Blindness

 Lear and Gloucester’’s Blindness Both King Lear and the

Earl of Gloucester experience a metaphorical blindness
that makes them miss the obvious devotion and love of
their honest children in favor of the flattery and lies of
their other children.
 This blindness eventually leads to their ruin, and then
their deaths. Both men are also blind to the true identities
of Kent and Edgar. Gloucester suffers a physical
blindness as well at the hands of Cornwall, who at the
same time reveals Gloucester’s blunder in trusting
Edmund.
 Gloucester is left to wander off without physical sight, but
truly seeing for the first time, the error of his decision.