As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 4, Scene 1. As the eyeless Gloucester wanders the heath he resorts to cynacism and nihilism. His words represent a sense of futility, with the lives of humans being controlled by powers outside them, so there is hopelessness at every level. After being blinded in the play’s worst act of cruelty, he voices despair at the injustice and random viciousness of the gods in one of the play’s most famous lines. We are only sport to the gods who kill us for their amusement, he declares, comparing them in a simile to cruel boys who kill flies for fun.