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King Lear Nature

Decent Essays

Throughout the duration of King Lear, there is a reoccurrence of the words “nature”, “natural”, and “unnatural”. Nature, in general, takes on a significant role in one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. The metaphorical subject of nature plays out as a backdrop in King Lear. The figurative nature of Lear’s conflict with his undeserving daughters parallels that of the literal raging storm he faces as he is thrown out of both daughter’s homes.

Each of the characters, Lear, Edmund, and Gloucester, at some point in the story call on nature in some form or another. To King Lear, nature is the reasonable affection in which his children should be naturally loyal to him. He wants to hand down his kingdom to the daughter “Where nature doth with merit challenge” (I, i, 52). To Edmund, “Thou, nature, art my goddess” (I, ii, 1), he feels he is a natural man because, by nature, he is considered a beast. To …show more content…

The story focuses on the families of King Lear and Gloucester. Lear has three heirs, of which two are “unnatural” for not being able to show “a child-like office” (II, i, 110). The two husbands of the King’s eldest daughters are completely opposite in nature. Goneril’s husband, the Duke of Albany, is inherently good at heart while Regan’s husband, Cornwall, is malicious like his wife. The same can be said for Gloucester’s family. His natural illegitimate son Edmund is actually very unnatural without a child’s true affection while his lawful son Edgar is natural because it is in his innate nature to show loyalty to his father. The counterbalance of good and evil characters juxtaposed in the play show how it is in man’s nature to be good or evil. The ‘good’ characters in King Lear are the ones the audience can feel sympathy for while the ‘bad’ characters are those that are disparately bereft of evoking any sympathy from the

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