured through suffering are merely narrative counterpoints to the real meat of this theme in “King Lear.” Shakespeare clearly understands his audience is far less interested in suffering that bring no insight than to suffering which atones. This recognition accounts for the highly dramatic scenes that take blindness from the metaphorical level to the palpable level.
When Lear orders Kent to get out of his sight, Kent’s response boils the entirety of the play down to three simple words: “See better, Lear” (I. i. 166). And, indeed, it will take nearly the entire play for Lear to do just that. In the interim, Lear’s metaphorical blindness toward the positive and negative attributes of his daughters costs him his family, his kingdom, his clothing and, ultimately, his sight. That very literal blindness leads him straight into the most intense moments of suffering. That inability to actually see with his eyes becomes a process of purification through which finally becomes able to see things clearly from a metaphorical perspective.
Lear’s suffering for the reward of finally being able to see which of his offspring was “the good one” all along is nothing compared to that which Gloucester faces. In a weirdly parallel subplot, Gloucester also arrives at this exact same insight after suffering literal blindness. In another parallel with Lear, the path toward attaining figurative insight though literally blind is also accompanied by three memorable words: “Out, vile jelly!” (III. vii. 2216).
Which brings the theme back around to where it started. The vile jelly inside Gloucester’s eyes are removed courtesy of the Duke of Cornwell, but in response to Goneril’s previous directive that the organs be physically removed. An argument might well be made that Goneril’s later decision to take her own life actually is the result of having come to some sort of moral insight as the result of suffering. If so, then it almost certainly the case that any such last-minute acquisition of moral vision results not from the suffering Goneril experienced, but from a realization of the suffering she imposed upon others. Like her father King Lear and Gloucester, just to mention two obvious instances. Perhaps, Goneril’s suicide can be explained away as an example of expiation through suffering…once removed.
- Greenblatt, Stephen, gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol.
A. New York: Norton, 2012. Print.
