The Blind Hallucinate Through Others Eyes, Deceit is both Evil and Good, And they All Died Happily Ever After. -Elijah Mahn

     In Act four, Edgar is asked by Gloucester, his father, to lead him to a cliff, so that he may commit suicide. Edgar leads his blinded father to a small ledge, and tells him that it is a huge cliff. Gloucester casts himself off of it, and is knocked unconscious. When he comes to, Edgar describes it as a miracle that he survived. Gloucester believes him. It is interesting, because this is essentially a hallucination, but being had by a blind man, something that is ordinarily not possible. It also demonstrates an interesting concept of the play, that deceit is not always evil, if it is done for the right reasons. What Edgar did was deceitful, but also saved his father's life. This acts as a foil to Edmund, who uses deceit to harm his father, rather than help him.

    In Act five, everything comes to a head. We'll start with the traitorous three; Edmund, Goneril, and Regan. Edmund decides he wants to be like the Greek god Zeus when it comes to faithfulness, and pledges his love to both sisters. Albany is given the letters of Oswald, which point to Edmund and Goneril's affair. Next, It's time to see what Edgar and Gloucester are doing. Edgar leads Gloucester away from the battle field, where he reveals himself to his father. Gloucester then takes a page out of Padme's book, and dies of being sad. Meanwhile, King Lear and Cordelia have been taken captive, and are sent to a prison by Edmund, who also sends a captain to execute them. We now rejoin the three amigos in murder, where the two snakes, I mean sisters, are fighting over Edmund. The actions that have been taken regarding the king have angered Albany, who challenges someone to stand against Edmund and prove him a traitor. Edgar arrives in disguise, and defeats Edmund in a duel. He then reveals himself, and Edmund's treachery. Interestingly, Edmund almost seems to try to redeem himself by confessing to his order to execute the King and Cordelia. Later, a servant comes with a bloody knife, saying Goneril has killed herself, and poisoned her sister Regan. After This, King Lear comes in, carrying Cordelia's body, and states that the fool was also executed. King Lear then follows Gloucester and Padme's example, and dies of being sad.
Or, as I would put it, they all died happily ever after!

    It is interesting to note that a servant brings in the bloody knife. It is possible that the servant is telling the truth, and the sisters took each other, and themselves, down; with betrayal leading to being betrayed.  Another possibility is that the servants betrayed the betrayers, killing them. This could mean that the people of England are standing against  them, possibly revealing that their evil is so evident that even the common people have recognized it, and decided to do something. Edmund doomed himself by pledging himself to two different backstabbers, and exercising authority far beyond what he should be allowed, by sending the king to prison. Edmund seems to try to redeem himself for his past actions by revealing his treachery in order to prevent it from coming to fruition, but his treachery has already caught up to him, and he dies. He is even too late in revealing his treachery to stop it, further revealing the completeness of his failure; and possibly his repentance. Overall, the only way for there to be a good kingdom afterward is for King Lear to not be in command, and the treacherous sisters and Edmund to be out of the picture. Cordelia would have been a good queen, but she is dead. Therefore, England must have new leadership entirely.   This winds up being a good thing for England, as just and good rulers are appointed in the form of Edgar and Kent, but this was the result of a lot of death, all caused by treachery, as well as the foolishness of King Lear. In essence, all of the death throughout the story was caused by flattery. Therefore, the thing that caused the downfall of all of England, was, in the end, flattery. Flattery leads to tragedy, and that is the tragedy of both King Lear, and England.

 

P.S. I am aware that I have summary included, particularly in the second paragraph, however, this is to bring these events to the forefront of your mind for the analysis and observations that follow the summaries. My brain thinks in terms of picking things apart and making observations, so it is largely a reference, with the other portions being the actual blog, which I believe has plenty of content (this is why I have 3 paragraphs). I hope this is permissible.