King Lear

Shakespeare's King Lear is tragedy that involves family feuds over land and power. King Lear is concerned with appearance more than he cares about reality. He wants his daughters to show how much they love him, and isn't concerned about the truth of what they're saying. Lear decides to split up his land and his daughters must essentially compete to express the most love for their father. However, the daughter who has the most true love for Lear, Cordelia, responds with "nothing" because she does not want to compete in this game that she finds meaningless and trivial. Goneril and Regan however are in for the competition and are smart with their schemes to gain more land. Appearance and reality is seen throughout the play and shows the irony in Gloucester losing his sight. When he becomes blind it can be argued that he saw more than he did prior to blindness. Without his sight, he saw more. He was no longer able to visually seen appearances so he was somewhat forced to face reality.