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King Lear Relationship Essay

Decent Essays

King Lear reveals a lot about relationships and how messy than can be in familial ties. Hatred, deception, abuse, being power hungry, and abandonment can all lead to breaking family ties that were once strong—or could have been strong—and can help lead to a demise of the mind, spirit, and body. Many of the actors throughout King Lear made huge choices that defined their characters and their relationships, rounding them out to be human. Meanwhile, Anthony Sher who played King Lear seemed to lack connection in these relationships except for when he was abusing Goneril. Therefore, the relationships that Sher was supposed to foster were not as strong as they could have been. Paapa Essiedu, who played Edmund, made the character complex through his relationships with his family and the audience. When with his father and brother, he was sincere and played into being the trustworthy brother and son. Essiedu created a veil for his father in order to gain his trust before he tried to take over the kingdom. In juxtaposition, his relationship with the audience was the core of Edmund. Essiedu contrasted lines of murder and revenge with a lightness in tone, making the lines quite comedic. Using the rationalized text he—as Edmund—created a firm argument as to why he was …show more content…

Throughout the show Goneril is abused and cursed by King Lear, leading the audience to believe that this has been a recurring theme throughout her life. For example, she welcomed him with open arms and forgiveness, but instead he suffocated her when she gave him a hug. By having a strong storyline for her character, the actress had the ability to form a relationship with King Lear and not be an evil sister caricature. This gave the audience a reason to believe that she said she loved her father more than anything because she knew she could not disobey him and win anything from

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