Essay on Biblical Imagery in King Lear

King Lear is a Christian Play About a Pagan World It is evident that King Lear contains references to both the Christian and Pagan doctrine. However, they seem to be expressed in entirely different styles. King Lear is purposefully set in a pre Christian era with numerous references to classical Gods but conversely there appears to be a striking resonance of Christian theology throughout the play. These echoes appear in various forms including the idea of Edgar being a Christ-like figure and also the presence of a supposed divine justice.

King Lear's fool is undoubtedly one of the wisest characters in the play. He is not only able to accurately analyze a situation which many other characters are blind to, but he is also able to foreshadow the actions of many characters and many other incidents to come. The main instruction the fool gives to the king is to beware of doing things that are unnatural, such as giving his inheritance, (splitting his kingdom among his daughters) to his daughters before he his dead. By doing this unnaturally, Lear must face many adverse consequences, such as losing his identity, self-worth, and respect from his daughters.

Despite King Lear's horrendous actions against both Cordelia and Kent, neither of these characters takes revenge on him. In fact, Cordelia eventually forgives King Lear and Kent comes back to Britain and serves the king in disguise. After splitting up the nation between his two remaining daughters, King Lear keeps one hundred knights for himself, and requests a place to stay. It only seems fitting that King Lear stay at Goneril's and Regan's homes, since they owe their possession of those homes and their power to their father. Regan and Goneril quickly turn on their father, kicking him out of their homes, and leaving him to die in one of the worst storms they have seen.

Reacting with rage at this notion, Lear proceeds to beat his forehead with his fist in frustration: “O Lear, Lear, Lear!/Beat at this gate that let thy folly in/And thy dear judgement out!” (1.4.267-269). Lear believes that he is still the ruler, despite giving up his kingdom, and as such feels that Goneril should obey him. He obviously regrets his decision to give Goneril any power. Later, Regan and Goneril cause Lear further suffering by undermining their father’s sense of authority, without hesitation. They do this by severely diminishing the number of knights they will allow him to keep under his rule:

Lear cannot deny his ultimate role as the king. He desires to maintain his name and his rights as king, but to give control of the kingdom to his daughters and their husbands. However, this cannot work: "We know immediately that he is doomed to painful disillusionment by his assumption that his identity as king, father, and man, being fixed in the macrocosmic scheme of things, must remain unshaken without its worldly supports" (Egan 32). So, King Lear's exercising of this nonexistent power establishes his tragic flaw and the problem of the play: the power of the kingdom must reside in Lear only.

In King Lear, Lear’s conflict of power with his daughters is brought about by his own arrogance, which flaws his judgement and propels his change of heart. When Lear parcels out his kingdom to his daughters, he finds the honesty of Cordelia’s praise to be ungrateful and

Kent’s effort to steer Lear in the right direction backfires. Lear is offended by Kent’s attempt to make him go against his word and reverse the disownment on Cordelia. Lear, feeling his pride in jeopardy, goes into a fit of rage and banishes Kent for questioning his judgment:

King Lear, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, is about the delegation of power from the old generation to the young, new generation. Furthermore, the play demonstrates problems that can arise from a transfer made too early, from one generation to the next. A Thousand Acres is a modern retelling of King Lear, that is similar to King Lear, but it is not an exact word for word copy. The overall plot has been retained from King Lear, but some of the minor details have been changed to provide an intriguing new take on the same story. One such change is the fact the story goes from a third person view in King Lear, mostly following King Lear, to a first person narrative from the perspective of Ginny in A Thousand Acres. Ginny is the modern day version for Goneril’s character. King Lear and A Thousand Acres may take place in two different time periods; they both offer comments on the status of women, family relationships, and the natural order of things. The two time periods may be different, one modern day and the other set in the past, however the ideas presented are not that different on a whole. Both works presented share the same common thematic and universal elements throughout.

The entire play is built around one man’s laziness. As the play commences one may question why Lear would decide to prematurely give up his kingdom. It is quite possible that he transferred his authorities before it was

beginning of the play proves to be false. Lear discovers that his necessity to keep

At the beginning of the play King Lear has more power than anyone else, the feeling of power made him think it was okay to ask his three daughters who loved him the most. When his youngest and favourite daughter Cordelia did not give him the answer he wanted by saying, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth/ I love your majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less” (King Lear 1.1.91-93). he started lashing out. Lear clearly values Goneril and Regan fawning over him over Cordelia’s sincere honesty. Out of pride and anger, Lear banishes Cordelia, as well as Kent for defending her. Lear splits the kingdom in half to Goneril and Regan which leads to the deaths of many people in the play. Throughout the play he becomes increasingly shocked when people do not obey him the way they did before and the lack of respect he receives. With his loss of power Lear often responds to these problems with anger saying things like “My curses on her!” (2.4.138). about his own daughter. By the end of the play he recognizes that he takes responsibility for both his own problems and for those of others. King Lear’s actions were the first step to the plays tragic outcome.

Another folly displayed by Lear is that of blindness. He is ignorant to the true feelings and intentions of his closest family members. When Regan and Goneril shower him with false praises and declarations of their love, he egotistically believes them and bases his division of the kingdom on their deceitful words. Eventually, however, Lear's heart is broken when their true nature is exposed. Lear repeats his mistake of blindness when he fails to realize that Regan and Goneril are plotting against him. The two sisters deviously agree to "hit together" and take full control of the kingdom (1.1.332). Had Lear "seen" better, he would have realized the true intentions of his daughters and saved himself from tremendous grief.

The inevitability of death begins to settle into Lear, not enabling him to accept it, but to drive him towards the brink of insanity. We begin to see Lear view life as an existential concept that constricts his mental state. The painful surprise of mortality leads him to go insane and his anger turns into

King Lear an imprudent, old man symbolizes selfishness like no other. What is most daunting is the fact that he is adamantly loyal to appearances and ranking in life. He carries a title which most can not even dream of attaining, but wants to give up the position and all the responsibilities that follow it. “ Know that we have divided/ In three our kingdom, and `tis our fast intent/ To shake all cares and business from our age” (1.1.37-39). It is quite understandable if he just wanted to end his reign as king, but it’s another thing when he also wants to bask in the glory of the title and be treated like he still owns it. This egotistical attitude of his is more annoying than anything else, for he brought forth all his problems upon himself, and also unto others. His most arrogant moment is at the very beginning of the play, when he demands his daughters to profess their love for him openly, “which of you shall we say doth love us most?” (1.1.53). The use of his words in this quote is disgusting, it exudes pride, self-importance, and flattery. It’s because of these very words, that Cordelia denied him his right to the, all so selfish public display of love. Although Lear made costly mistakes throughout the play, his love to Cordelia rang

This quote is coming from Cordelia in the first scene of the first act. Lear has just called his three daughters in and is dividing up his kingdom. The daughters are telling Lear how much they love him in order to influence the decision on dividing the kingdom. Regan and Goneril both lie and say that they love him more than words can express but Cordelia doesn't lie and tells the truth. In this quote, she says, “Lear you have raised me and loved me and I’m returning the favor. I love you just as I should, I obey you, I love you and I honor you. Hopefully, when I get married I will give you my husband and half of my love.” This quote is showing that in King Lear, Shakespeare uses characters to represent something greater. In the story, there are a few main characters that are big metaphors one being King Lear representing madness and insanity. A second being Goneril representing greed and lastly, Gloucester used to show the metaphors of people not opening their eyes to what's actually going on. All these metaphors have an important lesson to them that can be applied into the