King Lear is the protagonist within the play, he wears the label of a successful
leader but he uses his power to project an artificial personality toward his observers.
Beneath his high class physicality, Lear struggles to maintain his confidence within
himself because he depends on the constant admiration from others to feel content
with who he is. One who leads with counterfeit beliefs and unstable values is bound
for failure. Shakespeare designed this playwright to display the tragedy of a King who
slowly goes mad, however in order to reach sanity sometimes one must go completely
out of their mind to gain the wisdom in telling the difference.
The aspect of Lear's ignorance is shown when he tests his daughters on their
amount of love for him in order to determine a legitimate way to bestow land among
them. It is in the quality of their responses that will affect the outcome of Lear's
decision, but the underlying reason for the test strikes a personal fragment of Lear
which is is hunger to feel appreciated. "Which of you shall we say doth love us most?"
(1.1.56). His approach defines that not only is he seeking reassurance as a father, but
his intentions are to receive justification that he is truly loved by having his daughters
be questioned about the matter. Valuing words before understanding a person's
actions can cause a great deal of predicaments for a leader such as King Lear, mainly
because in trusting one other's word it may bring forth the element of vulnerability and
manipulation which could lead to belief of something that may not be acted upon but
only spoken of. "Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter; Dearer than
eyesight...
... middle of paper ...
... he watches his beloved daughter die in his own
arms. Instead of remaining to live among a Kingdom of heinous people and
actions he dies from heartbreak, and in his death Lear's soul has chosen to pass on for
what Cordelia represented, he wanted to die in a pure understanding of himself and a
pure heart rather than fighting to live amidst soulless creatures.
Tragedy envelopes a cleansing of insanity and takes a man with a throne and
bring him to his knees where he discovers what it means to be King. As he rises to
understanding of love, truth and honesty he reaches sanity and dies in purity of the
soul. King Lear's greatest war was the battle he won within himself, and though he
died to the surrender of Edmund, he rests in the satisfaction of himself.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2002.
one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his
The play of "King Lear" is about a search for personal identity. In the historical period in which this play is set, the social structure was set in order of things closest to Heaven. Therefore, on Earth, the king was at the top, followed by his noblemen and going all the way down to the basest of objects such as rocks and dirt. This structure was set up by the people, and by going by the premise that anything that is man made is imperfect, this system cannot exist for long without conflict.
King Lear arrives in front of Kent, Edgar, and Edmund with Cordelia dead in his arms, mourning his terrible loss. Soon afterward, Lear dies of a broken heart, but what are significant are his dying words. In these words, he seems to suggest that Cordelia is still holding on to life. He even tells the others to "Look on her. Look, her lips. Look there, look there," to offer evidence that she is still alive before he dies (Act V sciii l. 326-327). However, Lear is not fully cured of his madness, and may be hallucinating. What is difficult about this section is that we are not sure if Lear is going insane one last time or if he is speaking the truth, mainly because no other character says anything about his dying words. What is true is that his final words are quite mysterious and leave the audience hanging as the play
(Act I, Sc i, Ln 47-53) This is the first and most significant of the many sins that he makes in this play. By abdicating his throne to fuel his ego he is disrupts the great chain of being which states that the King must not challenge the position that God has given him. This undermining of God's authority results in chaos that tears apart Lear's world. Leaving him, in the end, with nothing.
As Shakespeare’s King Lear opens, the political conditions in Britain are precarious. Lear is an aging king, 'four score and upward', with three daughters and no male heir. Sooner or later power must be transferred. Through no man's fault, persons of extremely evil propensity were placed very close to power. This situation is an outer expression of the conditions of the social consciousness of the country. Until now Britain has been ruled by a powerful monarch who kept the country unified by his strength. There is no one of equal power to replace him. The solution which naturally suggests itself is a division into three parts, each to be ruled by a daughter and her husband and the national unity maintained by familial bonds. The change is necessitated by circumstance, but that circumstance reflects a compelling inner necessity. Something in the social consciousness is seeking to evolve beyond the limits of absolute power vested in a king. That evolution is what follows Lear's renunciation of power. All the resistances it meets, all the destruction it releases are a preparation of the consciousness and a working out of that which opposes the social progress.
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...
undergoes a redeeming reversal of character. Lear slowly starts to go mad, Lear. O, let me not be mad,
King Lear is a Shakespearian tragedy revolving largely around one central theme, personal transformation. Shakespeare shows in King Lear that the main characters of the play experience a transformative phase, where they are greatly changed through their suffering. Through the course of the play Lear is the most transformed of all the characters. He goes through seven major stages of transformation on his way to becoming an omniscient character: resentment, regret, recognition, acceptance and admittance, guilt, redemption, and optimism. Shakespeare identifies King Lear as a contemptuous human being who is purified through his suffering into some sort of god.
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.
Shakespeare's King Lear is a play which shows the consequences of one man's decisions. The audience follows the main character, Lear, as he makes decisions that disrupt order in his Kingdom. When Lear surrenders all his power and land to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him, the breakdown on order in evident. Lear's first mistake is to divide his Kingdom into three parts. A Kingdom is run best under one ruler as only one decision is made without contradiction. Another indication that order is disrupted is the separation of Lear's family. Lear's inability to control his anger causes him to banish his youngest daughter, Cordelia, and loyal servant, Kent. This foolish act causes Lear to become vulnerable to his other two daughters as they conspire against him. Lastly, the transfer of power from Lear to his eldest and middle daughter, Goneril and Regan, reveals disorder as a result of the division of the Kingdom. A Kingdom without order is a Kingdom in chaos. When order is disrupted in King Lear, the audience witnesses chaotic events that Lear endures, eventually learning who truly loves him.
In the first scene of the play, King Lear is excited to be publicly flattered by his daughters and relish in his own greatness as king. He asks “Which of you shall we say doth love us most?” (I.i.52). Lear doesn’t ask which of his
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.
King Lear as a Tragedy Caused by Arrogance, Rash Decisions and Poor Judgement of Character
King Lear by Shakespeare portrayed the negative effects of power resulting in destruction caused by the children of a figure with authority. Through lies and continual hatred, characters maintained a greed for power causing destruction within their families. The daughter’s of Lear and the son Gloucester lied to inherit power for themselves. Edmund the son of Gloucester planned to eliminate his brother Edgar from his inheritance.
Perhaps Lear's most difficult moment to endure is when he discovers his youngest and most prized daughter, Cordelia, dead. His initial reaction is of unbearable pain, but, being in his current state of madness, some of the anguish is alleviated when he "realizes" that she is alive. The king overcomes his earlier mistakes only after losing the one daughter who truly loved him. It's debatable whether Lear is completely conscious of his loss, but more plausible to suspect he is not fully affected by it as he is no longer in his right mind. Finally, Lear has dealt with the consequences of his decisions and is redeemed.