Gloucester and Lear’s Realizations of the Importance’s in Life In William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Gloucester and Lear both experience similar situations in which their children cause them to suffer greatly: The former suffers from blindness and the latter slips from reality into a state of madness. It is not until Act 4, scene 6 that they come to the realization of the importances in life; such as true love for and from a child. Gloucester is convinced by his illegitimate son Edmund that his legitimate son Edgar cannot be trusted, resulting in the banishment of Edgar. King Lear believes the false protestations of love his two elder daughters, Goneril and Regan sell to him; meanwhile, his youngest daughter Cordelia is the only daughter
This scene shows how greatly their betrayal affected him and that he is far from sanity. Lear says about his daughters, “They flatter me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there” (4.6.96-98). Goneril and Regan trick their father into believing they were sincere in their confessions of love. Lear realizes that he has been taken advantage of and believes that his true loving daughter, Cordelia, will never forgive him, although, in the end she sends an army to rescue him. Lear is chased by Cordelia’s gentleman and is reunited with his daughter who forgives him for banishing her and she remains devoted to him. Lear says to her, “You must bear with me: pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish” (4.7.84-85), though Cordelia does not need to hear this, since her forgiveness was already shown to him. Lear recovers into a sane state and discovers the importance of life: not all the money or land, flattery or praise, but love, specifically real love is all you need. After coming to this realization, Cordelia and Lear are captured and they both die at the end of the play. Similar to Gloucester, being reunited with loving children is better late than never and being forgiven by Cordelia means to world to Lear. Gloucester and Lear do not see the evil or the good in their children, but their wrong decisions create