In King Lear, Lear’s tragic flaw is pride, which leads to his destructive downfall. I think that Lear was so proud that he created an illusion for himself, with the help others, because he subconsciously knew that he might not want to know the real answer.
In the beginning of the play Lear decides to divide up his kingdom based on how much each of his daughters loves him. “Tell me, my daughters -…which of you shall we say doth love us most, that we our nature doth with merit challenge” (Act I, Scene 1, Lines 52-57). Typically people who ask others how much they love them are insecure and need some sort of validation. Lear believes both of his older daughters because they give him the answer he is looking for. But when Cordelia says nothing it shocks Lear and he loses it. He is very reactive. If he wasn’t living an illusion he would have realized that her answer was very honest and that his older daughters were just really playing him.
But Lear doesn’t and everything starts to crumble because of it. In Lear’s case instead of the illusion being a better “reality” to live in, it actually just makes him miserable. The storm in Act III is the breaking point. He becomes mad. I think this is where his illusion and reality clash and it overwhelms him. To deal with it, he becomes mad because he has to find the truth between the two.
Lear does come back to reality at the end of the play but he still suffers the consequences of his illusion. He was blinded by his illusion and it kept him from learning who truly loved him. By the time he did find out it was too late.
Gloucester also lives an illusion, but he did not create it. Edmund creates it for him and Gloucester was naïve enough to believe it. And in the end that illusion also tears his family apart.
After reading King Lear, I wonder if most illusions are created either by family members or as a result of what family does. Is there any patterns in other novels or in real life studies?