Theme Of Hunger For Power In King Lear

In King Lear, the characters deceive one another constantly. Most of them deliberately misrepresent themselves, but others are naturally difficult to understand. Some are trying to gain power while others are protecting themselves. There is an extreme contrast between reality and what each character appears to be to the other characters. This quality about the characters fuels the plot, bringing it to its ultimate end.

Power is the ability to manipulate and control whatever one desires; to do what one pleases to do without answering to authority. The power that corrupts the characters plays an extensive role throughout Shakespeare’s play, King Lear. Goneril and Regan are corrupted by the power that Lear offers them. Edmund’s corruption comes from the trust of his father. Absolute power corrupts absolutely with the characters, because once have full control, they are so cold that they will do anything to keep the power – or to gain more. The quest for power corrupts, but when absolute power is attained, treachery and deceit is the only path to take.

Shakespeare's King Lear is a play which shows the consequences of one man's decisions. The audience follows the main character, Lear, as he makes decisions that disrupt order in his Kingdom. When Lear surrenders all his power and land to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him, the breakdown on order in evident. Lear's first mistake is to divide his Kingdom into three parts. A Kingdom is run best under one ruler as only one decision is made without contradiction. Another indication that order is disrupted is the separation of Lear's family. Lear's inability to control his anger causes him to banish his youngest daughter, Cordelia, and loyal servant, Kent. This foolish act causes Lear to become vulnerable to

Shakespeare’s King Lear, also follows Poetics guidelines of tragedy with the death of Cordelia, and Lear’s kommos. In the beginning of the tragedy, King Lear is ready to disperse his kingdom between his three daughters. “Which of you shall we say doth love us most, / That we our largest bounty may extend/ Where nature doth with merit challenge…”, Lear challenges his daughters (I, i, 53-55). Lear desires for his daughters to express their love for their father and he will give the daughter, with the greatest affection, the largest section of land. Regan and Goneril, two of the daughters, express their great love for their father, yet Cordelia, Lear’s favorite, answers with “Nothing” (I, i, 91). Lear, not receiving the answer he wished for, banishes Cordelia without a dowry to marry the King of France. Lear is then faced with being kicked out of his other daughters’ houses and his own kingdom; after these events Lear proceeds to go insane. King Lear even regrets Cordelia’s banishment later in scene one, “I did her wrong” (I, v, 25). Lear’s actions and selfishness cause pity for Cordelia because of her devotion to her father; however, in the end of the tragedy, he is faced with a realization of his mistake which leads to a katharsis of feelings of pity for Cordelia.

King Lear is an actor who can only play the king. Thus, after he has abdicated his throne, passing the authority to his posterity, he still demands respect and power, which he is unable to claim from any of his former subjects, even his daughters. And as a king with no kingdom, he is an actor with no role to play, the most loathsome of all conditions. Lear himself realizes this, and in scene 4, he cries: "Why, this is not Lear" (4.204). And later in the same speech, he says: "Who is it that can tell me who I am?" (4.209). Lear is stuck in his role as king, unable to act in any other manner and powerless to provide for himself, causing the ultimate downfall of he and his

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

Shakespeare’s King Lear is a grievously heartbreaking play and entertains the idea that there is harm coming into existence. Kastan’s bleak interpretation of the text is supported by our heroes who have suffered throughout this tragedy. Moreover, no reconciliation nor recompense is awarded to our heroes that have attempted to stimulate a sense of hope. These unjust consequences resulted from ignorance and naivety. Furthermore, Shakespeare’s tragic ending makes one wonder if there is any hope for

“King Lear”, a play by Shakespeare tells us how kingship and power or the loss of power are expressed. Lear, king of Britain decides to retire and shares his kingdom between his daughters; he later discovers what it is like to lose the power and authority that came with responsibilities. In the play, power is related to flattery, appearance and anger.

   King Lear meets all the requirements of a tragedy as defined by Andrew Cecil Bradley.  Bradley states that a Shakespearean tragedy has to be the story of the hero and there is exceptional suffering and calamity slowly being worn in.  Also, the current time must be contrasted to happier times.  The play also depicts the troubled parts in the hero’s life and eventually he dies instantaneously because of the suffering and calamity.  There is the feeling of fear in the play as well, that makes men see how blind they are not knowing when fortune or something else would be on them.  The hero must be of a high status on the chain and the hero must also possess a tragic flaw that initiates the tragedy.

At the beginning of the play King Lear denounces Cordelia as his daughter in a fit of rage. He has this reaction simply because she refused to flatter him and speak exaggerations of her love for him. As his favourite daughter, Lear was expecting Cordelia to shower him with compliments and praises like his other two daughters and when this did not occur he was overwhelmed with fury and denounces her as his daughter. Lear also falls victim to wrath once he realizes what his other two daughters have done to him. “I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall--I will do such things,-- What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be The terrors of the earth.” (2.4.305-9). In this quote Lear reveals the wrath that he wishes to inflict on both of his daughters for deceiving him and rejecting him after he gave them everything he had. King Lear’s wrath is fueled by his daughters’ betrayal. Lear never actually did proceed to inflict his wrath upon his daughters but he did however have every intention of doing so if given the opportunity.

King Lear's hot temper and hasty decisions play a significant role in his fall from grace. His old age has caused him to behave impulsively, without any consideration for the consequences of his actions. When Lear asks his devoted daughter Cordelia to express her love for him, he becomes upset with her because she cannot put her feelings into words. He

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

            The downfall of Lear is not just the suffering of him alone but the suffering of everyone down the chain of being.  For instance, Lear's pride and anger caused Cordelia and Kent to be banished, and Gloucester loses his position and eyes.  Everything that happened to these characters are in a chain of reaction and affected by Lear's tragic flaw.  If Lear did not lack of personal insight and if he did not have  such an obstinate pride, he would not have banished Cordelia and Kent, then Goneril and Regan would not be able to conspire against Lear. Without the plot of Goneril and Regan, Gloucester would not have been betrayed by Edmund and lose his eyes and status due to the charge of treason.  Moreover, the chain of reaction was continuous

King Lear is a character who displays a great deal of anger throughout the course of the play, he often allows his anger to take over him. A lot of things that are said and during the course of the play are due to Lear’s anger which is a leading factor for his insanity. Lear loses his temper during a love test when his daughter does not give the answer that he was looking for, he disowns her calling Cordelia his, “sometime daughter,” (1.1.119) and gives her share of the land to her sisters. This in turn leads to his insanity because in his blind rage he does not acknowledge the sincerity behind Cordelia’s veiled words; unlike her sisters she does not try to flatter her father in order to receive more land, whereas her sisters have their secrets agendas and do not truly love Lear. In addition to this, King Lear is also enraged when the Earl of Kent who is a loyal follower of Lear, goes against the banishment of Cordelia and speaks up in favour of the youngest daughter. Lear is livid with Kent going against him and banishes Kent, as well reminding him that, “if on the tenth day

In Act one, scene one, we are introduced to Gloucester and his parallel plot line before we introduced to Lear. We find Gloucester acknowledging his equal adoration between his two sons, the one legitimate, the other illegitimate. The moral code that informs King Lear dictates that illegitimacy bodes nothing but a disadvantage to the harmony of underlying order . Within the terms of the play, Gloucester's emotion is a fatal flaw of judgment. Paying close attention to language, Gloucester's unwitting mistake from Edmund's very first appearance; in a world where the only vocabulary of each character is a full expression of their position on the axis of good and evil, a reader cannot help but notice that Edmund's "... I shall study deserving..."(I.i.24) is a foreboding of the deceit and greed that will taint him for the rest of the play.