King Lear: Bad to Worse

After getting into act four, one recurring theme that seems to stand out to me is how the story is moving closer and closer to being a true tragedy. For most of the "good" characters in the story, things are dramatically going from bad to worse, and the reader can only assume its a matter of time before Lear's kingdom is torn completely to shreds. For Lear, this was seen a little earlier on in his arguing with Goneril and Regan about how many knights he can have while at their castles. Instead of reaching an agreement however, he was instead banished and forced to wander around in the storm with his fool. As for Gloucester, situation takes an incredible turn for the worse when he is convicted of assisting King Lear. As punishment, he is blinded by an enraged Cornwall, then banished. While Kent suffers no physical damage in this section of reading, you could say that his feelings of despair only grow when he sees Lear start to lose it mentally and his companion Gloucester without his eyesight. For Edmund, it seemed that he thought his troubles had reached their height when he saw how bad Lear was doing after being betrayed by his daughters. His problems only escalade though when he sees his blinded father being led by a servant. Gloucester sums up this theme well when he says,"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport." He is showing that a state of total disorder is almost at hand, and there is little anyone can do now to stop Goneril and Regan. Through these events (and the ones to come) it is clear that this story is quickly shaping up to be a prime example of a tragedy.