SOURCE: Rosinger, Lawrence. “Gloucester and Lear: Men who Act Like Gods.” ELH 35, no. 4 (December 1968): 491-504.

In the following essay, Rosinger notes the parallel development of Lear and Gloucester in King Lear, pointing out that both characters initially treat others as a means of achieving self-gratification, but are able to express compassion for others by the play's end.

One of the most debated passages in King Lear is the brief outburst in which Gloucester accuses the gods of wanton murder. Blind, homeless, and on the point of entrusting himself to an apparently half-mad beggar, he exclaims:

As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods; 

They kill us for their sport.(1) 

(IV. i. 36-37)

Some writers have seen in this statement a proof of the darkly pessimistic spirit of the play, while others have marshalled arguments to show that the passage proves nothing of the sort. The fact...