King Lear-Sight

In class today, we read Act 4 Scene 1 of King Lear. This scene was after Gloucester loses
both of his eyes by the cruel Cornwall. Gloucester is now blind and has no eyesight. However,
a very important line in this scene was when Gloucester said, " O dear son Edgar, the food of thy
abused father's wrath, might I but live to see thee in my touch, I'd say I had eyes again." (pg. 173)
This line shows that Gloucester desires to touch Edgar again, and be with him which would
make up for his lost eyesight. I thought that it was very ironic how Gloucester was able to claim that
he can see and understand the truth better without his eyes. He is able to concentrate more on
what people are saying and feel the truth instead of seeing it. King Lear is also a character who
was unable to find the truth among his daughters although he was able to directly see them tell him
either lies or the truth. In King Lear, there are many characters who are in disguise to either hide their
personalities or their identity. Kent and Edgar are two of the characters who disguise themselves
to keep their identity a secret from everyone else while characters such as Edmund, Regan, and Goneril
disguise their personalities for self-gain. As we can see, all these characters are hiding who they
truly are which shows that sight is fallible. By believing in only what you see but not what you feel or hear,
you are likely going to miss what the truth is. Although everyone was able to clearly see Kent,
Edgar, Edmund, Regan, and Goneril, they weren't able to know who what their hidden intentions were.
This is a lot like the saying, don't judge a book by it's cover. Just because you see the cover of the
book doesn't necessarily tell you if the novel will be a good novel to read or not.
Shakespeare tells us that we should not trust sight. Just like Gloucester, who was able to
understand what truth was more quickly when he wasn't able to see, maybe sometimes closing
our eyes to the worldly things and focusing only on one thing will show us what the truth is.
I thought that this point was very ironic while reading Act 4 Scene 1 of the play.
Another point I found interesting in this scene was why would Edgar not reveal himself to his father?
We are able to see that Edgar and Gloucester finally meet, and Edgar sees his father blind and in pain.
However, even when Gloucester cries that he would wish nothing more than to see his lost son,
Edgar doesn't go and reveal himself to Gloucester. I didn't completely understand Edgar's actions
but hopefully this point will be answered in the next few sections.
We are already 3/4 way through the novel and we are now reading the falling action of the play.
Although I know that this novel is supposed to have a tragic ending, I still hope in one part of my
heart that it would have a happily ever after. :( It doesn't make sense that the already-insane Lear
would wake up and go back to his senses, the blind Gloucester would find his eyesight, however,
I still don't wish for a tragic ending.