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Character analysis of King Lear
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Sight and Blindness in King Lear In King Lear, the recurring images of sight and blindness associated with the characters of Lear and Gloucester illustrate the theme of self-knowledge and consciousness that exist in the play. These classic tropes are inverted in King Lear, producing a situation in which those with healthy eyes are ignorant of what is going on around them, and those without vision appear to "see" the clearest. While Lear's "blindness" is one which is metaphorical, the blindness of Gloucester, who carries the parallel plot of the play, is literal. Nevertheless, both characters suffer from an inability to see the true nature of their children, an ability only gained once the two patriarchs have plummeted to the utter depths of depravity. Through a close reading of the text, I will argue that Shakespeare employs the plot of Gloucester to explicate Lear's plot, and, in effect, contextualizes Lear's metaphorical blindness with Gloucester's physical loss of vision. When the audience is first introduced to Lear, he is portrayed as a raging, vain old man who can not see the purity of his daughter Cordelia's love for him from the insincerity of her sisters Goneril and Regan. In his fiery rage after disowning Cordelia, Lear commands to Kent, "Out of my sight!" (1.1.156). Kent fittingly implores the aging king to "See better, Lear; and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye" (1.1.157-8). Kent recognizes love in its most noble form in the person of Cordelia, and is able to see through the hypocrisy of Lear's other two daughters. In beseeching Lear to "[s]ee better," Kent is, in effect, asking Lear to look beyond his vanity and inward pride to see the honesty of Cordelia, who refuses... ... middle of paper ... ... Consulted: Bevington, David, "Introduction to King Lear." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Elton, William R. King Lear and the Gods. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library, 1966. Halio, Jay. " King Lear's Blinding." Shakespeare Quarterly 67 (1999): 221-3. Hoover, Claudette. "Women, Centaurs, and Devils in King Lear." Women's Studies 16 (1989): 349-59. Jackson, Ken. "Review of Judy Kronenfeld, King Lear and the Naked Truth." Early Modern Literary Studies 6.2 (September, 2002): 10.1-5 Available: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/06-2/jackrev.htm>. Leggattt, Alexander. King Lear. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988. Shakespeare, William. King Lear. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. New York: HarperCollins, 1999
Reproduction in Homo sapiens, as in all animals, is a primary driving force and has been elaborated upon since the beginnings of society. Humans must take part in sexual reproduction to produce offspring, thus initiation behaviors can be studied. Commonly, the male makes advances and the female is the selector, or chooses the mate. For humans, this holds true and behavior is modified to maximize competitive receptability. This phenomenon carries across all cultural boundaries and is deeply rooted in the overall behavior patterns in the people of the culture. People try to refine their natural appearance to maximize mating opportunity. The males attempt to enhance features for success in initiation and females compete for receptability completeness.
Shakespeare, William. "King Lear: A Conflated Text." The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York:
It is true that due to the positive learning atmosphere, schools have been regarded as a safe place for many years. Even today students and parents believe that schools are safe. If violence is increasing in youth culture, schools would be considered a dangerous place, but yet it remains known as secure. In addition, security has increased tremendously, within airports, major league sporting events, and upgraded police surveillance at American schools. Knowing this a logical assumption would be that violence has decreased. However, in my opinion, youth’s culture is changing and as a result violence is rising.
Throughout Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear , the ability to see does not guarantee that you can see and be blind not guarantee that you can not see anything . King Lear and Gloucester are the two main characters, who show a lack of understanding of each other, both physically and mentally. Two men have little understanding of their own children and deceived simple words and set costumes. When they are presented with lies and dishonesty, as Lear and Gloucester suffer without convictions. They are all ready to see what is on the surface, and not understanding what lies hidden in shame things inside. For Shakespeare, the view is not a physical quality, moral understanding of what boils down to what the eye sees. In fact, blindness becomes the key to true insight and perspective.
Over the course of history violence in teens has always been a problem. Look back five hundred years to the time of Romeo and Juliet. In that story the Capulets and Montagues have a long history of hatred for each other in their back ground. When Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, try to become lovers it causes backlash. Romeo goes to a party at the Capulets, without being invited, and that sends the Capulets into a fury. Teens in the family take action into their own hands and try to fight. Violence breaks out and eventually people are killed. Today, things like this still happen. A small thing that does not really cause anyone harm could just make one person angry enough they want to hurt another. Family background can also play a huge part in why people become violent.
Much of the imagery in King Lear's first scene presages what is to come in the play. Often characters refer to senses, particularly sight, whether as a comment on the necessity of sensing consequences before acting (as Lear does not), or as yet another of Shakespeare's comments (most apparent in Hamlet) on "seeming." The destruction of Gloucester's eyes and his subsequent musings ("I stumbled when I saw" (IV.i.19) etc.) are a more graphical presentation of this basic theme which originally appears in Lear's first scene. Goneril declares Lear is "dearer than eyesight" (I.i.56) to her (though she is the one who later suggests putting Gloucester's eyes out for his "treachery"). Regan goes further, proclaiming "I profess / Myself an enemy to all other joys / Which the most precious square of sense possesses" (I.i. 72-74). Crossed in his wrath by Kent, Lear cries "Out of my sight!" (I.i.157), only to be reproved with Kent's "See better, Lear, and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye." (I.i.158-9).
This standard model is known as the seual strategies theory ( Buss & Schmitt, 1993). Buss argues that any species in which differences exist, there will be corresponding sex differences in mating behaviors. The biological reality in humans is that males need minimal investment, a single ejaculation, to reproduce their genes. The cost of female reproduction is traditionally years of investment including gestation, lactation and offspring care. In theory, such one sided investment has resulted in sex-specific selection strategies for reproductive success (Beckes et al. 2009). Human males ‘naturally’ track down opportunities to copulate with as many female partners as possible, specifically those who display signs of fertility. By ‘nature’ human females are more sexually cautious and prefer one male partner who can provide resources to be shared with their offspring. Though emphasis is on sex differences, sexual strategies theorists state that mating behavior--under specific circumstances--can be similar between men and women. The inevitable conclusion from their work is the differences between the sexes regarding mating preferences. The main focus of the sexual strategies theory is that all human mating is inherently strategic. Mating behavior is guided by psychological mechanisms that compel both males and females to desire certain qualities in a mate based
The debate over homosexuality as nature or nurture dominates most topics about homosexuality. People often confuse the nature/nurture issue with the development of gay identity. In fact, the nature/nurture argument plays a small, insignificant role concerning gay youths (Walling 11). Homosexual identity is the view of the self as homosexual in association with romantic and sexual situations (Troiden 46) Many researchers have either discussed or created several models or theories concerning the development of homosexual identity. However, the most prominent is Troiden’s sociological four-stage model of homosexual identity formation. Dr. Richard R. Troiden desc...
Job satisfaction is the met expectations or desires of a job. I t is a collective term of specific attitudes about work or job and it varies as a function of other non-work attitudes (age, health, etc.). Genetic research suggests that 30% to 40% of job satisfaction is inherited. Job satisfaction and life satisfaction are interrelated and influence each other. A gallup poll indicates that approximately 10% to 13% of workers are dissatisfied, while about 85% of workers are satisfied. Other surveys askin...
Pavlov's legendary experiments made more of an impression on the general public, than did his other contributions. For in the public domain he He is widely thought of as a psychologist, while his life's work was physiology. Pavlov's first independent experiments were pioneering studies which lead to the understanding of how nerves regulate the force of a heart beats contr...
Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear, portrays many important misconceptions which result in a long sequence of tragic events. The foundation of the story revolves around two characters, King Lear and Gloucester, and concentrates on their common flaw, the inability to read truth in other characters. For example, the king condemns his own daughter after he clearly misreads the truth behind her “dower,”(1.1.107) or honesty. Later, Gloucester passes judgment on his son Edgar based on a letter in which he “shall not need spectacles”(1.2.35) to read. While these two characters continue to misread people’s words, advisors around them repeatedly give hints to their misinterpretations, which pave the road for possible reconciliation. The realization of their mistakes, however, occurs after tragedy is inevitable.
Despite its undeniable greatness, throughout the last four centuries King Lear has left audiences, readers and critics alike emotionally exhausted and mentally unsatisfied by its conclusion. Shakespeare seems to have created a world too cruel and unmerciful to be true to life and too filled with horror and unrelieved suffering to be true to the art of tragedy. These divergent impressions arise from the fact that of all Shakespeare's works, King Lear expresses human existence in its most universal aspect and in its profoundest depths. A psychological analysis of the characters such as Bradley undertook cannot by itself resolve or place in proper perspective all the elements which contribute to these impressions because there is much here beyond the normal scope of psychology and the conscious or unconscious motivations in men.
Shakespeare, William. “Macbeth.” The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. New York: Longman, 1997
In this section it describes the main ideas included in thesis report of the research. These ideas are Job Satisfaction, Performance and Organizational Rewards. It is the common explanation that Job Satisfaction is an mind-set to work. Moreover, Job Satisfaction is an emotional or affective reaction to many features of one’s career. An individual with an increase rank of Job Satisfaction contains optimistic behavior to his or her profession, whereas a human being who is discontented with his or her work contains pessimistic behavior about the work. Luthans (1985) states a complete meaning specified by Locke. A pleasant or affirmative affecting condition
Bengtsson, Frederick. “King Lear by William Shakespeare.” Columbia College. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.