King Lear Essay, Research Paper

Shakspere: King LearGood King, that must O.K. the common proverb, Thou out of celestial spheres blessing com & # 8217 ; stTo the warm sunApproach, thou beacon to this under Earth, That by thy comfy beams I mayPeruse this missive. Nothing about sees miracles But wretchedness. I know? Ti from Cordelia Who hath most fortuitously been informed Of my obscured class, and shall happen clip *From this tremendous province, seeking to give Losses their redresss. All weary and o & # 8217 ; erwatched, Take vantage heavy eyes, non to beholdThis black lodging.Fortune, goodnight. Smile one time more ; turn thy wheel.Shakespeare ( H ) D. BradfordNovember10, 1997Damian Schafgans & # 8221 ; The subject of King Lear may be stated in psychological as good asbiological footings. So put, it is the destructive, the ultimatelysuicidal character of unregulated passion, its power to carryhuman nature back to chaos & # 8230 ; . The foreordained terminal of unmastered passion is the self-destruction of thespecies. That is the Gospel harmonizing to King Lear. The playis in no little step an existent representation of that process.The murder-suicide of Regan-Goneril is an illustration. But it ismore than a image of pandemonium and at hand day of reckoning. What is theremedy for pandemonium? it asks. What can debar the day of reckoning? Thecharacters who have mastered their passions give us a glance ofthe reply to those questions. & # 8221 ; -Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, 1951 Shakespeare & # 8217 ; s calamity, King Lear, is frequently thought of as non merely one ofShakespeare & # 8217 ; s best plants, but besides one of his best & # 8220 ; poems & # 8221 ; . The languagefollows in Shakespeare & # 8217 ; s brand format utilizing iambic pentameter in muchof the drama. Shakespeare & # 8217 ; s It is we ll known for its many universalthemes. Some of these subjects are: Covering with he folly of old age and theingratitude of young person ; Good versus immorality ; Nature ; Vision and sightlessness ; andFortune. These subjects have been examined for 100s of old ages in many different forums, but what makes this drama so alone is the fact thatShakespeare incorporates all of these issues in merely one narrative. One character that examines some of these issues is a character namedKent. Kent is a important character in King Lear, as he is involved fromthe beginning to the terminal. Kent is the ideal foremost copulate to the commanding officer ofthe ship of province. From the minute we meet him and detect his tactfulresponse to Gloucester & # 8217 ; s off-color yak, we know we can trust onthis good adult male. It doesn & # 8217 ; Ts take long for us to go better acquainted.When Lear banishes Cordelia, and Kent speaks up in her behalf, he is boldbut gracious. And he sticks to his guns, even at the hazard of his ownbanishment. The step of his devotedness to his maestro, the male monarch, is shown by his premise of a camouflage. Thisenables him to go on in Lear & # 8217 ; s service. There are several additionalfacets of Kent & # 8217 ; s personality. He can be hotheaded, as in the outburst thatinfuriates Lear in the really first s cene. And his intervention of Oswald ishardly soft. Kent even shows a sen

se of humor in his lengthy descriptionof Goneril’s steward. Kent is not a great philosopher, but he doesacknowledge that there are greater forces determining our fates. Heendures disfavor and discomfort stoically. His devotion and faithfulnessare always in our minds. In the midst of the final turmoil, we still havecompassion for Kent when he tells us that he cannot fulfill the onlyformal request made of him. He cannot share the responsibility for restoring order to England because he is nearing hisown end. As mentioned before, Kent clearly belives in a greater sence of fate andfortune. This is exactly what his speech is about in act two, scene two.Kent is at the bottom of the wheel of fortune, and he is looking for thewheel to turn in his favor. Dissecti ng the speech line for line is theonly real way of understanding the speech. The first line, “Good king,that must approve the common saw,” is an allusion to Lear and his dutiesas his subjects percieve them to be, with the word “saw” meaning proverb.”t hou out of heavens benediction com’st to the warm sun,” means thatLear, out of heavens blessing once again will be in the sun, or recognizedas the king. “Approach thou beacon to this under globe” is the idea thatKent wants some sort of illumination, wh ether it be the sun or the moon,to come to his place at the dredges of the society. “That by thycomfortable beams I may peruse this letter” means that Kent wants to reada letter that he has received, but is unable to, as it is too dark.”nothing almost sees miracles but misery” clearly Kent is at the bottom of the wheel offortune, being placed in stocks and left outside, and he is the embodimentof this “misery” and he realizes that this letter he holds could indeed bea miracle of sorts. “I know ?tis from Cordelia who hath most fortunatly been informed of my obscuredcourse and shall find time from this enormous state, seeking to givelosses their remedies.” This is the idea that Cordelia has been informedof Kent’s “interesting” situation and may be able to help him out in his mission. “All weary and o’erwatched, takevantage heavy eyes not to behold this shameful lodging.” Kent realizesthat while he is helpless to do anything but sleep while locked in thestocks, and figures that it would in fact be to his advantage to sleep andforget about his predicament and get some well needed sleep. “Fortune,good night. Smile once more, turn thy wheel.” Kent recognizes that hecannot get any lower on the wheel of fortune and that it is only a matterof time before he comes back to power with Lear. King Lear is a timeless tale of honor, betrayal, usurpation of power andgreed. Clearly Shakespeare was not only a great poet, but he was also anobserver. He recognized certain qualities and emotion that all humansexhibit. The reason that he was so incr edible was that he was able tobalance between the fiction and magic of Lear and his daughters, and thetruth and realities of greed and power.