This exchange between father and daughter ends up with his most loved and trusted daughter being exiled from his kingdom. " for we have no such daughter, nor shall ever see that face of hers again. Therefore be gone, without our grace our love, our benison." (Act 1, Sc 1, Ln 264-267).
A secondary example of this willful blindness to the truth resides in King Lear's rash decision to also exile one of his most loyal and dedicated men, the Earl of Kent. This climatic moment is due to the Earl of Kent's repeated interruption of the king's rage towards his daughter Cordelia. The Earl attempts to deflect the king's rage, by calming him out of the feverish pace at which he is blindly and irrationally making important decisions. The Earl knows that Cordelia is the king's most loyal and trustworthy daughter and therefore opposes the king in hopes of preventing the king from making a choice he will regret for years to come, this in turn results in the Earl of Kent's own banishment from the kingdom. " to turn thy (Kent) hated back upon our kingdom If, on the tenth day following, they banished trunk be found in our dominions, the moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter, this shall not be revoked." (Act 1, Sc 1, Ln 177-181).
Overall, King Lear eventually realizes the truth behind the mask of love his elder daughters have falsely portrayed. This lifting of his proverbial veil of blindness does not come until much later in the play only moments before the death of his beloved daughter Cordelia, the death of his two elder daughters, and his own demise. "You must bear with me. Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish." (Act 4, Sc 7, Ln 84-85) In the end, his clarity and love for his once exiled loyal daughter is expressed but only after her death by hanging. This death brings about such remorse and misery to the former King that he himself also dies, but only of a broken heart.
