King Lear and Gloucester are the two older characters that endure the most in the play King Lear by William Shakespeare. Throughout the play their stories foreshadow the events that will occur in the others life. However, while Gloucester goes blind, Lear goes mad. In doing this Shakespeare is indicating congruence between the two conditions. Only after they lose their faculties can Lear and Gloucester recognize that their blindness to honesty had cost them dearly.In the beginning of the play the audience can already tell Lear is going mad because of the things he requests and the way he acts. Because Lear had begun to act foolish he seemed senile. However, he is compelled into total madness after both his daughters refuse to treat him with the respect he deserves, and cast him out of their lives. Lear begins to realize once he has gone mad that Cordelia is the daughter that truly loves him, and Goneril as well as Regan are deceitful. The first real signs that are given to us that Lear is going mad are in Act I, Scene 5, when Lear joins in with the Fools nonsense. In those same lines Lear utters, I did her wrong. This means Lear did Cordelia wrong in exiling her. However, Lear fluctuates between sanity and madness throughout Acts I-II, and in Act II. Scene II he leaves Gloucesters castle and is pushed into insanity for some time. Once Lear has been thrust into the storm he can see people as the audience can, and not in the blurred images as before. Lear yells, Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters; I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness I never gave you kingdom, called you children; You owe me no subscription. (Act 3, Scene 2, 15-18)Although Lear is mad, he is now seeing what is true. He can see that his daughters have wronged him, although he gave them his kingdom. Lear is screaming this to the storm and he does not blame the storm for coming down on him because he never gave the storm his kingdom or called it ...
