The Controversial Ending of King Lear by William Shakespeare Few Shakespearean plays have caused the controversy that is found with King Lear’s ending scenes. Othello kills himself, Macbeth is executed, and of course in hamlet, everyone dies. Lear, however, is different from other Shakespearean classics. Is Lear mad or lucid? Is Cordelia really dead? Is Edmund’s delay explainable? What is the nature of the Lear world that occasioned all of this? How does Knight’s thesis relate to the ending? Critical commentary varies and appears exhaustive. Bradley speaks of evil, but thinks Lear dies in a moment of supreme joy; Knight argues that however vicious and cruel the Lear world is, the death of Cordelia represents the future triumph of love. Frye writes of Lear’s madness as our sanity if it were not sedated as if the universe is fundamentally absurd. Andrews writes that the meaning depends on the F vs. Q variations, and that the audience must be left uncertain. Snyder says that Lear dramatizes the phases of dying that we all endure, and that Lear dies because he is warn out by the exhaustion of life. Rackin comments that the play moves through a dialectical process of reconciliation of opposites that culminate in Lear’s triumph of faith. Hennedy notes the existential approach saying that Lear dies secure in knowledge that Cordelia lives after death, having experienced transcendence. The paradox of (in a Christian sense) that hopes comes from the cross. Donner writes that the cathartic experience the end of the play affords us is the belief that justice had not been done; how could it, and we can not forget the tremendous potential man has for evil that no one but God could forgive. Harris argues that the promised ... ... middle of paper ... ...resa and Adolf Hitler. Love, it would seem, does turn upon itself, and by doing so destroys what it is supposed to preserve. Bibliography: Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Fawcett Books, n.d. Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998 Frye, N. On Shakespeare. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986 Knight, G.W. The Wheel of Fire. New York. Meridian Press, 1963. Donner, H.W. Is This the Promised End? Reflections on the tragic ending of “King Lear” L(Winter 1969). Foakes, R.A. King Lear and the Displacement of Hamlet. Huntington library Quarterly(1980) Hennedy, H. Recognizing the Ending. Sp, 71 (1974) Rackin, P. Delusion as Resolution in King Lear. Shakespeare Quarterly. XXI (1970) Snyder, S. King Lear and the Psychology of Dying Shakespeare Quartely. XXXIII(1984)
Similar to Derek Cohen’s analysis of King Lear, Sean Lawrence also plays close attention to the death throughout King Lear in his critique The Difficulty of Dying in King Lear. Lawrence starts off by explaining the theme of suicide in the play and how none of the characters, except Goneril, are successful at committing suicide. Lawrence points to Gloucester’s failed suicide attempt, explaining how it represents the inability to escape existence (35-37). Lawrence then delves deeper into this idea by saying how death is not an escape from Being and that those who choose to die are displaying their powerlessness (38-39). Lawrence also finds there to be a deeper tragedy in King Lear that the characters unable to end their lives are unable
of play itself from order to chaos to restoration of order to division. again. I will be back. & nbsp; Throughout the text, the movements of celestial bodies are used to account for human action and misfortune. Just as the stars in their courses are fixed in the skies, so do the characters view their lives as caught in a pattern they have no power to change. Lear sets the play in. motion in banishing Cordelia when he swears "by all the operation of the orbs from whom we exist and cease to be" that his decision "shall not be. revoked". How like the scene in Julius Caesar wherein Caesar says "For I am constant as the Northern star" Lear vows to be resolute but dies.
Through Lear, Shakespeare expertly portrays the inevitability of human suffering. The “little nothings,” seemingly insignificant choices that Lear makes over the course of the play, inevitably evolve into unstoppable forces that change Lear’s life for the worse. He falls for Goneril’s and Regan’s flattery and his pride turns him away from Cordelia’s unembellished affection. He is constantly advised by Kent and the Fool to avoid such choices, but his stubborn hubris prevents him from seeing the wisdom hidden in the Fool’s words: “Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool” (Shakespeare 21). This leads to Lear’s eventual “unburdening,” as foreshadowed in Act I. This unburdening is exacerbated by his failure to recognize and learn from his initial mistakes until it is too late. Lear’s lack of recognition is, in part, explained by his belief in a predestined life controlled completely by the gods: “It is the stars, the stars above us govern our conditions” (Shakespeare 101). The elder characters in King Lear pin their various sufferings on the will of...
Once more, the consequences of Lear's single sin are felt. In a typically Christian or hopeful ending, King Lear would learn to listen to the caring friends he has, and become less selfish. Shakespeare, however, chooses not to end it so predictably or simply. Even after all of Lear's suffering and repenting, he continues to receive punishment. Cordelia, who he has now realized truly loved him most, is killed. Lear is left feeling hopeless, saying, "I know when one is dead, and when one lives. She's dead as earth," which seems slightly to refer to his now cynical view of the earth.
King Lear’s ego plays a big role in this play as his anger is fueled when cordelia says to him “I love you majesty no more nor less” Lear is angered by this comment and banishes her and lear responds by saying “ let it be so! Thy truth then be thy dower!” after this happens Lear is driven insane and knows that he has gone mad “Oh, let me not be mad, not be, sweet heavens! Keep me in temper…” Lear dies because of the shock the cordelia’s hanging.
In Shakespeare's “King Lear”, the tragic hero is brought down, like all tragic heroes, by one fatal flaw; in this case it is pride, as well as foolishness. It is the King's arrogant demand for absolute love and, what's more, protestations of such from the daughter who truly loves him the most, that sets the stage for his downfall. Cordelia, can be seen as Lear’s one true love, and her love and loyalty go not only beyond that of her sisters but beyond words, thus enraging the proud King Lear whose response is: "Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her". Here, Lear's pride is emphasized as he indulges in the common trend of despising in others what one is most embarrassed of oneself.
King Lear as a Tragedy Caused by Arrogance, Rash Decisions and Poor Judgement of Character
Only the truth is irreconcilable with the demands of Lear’s ego. When Cordelia doesn’t say what Lear wants to hear he breaks out in anger by a violent oath, disclaiming paternal care of Cordelia: “… by the sacred radiance of the sun, The mysteries of Hecat and the night; By all the operations of the orbs From whom we do exist and cease to be” . Lear casts Cordelia from his heart referring to her as a “barbarous Scythian.” His hatred surpasses the notion of equality in love, it shows self-centred love that asks more of the other then of oneself. With Lear’s actions we can see that he can’t recognise treachery and loyalty and falsehood and truth, and no one can tell him about it. Here his lack of self-knowledge is the biggest in the play.
Lear banishes Kent and Cordelia because he feels that they betrayed him. When both of them were trying to protect Lear. Cordelia gives Lear the opportunity to fix their relationship, when Cordelia brings the french army to his aid and proceeds to beg her father for forgiveness. Only then, Lear accepts and asks for Cordelia forgiveness. However, this apology does not prevent Lear from finishing his tragedy. Instead, he leads Cordelia to her demise. In addition to Cordelia, Lear fails to fix the wrongs that he commits against Kent, as a result of Lear’s fear of betrayal. Kent, like Cordelia, continue to care for Lear. Instead of leaving the country, Kent decides to disguise himself as a servant and serve Lear. When Kent finally reveals himself to Lear, he is never given an apology. Lear just simply states “You are welcome hither,” (5. 3. 350) and although this does allow Kent back into the country it is not an apology. Kent’s unveiling causes Shakespeare 's audience to question what would have happened if Lear took it upon himself to make amends with the people that truly care for him. If, instead, Lear had switched his focus from betrayal to love then the play may not have been labeled a
ii. 48-50). Death, violence, and loss are woven all throughout the language, and in doing so, the physicality of such matters dominate the metaphorical world of the play. Perhaps the most tragic event in the play, the death of Cordelia allows the fullest expression of the tragedy’s address to personal morality. Like the other two daughters, Cordelia is an extension of Lear. Thus her death is an aspect of his own, allowing Lear to experience death and speak to the wrongness of it all. “No, no, no life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all? (Shakespeare V. ii. 306-308).” Both unnatural and inevitable, the unjust death of Cordelia embodies our sense that death is wrong and outrageous. Most of us are not kings, but it may be true that in each of us is a King Lear who is unwilling to give our kingdom, our sense of privilege, our rights we think we have earned. We expect to cling on to our existence, and pretend death does not exist. As we continue to explore the psychology behind death, we find, as we so often do, that Shakespeare has been there before
The author develops the idea that King Lear experiences turning points through a mighty storm and the loss of a loving daughter. Lear does not carry his arrogant demeanor, which he possessed at the beginning of the play; in its place he is now indulgent and frightened. The finale of the play is the death of Lear due to a bounteous amount of grief and sorrow following the passing of his dearest daughter, Cordelia. Lear’s first turning point in the play is resulting from miserably leaving Gloucester’s kingdom and discovering himself and his alter ego (The Fool) outside in a ferocious storm. Through Lear’s continuous build up anger since the two separate displeasing visitations with his daughters Goneril and Regan, and the additional rage of the storm, Lear begins his process of self-reflection.
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of King Lear. New York: Washington Square, 1993. Print.
The Tragedy of King Lear King Lear is a tragic story by William Shakespeare is a story of a man King Lear and his decision that led to his fate and the fate of others. With every tragic story comes a tragic hero. The tragic hero of the story is King Lear. According to the definition of a tragic hero one must be born into nobility, endowed with a tragic flaw, doomed to make a serious error in judgement, fall from great heights or high esteem, realize they have made an irreversible mistake, and faces and accepts death with honor meets a tragic death. King Lear meets all of these qualities.
Bradley, A.C. Twentieth Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Janet Adelman. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978.
It is said that no other playwright illustrates the human condition like William Shakespeare. Furthermore, it is said that no other play illustrates the human condition like King Lear. The story of a bad king who becomes a good man is truly one of the deepest analyses of humanity in literary history; and it can be best seen through the evolution of Lear himself. In essence, King Lear goes through hell in order to compensate for his sins.