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king lear s coruption
king lear is more sinned against than sinning
critical readings of king lear
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King Lear’s Sins Pale in Comparison to those Committed Against Him
King Lear commits several acts that are nearly unforgivable. Not only does he exile a trusted, loyal servant, he also banishes his own daughter. Cordelia, unable and unwilling to submit herself to the ridiculous game of her father, is sent off to France with his curses. His subsequent action - the division of the land between his two ungrateful daughters - is the final act, the final sin, and one that plunges the land into turmoil.
However, his actions do not excuse the responses they bring from his kin and kinsmen. The sins against him - the actions of his two daughters and the evilness of Edmund - are far greater than those he committed himself. While he may have started the series of events that eventually consumed the land in turmoil, it were those three who propagated the chaos. King Lear is definitely much more sinned against than sinning.
That King Lear sinned, there can be no doubt. Nevertheless, a sin does not exclude the possibility that there was a sufficient cause (in his mind) for the action. Examine, for instance, King Lear's decision to exile his own daughter, Cordelia.
The King is of an advanced age. Though he will not, can not, admit it, senility is advancing upon him, clouding his brain and influencing his judgement. Combined with his pride, age, and subconscious fear of encroaching mortality, Lear has a great desire for flattery, and more importantly, to have the love of his children reaffirmed before him. After the two first daughters inflate his ego, Cordelia is left in the unenviable position of trying to surpass them. She too will not, can not, bring herself to do so. Thi...
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...don him in his madness. Edmund, the main force of 'evil' in the play, not only comes near to destroying the country the Lear has worked so hard to maintain, he also gives the order for the death of the King and his youngest daughter. This, of course, leads directly to Lear's own self-induced death. Therefore, while king Lear's sins were horrible, and cannot be fully excused by his madness or his redemption, they still pale in comparison to those committed against him. While he wallowed in pettiness, they succumbed to greed, evil, and murder.
Works Cited
Kermode, Frank. "King Lear." The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G.B.Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. 1249-54.
Muir, Kenneth, ed. King Lear. London: Methuen & Co, 1972
Partee, Morriss Henry. "Edgar and the Ending of King Lear." Studia Neophilologica 63 (1991): 175-180.
At the beginning of the play King Lear decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. He asked which one of them loved him the most. He uses their answer to decide how to divide his kingdom. This shows how uncaring and selfish he is. His two older daughters know their father’s true character and flatter him to get what they want. They know this is what motivates him, flattery that feeds his pride. Eventually his love of praise and flattery will be the reason he is destroyed and then dies. His youngest daughter, Cordelia does not give him the answer he wants so he flies into a rage and then disowns her. He is too blind to realize that she is the one who really loves him. He also doesn’t care that by disowning her, he will make it hard for her to get a husband. King Lear is a ruler who cares only about all the things that come with being the king, especially his title. At the end, he comes to realize that it is Cordelia who really loves him. He would rather go to prison with her than to be the king again.
The Shakespearean play King Lear is one of great merit, with an excellent story. The play depicts the kingdom of Lear. Because the king is nearing the end of the reign, he divides his land amongst his daughters. However, once his daughters have received what they want, they begin to distance themselves from their father. There were other small sub-stories tucked away within the main plot of the story, most containing small amounts of corruption. The turning point of the story is when Lear makes the discovery that his daughters are beginning to betray him. The once prideful and stoic king falls apart emotionally, and the kingdom undergoes a dramatic split as the King’s once loyal colleagues let loose their corruption and evil as they turn into
... Lears blessing, and declared his daughter. Lear also realized that Kents speaking out was for Lear’s best and that he too was abused and banished. What stings Lear even more is that he is now completely dependent upon his two shameless daughters, Goneril and Regan. Plus that he must now beg them when he took care of them like a father when they were once children, to drive Lears further into madness he realizes that as king he was so ignorant and blind with power that he never took care of the homeless and let them suffer. All these realization and the fact that Lear is in his second childhood a tender stage drive him into the peak of madness.
Erick Erickson has made a huge contribution to the field of psychology with his developmental theory. Like Sigmund Freud, Erickson also saw that humans developed within stages of their life. With this he developed his eight psychosocial stages. Born on June 2, 1902 in Frankfort, Germany to a Jewish mother, Karla Abrahamsen and his biological father Valdemar Isidor Salomonsen. There isn’t much information on Erickson’s father because before he was even born his father abandoned his mother. Instead in 1905 his mother married Dr. Theodor Homberger who was also at the time Erickson’s pediatrician. Throughout Erickson’s youth he struggled with his identity because there wasn’t a father figure around his youth, Erickson never really knew
In Chapter 4 of a book titled Escape from Freedom, the famous American psychologist Erich Fromm wrote that "Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction" (Fromm 98). Fromm realized that avarice is one of the most powerful emotions that a person can feel, but, by its very nature, is an emotion or driving force that can never be satisfied. For, once someone obtains a certain goal, that person is not satisfied and continues to strive for more and more until that quest leads to their ultimate destruction. For this reason, authors have embraced the idea of greed in the creation of hundreds of characters in thousands of novels. Almost every author has written a work centered around a character full of avarice. Ian Fleming's Mr. Goldfinger, Charles Dickens' Scrooge, and Thomas Hardy's John D'Urberville are only a few examples of this attraction. But, perhaps one of the best examples of this is found in William Shakespeare's King Lear. Edmund, through his speech, actions, and relationships with other characters, becomes a character consumed with greed to the point that nothing else matters except for the never-ending quest for status and material possessions.
King Lear is a perfect demonstration of the great consequences one man's actions can cause. While there are certainly religious Christian elements to the story, the story is not one of morality or hope. King Lear is a lesson, making an example of what can come of a single, foolish, egotistical action. King Lear's action is the surrendering of his throne to his daughters.
King Lear's hot temper and hasty decisions play a significant role in his fall from grace. His old age has caused him to behave impulsively, without any consideration for the consequences of his actions. When Lear asks his devoted daughter Cordelia to express her love for him, he becomes upset with her because she cannot put her feelings into words. He does not realize that she cares deeply for him and disowns her by saying, "Here I disclaim all my paternal care, propinquity and property of blood, and as a stranger to my heart and me hold thee from this for ever (1.1.120-123)." It is only later, when Cordelia has left him, that Lear realizes he had made a wrong decision. In another fit of rage, Lear ...
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia L. Freund. New York: Washington Square, 1957. Print.
...derstanding of time passed and time that remains allows one to become comfortable with such circumstances and express a love that must soon retire.The metaphors that represent the theme throughout the poem are similar in the way they all show the devastating and destructive factors of time. Further more, they provide a discourse surrounding the issue of mortality. With anticipation increasing from beginning to end, Shakespeare is able to demonstrate a level of comfort surrounding the inevitable. The continual imposition of death on life is a universal experience. Autumn turning into winter, day turning into night, and a flame diminishing entirely all illustrate this. The increase in intensity of associated color with metaphors mimics the intensity of the ending. As the end draws increasingly near, it becomes undeniable and provides the catalyst for the lesson of love.
Erik Erikson was a psychologist specializing in post Freudian studies. Many ideas and foundations of his theories came from the Freud way of thinking. Erickson could be considered a neo Freudian, someone who is influenced by and still practices elements of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Erik Erikson’s development theory expanded on Freud’s original five stages of development, consisting of a new eight psychosocial stages of development known as The Life Cycle. The ego and sexual development are a large focus for Erik Erikson’s stages. In each of his stages there are two main terms for the child to learn and they are always opposites of each other. In addition to psychologists today still using Erikson’s stages of development for assessments on patients, research is still being conducted to prove the validity of Erikson’s design. His work is important to various areas of psychology including development and personality.
No tragedy of Shakespeare moves us more deeply that we can hardly look upon the bitter ending than King Lear. Though, in reality, Lear is far from like us. He himself is not an everyday man but a powerful king. Could it be that recognize in Lear the matter of dying? Each of us is, in some sense, a king who must eventually give up his kingdom. To illustrate the process of dying, Shakespeare has given Lear a picture of old age in great detail. Lear’s habit to slip out of a conversation (Shakespeare I. v. 19-33), his brash banishment of his most beloved and honest daughter, and his bitter resentment towards his own loss of function and control, highlighted as he ironically curses Goneril specifically on her functions of youth and prays that her
Lear's vision is marred by lack of direction in life, poor foresight and his inability to predict the consequences of his actions. He cannot look far enough into the future to see the consequences of his actions. This, in addition to his lack of insight into other people, condemns his relationship with his most beloved daughter, Cordelia. When Lear asks his daughters, who loves him most, he already thinks that Cordelia has the most love for him. However, when Cordelia says: "I love your Majesty according to my bond, no more nor less." (I, i, 94-95) Lear cannot see what these words really mean. Goneril and Regan are only putting on an act. They do not truly love Lear as much as they should. When Cordelia says these words, she has seen her sister's facade, and she does not want to associate her true love with their false love. Lear, however, is fooled by Goneril and Regan into thinking that they love him, while Cordelia does not. This is when Lear first shows a sign of becoming blind to those around him. He snaps and disowns her:
Shakespeare, William, and Russell A. Fraser. King Lear. New York: New American Library, 1998. Print.
The profession of architecture, the possible career as an architect, taking steps to gain a position and education as well as the set growth and prospects of this profession. According to Lee W. Waldrep (2010), author of the book Becoming a Architect “A Guide to Careers in Design, an architect is an imaginative person who designs a wide range of structures for buildings”(p. 2). These structures not only have to be aesthetically pleasing, but must also meet the safety requirements. Architects have to compete with other architects to attract customers by presenting designs. This process is generally based on building a reputation as an architect. Due to the nature and the amount of time devoted to designing, architects
Every person with a job, no matter what occupation, makes an impact on society in some way, shape, or form. Some people leave their legacy by defending people in court, some saving lives in a hospital, and others planning and building works of construction. These planners have a large-scale effect on everybody in society and have an eye for detail, as well as enjoy using mathematics to ensure proper construction. That is why I have chosen architecture to be my career. An architect is a person who designs buildings and supervises their construction. A broader view of an architect is a person who is responsible for inventing or realizing a particular idea or project. Architecture varies from the pillars of the Greek Parthenon, to peoples’ homes. I often find myself marveling over the design of large-scale building projects such as the skyscrapers of New York City. Most of these buildings belong to a myriad of well-known companies such as Chase and Toshiba. That is why I have particularly chosen to become a commercial architect.