The Road to Self-Knowledge in King Lear by William Shakespeare

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Recommended: Self - awareness concepts

When speaking of self-knowledge, one must realise exactly what that is. Ones self is inside of him, his soul if you like. But it is also about the place of the person in life, in the world and in relation to others. It is about what the person does or must do. Nevertheless, self-knowledge pertains more than just knowing yourself. It is also about understanding the world one lives in.
The road to self-knowledge however, can be dreadfully long as displayed in the play of King Lear.

King Lear completely lacks self-knowledge in the beginning of the play.
This is firstly displayed when he asks his daugthers to tell him how much they love him in order to be able to divide his kingdom between them. Two of his daugthers tell him they love him with all they have and cannot love another more. Cordelia, his more honest daugther, who actually does love him, tells him the truth. She loves him ‘’[a]ccording to [her] bond; no more nor less’’ . Nevertheless he goes into a rage and banishes Cordelia. He disinherets her and divides the kingdom between his two flattering manipulating daughters. He then decides to live with each for half a year at the time, keeping his priviliges while stepping down from his throne.
King Lear shows his lack of self-knowledge in this scene in the fact that he has no clue about his own daughters. He fails to recognize the manipulative actions of his two daughters while also failing to see the true love Cordelia offers him. He also refuses to listen to Kent, who tries to reason with him about the true feelings of everyone involved. He is, figuratively speaking, blind to the truth.

An important turning point in the play is the scene where Lear finds himself wandering about outside during a raging storm after being c...

... middle of paper ...

... insanity. She brings an army of soldiers to the kingdom of Brittain in order to restore king Lear to his throne and rid the country of his ‘’pernicious daughters’’ .

At the beginning of the play Lear has no self-knowledge whatsoever. He does not know his place in the world, viewing himself as an almighty king. He also does not know his place in life and in relation to others. Therefore he is easily manipulated by the flattery of his threatourous daughters, while being blind to the true and honest love of his daughter Cordelia. This changes when his vicious daughters have gained power and strip Lear of his own power. They cast him out during a raging storm, causing Lear to realise all sorts of things and bringing him self-knowledge. His self-knowledge eventually leads to his reconsiliation with Cordelia and to the restoring of his country.

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