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ACT III, Scene 7

At Gloucester Castle, Cornwall is concerned about the French
invasion. He is going to send Goneril and Edmund with a letter to
Albany, explaining that the French Army is about to attack Britain.
He has also ordered Gloucester's arrest for "treachery." Goneril
suggests plucking out Gloucester's eye after his capture, and Regan
wants him hanged. Oswald enters into the conversation and
informs Cornwall about Gloucester's part in sending Lear to safety
at Dover.

Soon the arrested Gloucester is brought in. Cornwall and Regan
treat him savagely. Gloucester begs for mercy and reminds them
that they are his guests. Cornwall ignores his pleas and orders him
to be tied. Regan calls him a foul traitor and pulls at his beard.
When Gloucester is questioned about his helping to send Lear to
Dover, he replies with dignity that he is trying to see that justice is
done. In reaction, he is bound to a chair and one of his eyes is
gouged out. Cornwall, in a barbaric manner, crushes it with his
foot.

Unable to endure the sight of an old man suffering, one of
Cornwall's servants intervenes and challenges his master to stop
his cruelty. In response, Cornwall stabs the servant, who is then
killed by Regan. In retaliation to the servant's support of
Gloucester, Cornwall gouges out his other eye. Blinded, bleeding,
and pathetic, Gloucester is further tortured by Regan. She tells him
that Edmund, the son whom he calls for in his pain, has betrayed
his father and hates him fully. Her words cause Gloucester's heart
more pain than that being felt by his body. Like Lear, he is fully
pained by the misjudgment of his children.

At the close of the scene, Cornwall, fatally wounded in the foray,
is led away by Regan. After their departure, a brief conversation
occurs among several of Cornwall's servants; they condemn the
acts of Cornwall and Regan and judge them to be totally evil.

Notes

This scene is one of the cruelest in all of drama as Regan and
Cornwall inflict their torture upon Gloucester. Although the old
man has been blind to the morality of the world, misjudging the
virtue of Edgar and the evil of Edmund, he does not deserve to
have his eyes gouged into physical blindness. The physical torture,
however, is not as bad as the torture of the truth. Regan cruelly
tells Gloucester that it was Edmund who turned him in and that his
son truly hates him. Without trying to offer any excuses for his
misjudgment, he assumes the burden of guilt and prays for Edgar's
well being. He still has faith in the morality of the world and
believes that evil will be punished.

There is one element of redemption in the scene. Cornwall's own
servant lashes out against his master for his cruelty to Gloucester.
Even though Cornwall is a repugnant and immoral soul, his
servants have not conformed to his warped view of humanity.
Unfortunately, the evil ones still have the upper hand, and the kind
servant is cruelly killed for his support of Gloucester; but Cornwall
is wounded in the foray as well.
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