Throughout the story of Shakespeare's King Lear, readers might see a similarity between King Lear and Gloucester. At first, you feel like King Lear and Gloucester are, in a sense, bad people for abandoning the individuals who care about them most. King Lear banishes his daughter Cordelia because she does not express her love for Lear the way he wants and he also banishes Kent for defending Cordelia by saying that she truly loves Lear the most. Gloucester banishes his son Edgar because he is being manipulated by his illegitimate son Edmund into believing that Edgar is trying to murder him so he can take his throne. At first, I have the impression that King Lear is insecure and lacks judgment, while Gloucester is easily influenced and very naive. Towards the end of the play, my opinions on Lear and Gloucester changed. I started to feel sympathy for them once they started experiencing traumatic events. Towards the end of the play, King Lear becomes a humble and caring individual while Gloucester later proves how capable of great bravery he is. Ultimately, it seems that both Lear and Gloucester die from the guilt and grief resulting from the traumatic events they experience. It could be suggested that they both die of broken hearts. At the beginning of the play, Lear demonstrates his poor judgment and insecurity when he brings his three daughters to see who he will give his kingdom to. The test he puts his daughters through demonstrates that he prefers a false public display of love rather than true love. He does not ask, “Which of you loves us most,” but says, “Which of you loves us most?” » (Shakespeare, 11). Most readers would say that Lear is simply blind to the truth. Some are in the middle of paper......, but the most important thing is how to learn from that bad decision and use that experience to improve yourself as a person. Although they both begin the story seeming very selfish and irresponsible, they are shown to actually have good hearts and show sympathy towards the people they initially abandoned. My impressions of them change dramatically over the course of the play. At the beginning of the play, I have no remorse for Lear or Gloucester. At first I was against them simply because they were blind to the fact that they were pushing away the people who mattered most to them. When I started to see how badly Lear and Gloucester were mistreated by their "wicked" children, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for them. It made me realize that people make mistakes and all we can do from that point on is learn from them..