Eric Chen
Mr. Darren Gobert
English S1123Q
July 16, 2001 (resubmitted July 19, 2001)

A Study of Gloucester in King Lear as a Tragic Hero

            According to M.H. Abrams’ explanation in A Glossary of Literary Terms, an Aristotelian tragic hero experiences events that inspire “pity and fear” (212) in the audience, which, in turn, leads to a catharsis – usually interpreted as “purification” or “purgation” -- for the audience (212). The tragic hero, therefore, must gain the audience’s sympathy. This is best accomplished, according to Abrams, with a character that is somehow stronger or of “higher than ordinary moral worth” (212), but also believably human through behavior that is “neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly evil” (212). Gloucester, the erstwhile Earl of Gloucester and father of Edmund and Edgar, fulfills these requirements as a tragic hero.

In Gloucester’s treatment of his son Edmund in the first act, Shakespeare immediately establishes Gloucester’s essentially good but flawed nature. Gloucester openly admits that, although Edmund is the product of an adulterous affair that he has “blushed to acknowledge” (Shakespeare 1.1.9), he has raised him as though he was his “legitimate” son (1.2.18). Later, Gloucester remains loyal to Lear even after the king has been made powerless and destitute. Clearly, Gloucester is meant to be admired for the wholesome sense of duty to which he adheres regardless of whether his actions will lead to any advantage for himself.

Unfortunately, as a tragic hero, Gloucester suffers from a hamartia, literally meaning “an error in judgment” (Abrams 212), which leads to his downfall. His hamartia reveals itself as the fatal combination of his blind trust in the scheming Edmund and the rashness with which he condemns Edgar. Edmund, the bastard son, acts as the catalyst for Gloucester’s worse nature; he uses his intimate knowledge of his father to masterfully manipulate Gloucester’s rashness, suspicions and fears to turn him against the son that deserves his trust, the legitimately sired Edgar. Gloucester, by this decision, made in a fit of misbegotten passion, thus seals his own fate.

A tragic hero is usually introduced in happy circumstances before the audience witnesses his catastrophe, or downfall, which is caused by an anagnorisis, or “discovery of facts hitherto unknown to the hero” (Abrams 213). Gloucester, therefore, begins King Lear as a privileged member of the king’s inner circle and a proud father of two sons. Subsequently, doomed by his gross judgment errors, Gloucester undergoes a peripeteia, or “reversal in his fortune from happiness to disaster” (Abrams 213). In rapid succession, he loses his beloved king, his family, his title and land, and his eyes. 

In Act III, Scene 7 of King Lear, a blinded Gloucester experiences anagnorisis when Regan enlightens him of Edmund’s true feelings toward him. With the exclamation of “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused.” (3.7.92), Gloucester finally awakens to what has happened: the price of his hamartia, Edmund’s betrayal, and the depth of his loss.

 Although Gloucester begins King Lear as the wealthy and influential Earl of Gloucester, he gains the audience’s approval as a loving father and with his loyalty to his king. Gloucester evokes our “pity and fear” (Abrams 212), then, when he falls victim to the manipulations of disloyal, ambitious Edmund. By emphasizing Gloucester’s tribulations as a wronged father rather than as a deposed aristocrat, Shakespeare succeeds in drawing out the audience’s sympathy, thus enabling its catharsis.

At the end of his life, Gloucester welcomes death, but dies tormented: his “flawed heart” (Shakespeare 5.3.199), unable to reconcile the approaching battle-to-the-death between his two sons, “[b]urst[s] smilingly” (5.3.202). Thus, Gloucester ends his life in King Lear reduced from the powerful Earl of Gloucester to a blind, helpless, pitiful, broken-hearted old man – and as a true tragic hero.

 Works Cited

Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 6^th Ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1985. 212-213. Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Stephen Orgel. New York: Penguin, 1999.