In the play "King Lear" one of the main themes is the theme of blindness. In the play, blindness is referred to as a mental characteristic of a person not as the physical disability to which most people think of when they hear the term blind or blindness. The meaning of blindness in the play is that a person cannot see through people or what they are really about. The characters in the play that are most affected by blindness are King Lear and Gloucester. Both of these characters' blindness led them to make terrible decisions, decisions that would cause chaos and destruction of life. Therefore, the inability to see through a person (blindness) causes complete and total destruction to a person's life and the people who are close to him or her.
             The first character in the play that proves that blindness leads to destruction of a person's and the people who are around him is King Lear, the blindest of all of the characters. In his position in society, he was supposed to be able to tell from what is good and what is bad. But unfortunately, his blindness did not enable him to do so which intern led him to make very poor decisions. Since he could not see through other people, he could not distinguish them for who they are what there motifs were. His vision was also distorted by his lack of direction, and his inability to see what will happen from his decisions. Because of both of these tragic flaws, he ended up ruining his relationship with his most loved daughter, Cordelia. This happened because when Lear asked his daughters to tell him how much they love him (so that he could decide who to give the kingdom to), thinking that Cordelia loved him most, Cordelia said: "I love you like a daughter should love her father, no more nor less..." (Act I, scene I, Line 94-95). Cordelia's words showed that she had heard what her sisters' said, and did not want to associate her true love with their false love. However, L...