An Examination of the Inverse Tropes of Sight and Blindness in King Lear In King Lear, the recurring images of sight and blindness associated with the characters of Lear and Gloucester illustrate the theme of self-knowledge and consciousness that exist in the play. These classic tropes are inverted in King Lear, producing a situation in which those with healthy eyes are ignorant of what is going on around them, and those without vision appear to "…showed first 75 words of 1369 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1369 total…of sight and blindness that the audience views Gloucester's and Lear's development to self-knowledge, as they become conscious of their own condition and that of the world around them. Undeniably, the plots of Lear and Gloucester run similar courses. However, Shakespeare employs Gloucester's plot to explicate Lear's plot. Through the physical blinding of Gloucester, Shakespeare provides an analogue which contextualizes King Lear's theme of consciousness and allows Lear's own metaphorical blindness to be fully grasped.