William Shakespeare 's King Lear

The concepts of nature, humanity, power and love lay as a foundation for Shakespeare’s, King Lear. These notions are examined through the actions and realizations of King Lear, himself. Throughout the discourse of this play we view the portrayal of humans as animals and witness King Lear’s mistreatment after he gives away his power. When doing so he makes clear his view on love and its value, solely based on the flattery of words.Through nature, King Lear becomes grounded and recognizes the animalistic behaviors of the rich and the struggles of the poor. This recognition brings him to an utmost discovery that presents the reality of vicious humanity and changes the way he views the world.

At the beginning of “King Lear,” an authoritative and willful protagonist dominates his court, making a fateful decision by rewarding his two treacherous daughters and banishing his faithful one in an effort to preserve his own pride. However, it becomes evident during the course of the tragedy that this protagonist, Lear, uses his power only as a means of projecting a persona, which he hides behind as he struggles to maintain confidence in himself. This poses a problem, since the audience is prevented from feeling sympathy for the king. Shakespeare’s ironic solution is to allow Lear’s progressing madness to be paired with his recognition of truth, thereby forcing Lear to shed his persona, and

King Lear is a historically renowned tragedy that is written by William Shakespeare in 1608. Despite being so old, the tragedy of King Lear continues to be relevant in modern society; its timeless and transcultural tragedy of the destruction of a family displays themes of betrayal, the lust for power and the greed that ultimately leads to downfall. Both Shakespeare’s King Lear and Kurosawa’s Ran display the theme of betrayal through their three ruthless children that are unwilling to give mercy to their fathers. Secondly the theme of greed is present through their strive for power that strips their fathers of sanity and hope of a prospering legacy. Thirdly from the destructive pursuits of the children through cupidity and avarice, the children

Through many of Shakespeare’s plays, tragedy is caused by a series of events that usually stem from human nature. In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the main characters Gloucester and King Lear, find their worlds spiraling rapidly into darkness by cause of mistakes such as, King Lear superficiality, Gloucester’s blindness, and both of their quick to act mentalities have ultimately caused their downfall. All of which, the audience can find them self relating to, in some respect, seeing as they are common human mistakes. As the audience follows the play, they begin to relate to the mistake made by both characters and are able to see how everyday human mistakes can produce undesirable consequences.

   In Shakespeare's play King Lear, the main character, King Lear, is presented as a respected and powerful king. As the story progresses the king loses his power because of his own stupidity and blindness. The tragedy of this play is shown chiefly through the actions of Lear’s daughters, which lead to Lear’s bout with insanity, and through the words of the Fool.

In Shakespeare’s play King Lear, the King sacrifices his kingdom to his daughters with an underlying selfish intent that “shakes cares from [his] age.” Lear plans for his future rather than analyzing the immediate intentions of the characters around him. When Lear confronts the storm after being unsatisfied with how his plans unravel, his physical lowness and connection to the Earth ground his previously elevated notion of his identity. Lear’s acceptance of his character and newfound humility stem from an understanding of the height from which he fell. The progression of Lear’s initial selfish sacrifice to his humbled and strengthened appreciation for life marks the weight of his values.

“The oldest hath borne most; we that are young / Shall never see so much nor live so long”, what Edgar, and the remaining survivors, have seen is one of the most impressive tragedies ever written (5.3.331-32). King Lear, written by William Shakespeare, has a deluge of dramatic irony, conflict, and death, making it one of the most tragic plays ever written. Such plentiful amount of tragedy leaves many scholars to ask, “What is the cause for such destruction of lives?” The paramount cause for the massive tragedy in King Lear is the human nature’s tendency to, in thought of self interest, react hastily with anger or sorrow. After examination of characters motives and actions the self interests of power, revenge, and protection are all what lead

The transformation in the character of Lear can be traced from his position a king through his downward spiral into madness. Using this degradation of position in society, Shakespeare establishes the context for both the main plot and subplot. Initially, Lear overexerts his power as the King. Shakespeare demonstrates Lear’s abuse of power through the banishment of Kent and disinheritance

In William Shakespeare’s play King Lear, similar to most of his pieces, he manages to build an intricate storyline, weaving in and out of the good and bad of human nature. Shakespeare also highlights the development of identity in results to hardship and utilizes characters, such as Lear the protagonist to create emphasis. Lear, who is ridden with a naïve and un-insightful personality plunges himself head first into an avoidable misfortune leads him to the loss of his kingship, his relationship with his daughters and eventually his mind. However, through the endurance of these adverse experiences and burdening inner conflict he gains a new perspective as well as a new-found wisdom that transforms his identity for the better.

In King Lear, Traditional roles, such as nobility, gender, and social status, are all usurped or attempted to be overturned during at least one occasion in King Lear. To illustrate, noble roles become overturned when King Lear lessened himself as a king to upgrade two of his daughters, Goneril and Regan, to a higher power of authority. In contrast, he ended up in jail with Cordelia instead of regaining his position back as king. Gender Roles are overturned when the three daughters became independent; they were in control of the kingdom and their husbands. Finally, the last role to be overturned is the traditional role of a fool which is supposed to be an entertainer for the king, however, the fool in King Lear became an adviser instead.

Not everyone chooses to follow rules or traditions, many in fact would rather learn the hard way. Many rules and traditions may not always fit with everyone in society, some may even very much discriminate towards a group or even might not benefit them in anyways. In Shakespeare 's play, King Lear, there is an underlying tension between one’s way of living against how society set things up to work. Through the play, we are introduced to multiple characters, Edmund and Lear, who chooses to live life as they would want it to be even knowing the consequences that come with trying to achieve it. Edmund, a bastard, wants power and entitlement which society will not allow him to have whereas Lear wants to keep all his power after he gives up his

Albany is constantly insulted for his feebleness; however, he gains his masculine power as the result of the gender role’s oppression and conflict. Besides providing the crucial concept of gender role’s conflicts within King Lear, Shakespeare also renders a twist within this issue as either gender can be easily afflicted by the gender role’s alteration. Albany plays the role of balancing good and evil in the entire play, but he is still affected by Goneril’s vile characteristic. In the article, “Albany as Archetype in King Lear” by Warren Stevenson, the author further explains, “In Act IV, scene ii, he has grown from the passive but inquisitive agent of Act I, scene iv, to a man roused to active and righteous passion. He gives full expression of his horror at the wrongs and of his disgust with Goneril” (Stevenson 220). Even though the readers do not see much dialogue from Albany, Shakespeare yearns to maintain Albany as a passive male character in the beginning without much action committed. Later on in the story, the readers can perceive a disadvantageous situation occurs to him as his pride is degraded by Goneril. Ultimately, Albany’s passive characteristic is crucially afflicted by Goneril’s corrupted masculine power. Even if Goneril continuously attacks Albany’s manhood, Shakespeare wants the readers to understand that within this precarious situation, Albany can only be allowed to express his aggravation through words without committing atrocious action towards Goneril.

There are two sides to every story; that of the protagonist and that of the antagonist. As shown in the Shakespearean play King Lear, there is very little difference between the two. Edmund, who appears to be a villain, is more than meets the eye. His evil is a rebellion against the social order that denies him legitimacy. His villainy does not come from innate cruelty but from misdirected desire for familial love. His remorse in the end displays his humanity and blindness. Through his nature, the social construct, and the humanity he exemplifies, it is impossible to regard Edmund as a villain, but as an unavoidable force of nature.

Shakespeare’s King Lear has experienced numerous iterations over the past few centuries, with various editors and writers revising the manuscript to fit their desires. The absence of a single definitive edition has made the play a goldmine from which countless adaptions and stage interpretations have emerged, as its situation allows for directors to take creative liberties with the source material. For this reason, the quality of these productions tends to straddle between excellent and mediocre. Thankfully, director Dennis Garnhum’s rendition firmly stands in the former.

King Lear is frequently regarded as one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, and its tragic scope touches almost all facets of the human condition: from the familial tensions between parents and children to the immoral desires of power, from the follies of pride to the false projections of glory. However, one theme rings true throughout the play, and that very theme is boundless suffering, accentuated by the gruesome depictions of suffering our protagonists experience . There is no natural (nor “poetic”) justice depicted in this pre-Judeo-Christian world Shakespeare presents, as the relatively virtuous individuals (Kent, Gloucester, and Cordelia) in this