Draft 1 In William Shakespeare's tragic play "King Lear", Shakespeare explores the relationship between moral blindness and the ability to see the truth. The protagonist, King Lear, disowns those who are loyal to him, recklessly relinquishes his power, and gains full consciousness as he suffers under the mercy of his disloyal daughters. In this literary text, King Lear's inability to see the truth blinds him morally and causes suffering. In this play, King Lear's ignorance of seeing the truth beyond the face value of things leads him to disown those who are loyal to him. The play opens with King Lear intending to divide his kingdom between his three daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, but in exchange he demands the public profession of their love for him. Cordelia, his youngest daughter, is deprived of her dowry and told to leave the kingdom, as she refuses to flatter her father unlike her sisters. Similarly, the Earl of Kent is exiled from the kingdom when he tries to protect Cordelia and begs Lear to "see better, Lear, and let me still remain / The very emptiness of thy eyes" (1.1-180-181). At this point in the play Kent urg...