King Lear's Deceit And Wickedness

When first reading the novel, “King Lear,” it is no surprise that the big picture/story plot line is the betrayal and backstabbing of King Lear. There is however, the second plot that as the story continues keeps developing. This makes the two main characters or at least the victims for the main problems of the story, to be King Lear and Gloucester.

Most importantly, Lear has come to terms with the fact that he is not a god, an important distinction which Shakespeare uses to enable Lear to define his body. A humility which negates the idea that he is some sort of divine being capable of manipulating the weather. Therefore, Lear has learnt to separate himself from an unnatural and illogical society. This is done when Lear’s perception changes about the natural world which refuses to come to his rescue. This influences Lear to disregard the fact that he is no way divine, enabling him to relate himself to those which he perceived as lower.

In King Lear by William Shakespeare, Lear began to show abnormal behavior after he found out his daughters were not as promising as they made themselves out to be. He split up his land amongst the daughters based on how much they said they loved him, but he failed to realize that his daughters did not love him as much as they said they did. Due to his unrequited love for his daughters, his actions can be considered reasonable, even though his delusion and irregular behavior consists of him rambling, refusing to apologize to his daughters, and roaming around England.

In our world, there are people like the woman who yells at her children and disciplines them with physical punishment, but also the boy who talks to the student that always sits alone at the lunch table and is socially different than others. Some people may lead a life based upon universally established morals, while others tend to let out a side of their being that is more beastly than human. Humans have the ability to make choices based on reason, while the animals of the earth have only the capacity to choose the best option for their own survival. Human reasoning, both gracious and grave is witnessed in the words of William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of King Lear. Through both provocative and seemingly angelic characters,

   In Chapter 4 of a book titled Escape from Freedom, the famous American psychologist Erich Fromm wrote that "Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction" (Fromm 98).  Fromm realized that avarice is one of the most powerful emotions that a person can feel, but, by its very nature, is an emotion or driving force that can never be satisfied.  For, once someone obtains a certain goal, that person is not satisfied and continues to strive for more and more until that quest leads to their ultimate destruction.  For this reason, authors have embraced the idea of greed in the creation of hundreds of characters in thousands

Using detailed supporting evidence, discuss the significance in the play of ONE of the following.

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.

Chords of Misconception (new title) Many people have a misconception that they are the only ones struggling with life, while others are not. This conception is false, since challenges/ struggles can plague even the wealthiest person in order to placate society, family, friends and themselves. For example, in King Lear, a famous play written by William Shakespeare, Lear himself faces numerous adversities due to his rash decision making skills and an ego that render him figuratively blind.

There is one constant throughout the play, the absence of rank. King Lear is set up in a kingdom-like manner, through which an attitude of respect and honesty is expected from the characters. Yet, to the demise of many of the characters, this expected attitude is only portrayed through a few of them. When this attitude of respect and honesty is not portrayed, it is not looked upon as odd or out of character, it is almost normalized. The king goes mad, Kent breaks a stereotype, Gloucester is naïve nature, Edmund as a master of manipulation, and the fool portraying the most knowledgeable of all.

In books and in life older people are usually seen as wise and so this has become a stereotype. Older leaders are usually shown to be strong and always do the right thing because there wiser than their younger counterparts. This stereotype has become a little overused and so when you see a piece that goes against that norm, it becomes very interesting. In William Shakespeare’s King Lear the theme of sanity and corruption is developed through the motif of wisdom and age to illustrate the idea that older people are not always wiser than younger people. This play flips the idea of wisdom in relation to age on its head, which makes the plot all the more interesting.

King Lear by William Shakespeare is about the downfall of a King through madness. The tragic hero, King Lear was a great and kind ruler who fell into madness causing two of his daughters to plot against him for the kingdom. The king disowned his daughter, played no attention to his problems in exchange for distractions and when he felt that he lost all control, he shouted at a storm as his friend pleaded him to come back inside. Lear’s flaws caused much misfortune to those around him friends, foe, and even his own downfall throughout the play. Pride is a common flaw that is found in many of Shakespeare’s tragic character and is certainly present in King Lear as well.

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial, corruption plays a central role. In the first, European greed for ivory leads to the corruption of individuals like Kurtz and the abuse of the native population. In the second, King Lear’s devolution of power to his corrupt daughters leads to a war and the deaths of ten characters. In the third, a corrupt organization upends Josef K.’s life. In all, power leads to corruption, which in turn leads to ruin.

   "Only through the loss of our possessions and worldly connections can one truly realize one's inner being" (Confucius). The true nature of man is known but is not commonly seen until adversity strikes. Characters reveal their true nature when they are reduced to nothing. In the play, King Lear, by William Shakespeare, there are three main themes that characters can be reduced by; social status, love and power. Through these three mediums the true nature of the works characters are exposed, by stripping away the innuendo, deceit and superficiality that initially cloaks each character.

Nothing is as it seems, a form of this phrase has appeared in many works of literature and it is appropriate to describe what Shakespeare tried to introduce I some of his plays. An example of is works that this idea appears in include: hamlet and king Lear, there are characters in both plays that don’t show their true nature instead they decide to adapt a new one; some might pretend to act or even to be mad in order to protect themselves from a certain danger such as hamlet and Edgar, the son of Gloucester, others chose to deceive their own flesh-and-blood in order to take hold of a fortune of a position in their society as Claudius and Edmund , and there are characters who accept deception

We all know that being betrayed is not the best thing in the world to be done to you. In William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Lear and Gloucester have both been betrayed in some way. Clearly, Gloucester suffered a greater betrayal than Lear. Firstly, you have to consider the people that betrayed these two characters in the play. Secondly, one must consider why these two characters were betrayed in the first place. Using these criteria, it is clear that Gloucester has suffered a greater betrayal than King Lear.