Free King Lear Essays: What a Difference One Word Can Make

The Psychoanalytic theory is applied to one of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear, by understanding the needs of the Lear’s love from his daughters and the actions that follow. Throughout the play King Lear’s tone is harsh and angry due to his madness for his daughters who betrayed him. After Lear foolishly divides his kingdom to his daughters, based upon their love for him, his pride and self-esteem comes to a low standard. Throughout the play Lear seems to not know himself very well as much as others. He feels betrayed because his daughters who claimed they “loved” him the most went against his orders.

She bluntly tells him that he is acting like a weak, nervous child, and insults him for being afraid of something that is already dead! This shame encourages Macbeth to want to consent to his wife's plan. Another method which Lady Macbeth uses to manipulate her husband's mind is by making him feel guilty for being a bad husband, who breaks his promises: "What beast was't then/ that made you break this enterprise to me?" (1.7.47-48). She knows that by saying this, he will feel remorse for breaking a promise to his wife whom he loves so much.

In effect, Lear, Goneril and Regan are very much alike: their failure to love family members causes great pain, first for themselves and then for others. Lear treats Cordelia poorly because he does not realize that he has mistrusted his only true daughter. This mistrust comes from the fact that Lear believed Regan and Goneril when both professed their love for him. However, neither is honest. Toward the end of the play, Lear realizes that he has been very unfair to Cordelia, and that the other two sisters have misled him.

These experiences drive Lear to losing his mental sanity, however, revive his moral sanity. Lear is a character that is labelled as rash and impulsive due to actions to banish his truthful daughter, Cordelia, and giving all he owns to her materialistic sisters, Goneril and Regan. To begin with, Lear initially asks his daughters “Which of us shall we say doth love us most?” (1.1.52) in order to divide up his wealth and kingdom amongst them. This shows Lear’s insecurity toward others feeling towards him and that he needs to be constantly reminded of his power and status. This is a weakness that Goneril and Regan are able to use to their advantage by flattering lies and untruthful feelings in attempt to attain a larger portion of the kingdom, which in turn means they would be more powerful.

During this part in the play, Hamlet berates Ophelia by telling her, "Or if/ thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know/ well enough what monsters you make of them. To a /nunn 'ry, go, and quickly too" (3.1.136-139). At this part in the play, it is extremely challenging for Hamlet to distinguish between his mother and Ophelia. Do to this, making his true feelings for his mother become more dubious. Another thing is that when Hamlet 's father is murdered and his mother re-marries, the unconstrained idea of sexuality with his mother, concealed since conception, can no longer be hidden from his conscious mind.

(III; iv; 29-30). Hamlet is revolted by the idea of his uncle and his mother married. Hamlet also encounters loneliness and despair from Ophelia. As part of Hamlet’s "plan" to put on an antic disposition he distances himself from Ophelia who he is actually in love with. He does this by insulting her and convincing her that he is mad and never had any true feelings for her.

Gertrude marrying her husband's brother is incestuous, and this bestirs feelings of bitterness in Hamlet. However, sinc... ... middle of paper ... ...mark. Unable to speak freely before Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, Hamlet exaggerates his emotional turmoil so that these two women will soften their attitudes towards him and listen to him. Not only does Hamlet wish to win back the hearts of Gertrude and Ophelia, these two women also serve to verify Hamlet's supposed madness to the other characters. Furthermore, Hamlet must hide his rationality and cunning from his peers and from King Claudius so that he may proceed with his revenge plan.

Lear might have lacked personal insight in banishing his two most beloved people around him, and lacked self-control and discipline in controlling his temper, but there could be no reason to justify the immoral actions that Goneril and Regan had casted upon them. They dejected, abandonned, hurted and even wanted to kill their own father. To Lear, maybe the thing that hurts him the most is the fact that his two evil daughters are his own flesh and blood. Not only has he been stripped of love, pride and honour, he has also been driven crazy by them. Lear might not have been sinless, yet the faults casted upon him is far greater than what he had wronged.

Hamlet, despite being the hero of the tragedy, commits various actions that would consider him as a villainous character. When he learns of his fathers death, he acts mad and possibly even becomes truly mad. It prompts him to mistreat those around him—specifically important women in his life, his girlfriend Ophelia and his mother Gertrude. Firstly, when Hamlet is acting mad, he does not inform Ophelia of it, and treats her poorly. For instance, when Hamlet states, “Get thee to a nunnery.

King Lear is losing his mind, he is being back stabbed and lied to by his daughters when all he wanted from them was to see how much they truly love him and hear the truth on how they really felt about him. While reading “King Lear” written by William Shakespeare I noticed that many conflicts and character feuds occurred. The first act starts with character conflict between Cordelia, Goneril and Regan when King Lear orders them to express their love for his land. While Goneril and Regan exaggerate and tell their father what he wants to hear, Cordelia tells the truth and receives nothing. As the act continues you see separation between the family.