Shakespeare's King Lear

                         Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear is a detailed 
                     description of the consequences of one man's decisions.  
                     This fictitious man is Lear, King of England, who's 
                     decisions greatly alter his life and the lives of those 
                     around him.  As Lear bears the status of King he is, as one 
                     expects, a man of great power but sinfully he surrenders
                     all of this power to his daughters as a reward for their
                     demonstration of love towards him.  This untimely abdication 
                     of his throne results in a chain reaction of events that 
                     send him through a journey of hell.  King Lear is a 
                     metaphorical description of one man's journey through hell 
                     in order to expiate his sin.
                          As the play opens one can almost immediately see that 
                     Lear begins to make mistakes that will eventually result in 
                     his downfall.  The very first words that he speaks in the 
                     play are :-

                     "...Give me the map there. Know that we have
                          divided
                     In three our kingdom, and 'tis our fast intent
                     To shake all cares and business from our age,
                     Conferring them on younger strengths while we
                     Unburdened crawl to death..."
                                            (Act I, Sc i, Ln 38-41)


                     This gives the reader the first indication of Lear's intent 
                     to abdicate his throne.  He goes on further to offer pieces 
                     of his kingdom to his daughters as a form of reward to his 
                     test of love. 
                      
                     "Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
                     Long in our court have made their amorous
                          sojourn,
                     And here are to be answered. Tell me, my
                          daughters
                     (Since now we will divest us both of rule,
                     Interest of territory, cares of state),
                     Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
                     That we our largest bounty may extend
                     where nature doth with merit challenge."
                                            (Act I, Sc i, Ln 47-53)


                     This is the first and most significant of the many sins that 
                     he makes in this play.  By abdicating his throne to fuel his 
                     ego he is disrupts the great chain of being which states 
                     that the King must not challenge the position that God has 
                     given him.  This undermining of God's authority results in 
                     chaos that tears apart Lear's world.  Leaving him, in the 
                     end, with nothing.  Following this Lear begins to banish 
                     those around him that genuinely care for him as at this 
                     stage he cannot see beyond the mask that the evil
                     wear.  He banishes Kent, a loyal servant to Lear, and his 
                     youngest and previously most loved daughter Cordelia.  This 
                     results in Lear surrounding himself with people who only 
                     wish to use him which leaves him very vulnerable attack.  
                     This is precisely what happens and it is through this that 
                     he discovers his wrongs and amends them.
                          Following the committing of his sins, Lear becomes 
                     abandoned and estranged from his kingdom which causes him to 
                     loose insanity. While lost in his grief and self-pity the 
                     fool is introduced to guide Lear back to the sane world and 
                     to help find the lear that was ounce lost behind a hundred 
                     Knights but now is out in the open and scared like a little 
                     child.  The fact that Lear has now been pushed out from 
                     behind his Knights is dramatically represented by him 
                     actually being out on the lawns of his castle.  The 
                     terrified little child that is now unsheltered is 
                     dramatically portrayed by Lear's sudden insanity and his 
                     rage and anger is seen through the thunderous weather that 
                     is being experienced.   All of this contributes to the 
                     suffering of Lear due to the gross sins that he has 
                     committed.
                          The pinnacle of this hell that is experienced be Lear 
                     in order to repay his sins is at the end of the play when 
                     Cordelia is killed.  Lear says this before he himself dies 
                     as he cannot live without his daughter.

                     "Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones.
                     Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
                     That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone
                          for ever!
                     I know when one is dead, and when one lives.
                     She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass.
                     If that her breath will mist or stain the
                          stone,
                     Why, then she lives."
                                        (Act V, Sc iii, Ln 306-312)


                          All of this pain that Lear suffered is traced back to 
                     the single most important error that he made.  The choice to 
                     give up his throne.  This one sin has proven to have massive 
                     repercussions upon Lear and the lives of those around him 
                     eventually killing almost all of those who were involved.  
                     And one is left to ask one's self if a single wrong turn can 
                     do this to Lear then what difficult corner lies ahead that 
                     ma cause similar alterations in one's life.

                                    Reference List


                     Shakespeare, William. King Lear.  Eric A.
                          McCann, ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovick
                          Canada Inc., Canada. 1988.
                          There has been many different views on the plays of 
                     William Shakespeare and definitions of what kind of play 
                     they were.  The two most popular would be the comedy and the 
                     tragedy.  King Lear to some people may be a comedy because 
                     they believe that the play has been over exaggerated.  
                     Others would say King Lear was a tragedy because there is so 
                     much suffering and chaos.  
                          What makes a Shakespearean play a comedy or a tragedy? 
                      King Lear would be a tragedy because it meets all the 
                     requirements of a tragedy as defined by Andrew Cecil 
                     Bradley.  Bradley states that a Shakespearean tragedy must 
                     have to be the story of the hero and that there is 
                     exceptional suffering and calamity slowly being worn
                     in as well as it being contrasted to happier times.  The 
                     play also depicts the troubled parts in his life and 
                     eventually his death that is instantaneous caused by 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 also possesses a tragic flaw that initiates the 
                     tragedy.  The fall of the hero is not felt by him alone but 
                     creates a chain reaction which affects everything below him. 
                      There must also be the element of chance or accident that 
                     influences some point in the play.
                          King Lear meets all of these requirements that has been 
                     laid out by Bradley which is the most logical for a 
                     definition of a tragedy as compared to the definition of a 
                     comedy by G. Wilson Knight.

                          The main character of the play would be King Lear who 
                     in terms of Bradley would be the hero and hold the highest 
                     position is the social chain.  Lear out of Pride and anger 
                     has banished Cordelia and split the kingdom in half to the 
                     two older sisters, Goneril and Regan.  This is Lear's tragic 
                     flaw which prevents him to see the true faces of people 
                     because his pride and anger overrides his judgement.  As we 
                     see in the first act, Lear does not listen to Kent's plea to 
                     see closer to the true faces of his daughters.  Kent has 
                     hurt Lear's pride by disobeying his order to stay out of his
                     and Cordelia's way when Lear has already warned him,  "The 
                     bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft."  Kent still 
                     disobeys Lear and is banished.  Because of this flaw, Lear 
                     has initiated the tragedy by disturbing the order in the 
                     chain of being by dividing the kingdom, banishing his best 
                     servant and daughter, and giving up his thrown. 
                          Due to this flaw, Lear has given way to the two older
                     daughters to conspire against him.  Lear is finally thrown 
                     out of his daughters home and left with a fool, a servant 
                     and a beggar.  This is when Lear realizes the mistake that 
                     he has made and suffers the banishment of his two eldest 
                     daughters.  Lear is caught in a storm and begins to lose his 
                     sanity because he can not bear the treatment of his two 
                     daughters as well as the error he has made with Cordelia and 
                     Kent.  Lear also suffers from rest when he is moving all 
                     over the place and the thing that breaks him is the death of 
                     his youngest daughter Cordelia.  This suffering can be 
                     contrasted with other happier times like when Lear was still 
                     king and when he was not banished by his two  daughters. 
                          The feeling of fear is when Lear is in the storm raging
                     against the gods, 

                     "I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. 
                     I never gave you kingdom, called you children,
                     you owe me no subscription.",

                     telling them to rage harder since he has not done anything 
                     for them and that he didn't deserve what he has received 
                     from his two daughters.  The fear is how Lear in a short 
                     period of time went from king to just a regular peasant and 
                     from strong and prideful to weak and unconfident.  This 
                     shows that men do not hold their own destiny and that even 
                     though things may be great now you can be struck down just 
                     as fast as was to Lear.
                          The fall of Lear is not just the suffering of one man 
                     but the suffering of everyone down the chain.  Gloucester 
                     loses his status and eyes, Cordelia and Kent banished, and 
                     Albany realizing his wife's true heart.  Everything that 
                     happened to these characters are affected by Lear in one way 
                     or another and that if Lear had not banished Cordelia and 
                     Kent then the two sisters would not be able to plot against 
                     their father.  Without the plot of the two sisters then 
                     Gloucester would not of lost his eyes to Cornwall and his
                     status because he was guilty of treason. There is an element 
                     of chance in the play in which Edgar meets Oswald trying to 
                     kill his father because he is a traitor.  Oswald is slain 
                     asks Edgar, 

                     "And give the letters which thou find'st about
                     me to Edmund Earl of Gloucester.  Seek him out
                     upon the English party."

                     Edgar finds a letter to Edmund from Goneril about the 
                     conspiracy to kill Albany.  This part in the play affects 
                     the outcome of Goneril and Edmund in which will lead to both 
                     of their deaths. 

                         The pain and suffering endured by Lear eventually tears 
                     down his strength and sanity.  Lear is not as strong, 
                     arrogant, and prideful as he was in the beginning of the 
                     play instead he is weak, scared, and a confused old man.  At 
                     the end of the play Lear has completely lost his sanity with 
                     the loss of his daughter Cordelia and this is the thing that 
                     breaks Lear and leads to his death.  Lear dies with the 
                     knowledge that Cordelia is dead and dies as a man in pain. 

                     "And my poor fool is hanged!  No, no, no life! 
                     Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, 
                     And thou no breath at all?  Thou'lt come no
                     more, never, never, never, never, never!"

                          King Lear has met all the requirements that Bradley has 
                     stated as a Shakespearean tragedy.  Lear has a tragic flaw 
                     which is his pride that prevents him to see the true faces 
                     of people.  He also initiates the tragedy by the banishment 
                     of Cordelia and Kent as well as dividing the kingdom.  Lear 
                     has also suffered and endured the pains of his error which 
                     leads to his death and which is contrasted to that of 
                     happier times.  There is the feeling of fear in the play 
                     which is of a King losing his crown and becoming a peasant. 
                      Lear has also created a chain reaction that affects
                     everything down the chain.  The element of chance is also
                     introduced in the play with Edgar and Oswald, Oswald 
                     possessing the letter to Edmund.  And the final part is the 
                     death of King Lear dying in suffering of the death of his 
                     daughter Cordelia.