What Is The Difference Between King Lear And King Lear

1232 Words3 Pages

A hero is considered to be someone who is willing to sacrifice everything in order to achieve a goal. A hero is known for his personalities such as courage and outstanding achievements that he has achieved from his good actions. In addition, everything is given rise with an idea from an independent mind, which some people use wisely, while others use to create misery. This idea can further be seen in The Children of Men by P.D James and King Lear by William Shakespeare, where the protagonist is motivated by various factors. Theo, the protagonist in The Children of Men and Lear in King Lear has gone through many life changing experiences which eventually reveal their personalities. Furthermore, it would also seem that both characters share similar …show more content…

Even though, Lear gives up his authority to his daughters, he does not want to lose the benefits that comes with being a king. Lear misunderstands money and power as love and respect, which makes Lear believe in words more than feelings. Lear likes his daughters to worship him rather than express their love for him. Therefore, Lear blindly believes Goneril and Regan’s words and divides the land between them. This clearly proves that he misinterpreted Cordelia’s honesty as a daughter. In addition, this also reveals that Lear values appearance over reality, which causes Lear to suffer at the end to compensate for his poor actions. Furthermore, Lear does not “[want to] be mad, not mad sweet heaven! /Keep me in temper. I would not be mad!” (Shakespeare Act I, v, 45-6). The wisdom in Lear starts to give birth in the storm. He sees the betrayal of his daughters, which in turn instills anger and hatred in his heart for his daughters. In conclusion, after all of Lear’s thoughtless actions, he gets transformed into a different person that values love through his daughter, …show more content…

The Fool encourages Lear to follow the wise path but Lear unlike Theo, completely disregards Fool’s suggestion and continuous with his own intuition. Lear refuses to believe that Regan is as cruel as Goneril. The Fool’s whispering voice of sanity is encouraging Lear to regain self-knowledge. Through a series of bad decisions, the Fool is finally able to show Lear the true world. This realization within Lear would not have given if the Fool had kept Lear’s foreshadowing to himself. Therefore, Lear transforms from a blind individual to a compassionate one, who sees the truth. In conclusion, other characters have extensively played a big role in changing Lear to a compassionate and loving person as he is

Open Document