While reading Act 4 I came across a specific part that interested me. Edgar takes Gloucester to the Cliffs of Dover in order for the old man to commit suicide by jumping off. The cliff is described as being so tall that the people walking on the beach below appear to be the size of mice, while the boats do not look much bigger. At this point Gloucester is blind after his scruffle with Cornwall. He is coping with this opposing hatred upon himself by wanting to jump off of a cliff. Edgar is smart for lying to Gloucester saying that he was descending off of the cliff. Gloucester believes it because he doesn't know any better because he cannot tell whats around him, and his sense of proprioception or where he is in space is obviously blocked because of this blindness. Although it makes me wonder how Gloucester didn't realize that Edgar was lying to him. Clearly Gloucester was suffering no pain, so there is no way he could have fell the distance that Edgar was describing. Edgar also saves Gloucester later in the play by jumping in front of a sword for him and killing Oswald.
I get a feeling that in this play there is a theme of confusion. Gloucester is confused early on in Act 4, but he is not the only one, Lear is confused himself. Its almost as if Edgar and Cordelia keep Lear and Gloucester somewhat sane, while Goneril and Regan only cause trouble for the two. At the end of act four when Cordelia is speaking to Lear and trying to wake him up from his anger driven sleep due to his evil daughters, it is clear the compassion she has for her father. They share tears, and she comforts him with her love, and Cordelia is the only person recognized by Lear as soon as he wakes from his "Coma."
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