King Lear: Act 3 Q. 1

Act 3
Question 1:
Read Gloucester’s lines beginning with line 171 in Act III, scene 4. It starts “Canst thou blame him?” It then continues to express Gloucester’s terrible hurt at the thought that Edgar, his beloved son, has betrayed him. Of course, the dramatic irony is palpable because Edgar is standing right there, but that is an analytical discussion for another time.
Here, I would like you to consider the human emotional response to rejection and betrayal—especially by those you love. It is perhaps the most painful of experiences. Only grief after a death competes with it. What is it like? What does it do to a person? Consider deeply what Gloucester (and Lear, and Edgar, and Cordelia, and Kent) is experiencing. Consider the pain that they are living with.

Rejection and betrayal genuinely suck. They hurt. A lot. And it’s really hard to move on from.

With rejection, it’s like that sinking feeling in your heart when your dignitary is stripped away. The rejecter takes any self-confidence you might have had and there isn’t much you can do but sulk in self-pity afterwards. It is in fact the most painful of experience next to the death of a loved one.

Betrayal, on the other hand, is like a stab in the back. It’s sharp and rather than wallowing in self-pity, betrayal evokes anger. Well, at least for me personally. It’s also like a punch in the stomach: it takes a while to register what that person did; you are in disbelief and shocked that a person could do such a thing.

Gloucester and the other characters in King Lear experience pain because of betrayal and rejection. Specifically in Gloucester’s case, after calling out for Edmund to help him, Regan blatantly reveals Edmund is the traitor who put him in this situation. Gloucester is completely rejected of getting any help what-so-ever in his moment of need. And as if that rejection doesn’t hurt enough, Gloucester realizes Edgar has betrayed him. It’s like a slapped in the face, so-to-speak, as he grasps that he was very wrong about his sons. He experiences this all alone, which makes it all the more painful for him. Gloucester doesn’t have anyone to talk to about his grief.

Adding more to his painful epiphany, Gloucester gets brutally beaten. It becomes a very metaphorical scene: when he has the revelation before, he literally and figuratively is able to see. However when Cornwall gouges his eyesight, Gloucester is unable to see. He literally becomes blind and figuratively cannot see past the anguish and betrayal he feels.