preview

Comparison Of King Lear And King Lear

Good Essays
Open Document

In the play King Lear Shakespeare puts emphasis on the ignorance of both King Lear and Gloucester by revealing their personalities in similar ways. This allows the reader to better understand the characters as well as give a point of reflection for both characters. Throughout the play, Shakespeare develops King Lear and Gloucester into parallel characters by creating similarities in their relationship with their children, their blindness, in both a literal and figurative sense and their doomed fate.
Within the first act of the play, it is shown that both Gloucester and King Lear are ignorant to their children’s true character. First, when King Lear is determining the division of his kingdom, he only hears the surface of what Reagan and Goneril are saying. Although they claim to love him “beyond what can be valued,” (1.1.57) it is becomes obvious that these are just words, rather than truths. In a similar fashion, Gloucester is quick to believe the words of Edmund. Edmund claims to have found a letter from his brother Edgar plotting to kill their father. Just as King Lear was manipulated by his daughters, Gloucester falls for Edmund’s trap. Gloucester banishes Edgar on the spot and now it under Edmund’s thumb. While Gloucester turns against his eldest son, King Lear turn against his youngest daughter Cordelia. She is banished as well, similarly to Edgar, for being honest with her father. She tells him that she only loves him “according to [her] bond,” (1.1.93) Both characters

Get Access