King Lear Human Nature

Throughout the play, King Lear makes many mistakes, which show his imperfections. His mistakes eventually led to his insanity. He does not even want ot go insane. He says, “O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven keep me in temper: I would not be mad! (I v 1-2).

Even in the first act, the parallel between natural and unnatural is apparent. In the opening scene, King Lear says, “Which of you shall we say doth love us most?/That we our largest bounty may extend/Where nature doth with merit challenge.” Here, he is implying that by nature, his daughters should love him with all their heart, even more than they love their husbands. However, while two of his daughters profess their love to him, Cordelia does not, causing King Lear to call her a “wretch whom nature is ashamed”. The unnatural politics between King Lear and his daughters foreshadow the terrible consequences that they will later face. In the same act, Gloucester's illegitimate son Edmund expresses his acidity toward his brother, and how he intends to act on it, saying, “ Well, then,/Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:/Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund/As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!”

Human nature is a concept that has interested scholars throughout history and brought debate over what human nature truly is. Shakespeare explores the issue of human nature in his tragedy King Lear by attempting to portray human nature as entirely good or evil. He seems to suggest, however, that it is not impossible for one to move from one end of the spectrum of human nature to the other, as multiple characters go through somewhat of a metamorphosis where their nature is changed. Shakespeare present an account of human nature in King Lear as the foundation of the tragedy King Lear.

In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the audience is confronted with many contrasts—a wise fool, reason in madness, insight of a blind man, and the power of the powerless. Through these contradictions, the audience and the characters are challenged to stop limiting what’s within by external appearances. In the beginning, King Lear holds a lot of political agency but has no power over his happiness as he looks to his daughters’ words of love for confirmation. The sisters that verbally express the most love turn out to be evil; the people Lear banishes turn out to be the most loyal. The audience realizes in the beginning that things are not always as they seem.

It is evident in this scene that his daughter's deceit and wickedness has deeply affected his mental condition. It's understandable that any person who has been in a similar situation to that of the King's would be traumatized, however, he is exaggerating on the matter on this situation. I say this because Lear is an old and fragile person, it is dangerous for him to stand outside in life-threatening weather. This is a symbol of the weakening of his sanity. Shakespeare portrays Lear's insanity when the King assumes the weather is a person and provokes it to be more threatening. Statements like "Crack your cheeks" and " Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world " are all emblems of his inner turmoil. Furthermore, a personification of the monstrous

Although set in the pre-Christian England, King Lear addresses the same anxieties and fears faced by the subsequent Protestants and a modern day audience may experience— a sense of desolation over the fear that God is hostile or indifferent. Although there are frequent references to pagan and Christian deities, gods in Lear’s England never manifest themselves, merely being a country where the human capacity for evil is very much in evidence. Throughout the play, calls for divine intervention appear to be like calls out to a void, for the gods are always silent or perhaps simply do not exist. Faith in the mercy of the gods, “The gods are just, and of our pleasane vices, make instruments to plague us” are turned to bitterness towards the end, evident when Gloucester laments “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.

King Lear’s internal battle of giving away authority turns into a problem for his kingdom, as Steven Sohmer, of “Early Modern Literary Studies,” writes, “The redemptive elucidation of this text could depict the struggle between chaos and order as being relative to the demise of the kingdom due to Lear’s lapse…the concept of celestial versus terrestrial could be expressed…” (Sohmer). Lear’s frustration with his children is affecting him, especially seen when nature seems to be going against him as well. As the enraged king reflects on the demolition of his proposed arrangement, a livid storm occurs, representing the true severity of how upset he feels with how everything has turned out. In addition, Lear is faced to deal with the repercussions of his childrens’ wrongdoings when the news is delivered that, “There is division, although as yet the face of it be cover'd with mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; who have--as who have not, that their great stars throned and set high? But, true it is, from France there comes a power into this scatter'd kingdom; who already, wise in our negligence, have secret feet in some of our best ports, and are at point to show their open banner…” (Shakespeare 27). Although the fault of Britain turning to turmoil is not entirely the king’s, he still feels responsible that his own children are power-hungry. Part of Lear’s internal

Lear begins to address the storm and he commands it to rage and blow. ‘Personified, apostrophized, and energized by association with Lear’s mighty passions, the elements become as participants in the drama.’ He calls on the thunderbolts to burn his white head and to ‘strike flat the thick rotundity o’the world, crack nature’s moulds’ (7-8). By his words and their relation to the vocabulary of the storm the audience can hear and see Lear descend into madness. He does this by invoking the storm to bring about his destruction as well as the destruction of the world.

Instead of assessing who would be the most capable leader, Lear bases his decision on which daughter can flatter him most, showing he is more concerned with the boosting of his ego than finding the most fit ruler. Then, when Cordelia refuses to do so, his pride blocks his reason; he disowns her without considering that she is the only one of his daughters that has actually shown she cares for him, something which will become increasingly fundamental as he continues to age. Instead, his ego and desire to not be humiliated take hold, causing him to make a foolish decision, both for himself, his daughter, and the hundreds of thousands of people for which he is responsible for. Lear then had to face the consequences of his foolish passing on of power in a cruel reversal of fate.

The division of Lear’s kingdom constitutes a new social organization. It is therefore reasonable that his personality would adjust accordingly. Aside from aging, Lear’s sanity is deeply rooted in the regret and disappointment he feels after banishing his once beloved and loyal

The storm scene in King Lear is one of the most involving scenes the play. During this scene Shakespeare gives the storm as a personality and it echoes Lear’s inner confusion. It allows Lear to grow a sense of human weakness and humbleness. Brook’s interpretation of the storm scene remains consistent with his simple Shakespearean techniques. Wobble boards and symbols are used for thunder and

Later in the play, during the storm scene, Lear’s madness becomes even more apparent. The chaos created by the storm parallels the chaos that is within Lear’s mind. Late in Act 3, Lear himself speaks on the effect that the storm has on his mental state. The King proclaims, “Thou’dst meet the bear i’the mouth. When the mind’s free, / The body’s delicate: this tempest in my mind” (3.4.11-12). The chaos that arises from the mental decay of Lear parallels the chaos that arises from the storm. It can be inferred that the chaos created by the storm parallels the chaos within the King’s mind, and the fact that King Lear says “this tempest in my mind” while is standing in the tempest, which means storm, proves that this parallel exists. This also further proves that authority is more powerful that chaos because as Lear’s mind decays, chaos consumes him, and as the storm rages on, the chaos from the storm consumes the country of England. The authority that Lear used to represent has been diminished by his decreasing mental capacity in the same way that the stable conditions of the country has been destroyed by the chaos that the storm has created. In the middle of the sixth scene of Act 4, Lear’s madness in conjunction with nature becomes evident again. The stage directions read, “Enter LEAR mad [crowned with wild flowers]” (332). First, the brackets around “crowned with wild flowers”

At the end of the monologue, Shakespeare has the weather break out into a heavy storm. This storm not only symbolizes Lear’s militant thoughts, but it also symbolizes his unstable emotions at this point. After Lear delivers the monologue, the audience has no idea what might happen next. In this Act Lear has shown signs of bipolarity when talking to people, so the audience might think he will fizzle out; on the other hand, he has also gotten carried away with his emotions. Similarly, this storm could either fizzle out, or it can get out of hand very quickly.

In addition, he strips himself to expose the true nature of man which he realizes as insignificant. It's as if he is intentionally trying to alienate himself. As if he views all mankind to be a foreign concept due to the irrational state of life. He curses, “You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!(III. ii. 32)” to defy the elements. We can't help but see Lear act against nature as if he is the storm itself. Moreover, he tries to justify his temper by mentioning that nothing can hurt him more than his daughters. Not even the elements can corrupt this poor, old man. We see the storm bring about awareness when Lear exclaims,“You sulfurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head!(III. ii. 33)” as if he begins to finally discover his true hair color which directly correlates with his age. I see that Lear is becoming aware of his age, but not willing to accept the anemic state of his body and mind. He intentionally makes note of his hair color, but the realization leaves him in a state of mental insanity soon to discover his impending death.

King Lear is set in a time where even though swords and kings existed, and knights still roamed the land, people still believed in the pagan gods. This is elucidated by the various mentions of the gods (plural) throughout the play, and the lack of a single entity (God). When King Lear disowns Cordelia, he does so by invoking “the sacred radiance of the sun” and “the mysteries of Hecate and the night.” (I.i.110-111) He later swears “by Apollo” to warn Kent, in which Kent rebukes by saying “Thou swear’st thy gods in vain.” (I.i.164) Lastly, when France proclaims his love for Cordelia he blames the “Gods” for possessing in him a quality that allows him to be so attracted Cordelia’s virtues. (I.i.263)