Pride In King Lear

What lasting effect can a touch of humility have on a previously prideful individual? King Lear, in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of King Lear, is faced with the question of becoming more deferential after having been burdened by the weight of his ulteriorly motivated daughters. He, who is held in high esteem, focuses solely on his own ego and fails to acknowledge the devotion of his caring daughter, Cordelia. As the plot unfolds, Lear reflects on his regrets and becomes more insightful as he realizes his comparative insignificance to the expansive world in which he lives. Lear’s faulty sanity, the result of his encumbrance, pushes him to become more aware of his absence as an effective king who genuinely cares for his constituents. King Lear, who started as a greedy and overly prideful monarch, is humbled by his burdens and learns from his mistakes, leading him to prioritize his considerations and

At the start of Shakespeare’s play, Lear is accusatory, impulsive, demanding and obnoxiously authoritative in the eyes of many. As opposed to adhering to the advice of his advisers, King Lear, having “Grown senile, scoffed at the foresight of his advisers and declared that each [daughter’s] statement of her love for him would determine the portion of the kingdom she received as her dowry” (Rosenblum 163). Lear, early on in the play, shows a disregard for the opinions of others and relies solely on his own intuition. His egotism leads him to make childish actions and his superficiality; a regrettable choice. Instead of abiding by common morale and carrying out a more professional way of splitting his kingdom, Lear thinks only of himself by saying, “Tell me, my daughters— / Which of you shall we say doth love us