King Lear Essay, Research Paper

This 17th century novel by William Shakespeare is a constantstruggle for power. It is brought to us in an original signifier by the usage of theRoyal household being the one in pandemonium. Everything is centered around Lear andhis close familiarities. The internal struggle between good and evil in thestruggle for power and laterality is shown through the characters. This battle between heaven and snake pit is non portrayed as a subject in the drama atany minute, it is present in the characters ideas and actions towardseachother. The drama consists of how blood is non thicker than H2O in thiskingdom full of fraudulence, and treatury. All characters strive for the one end intheir universe, self domination. The sense of good and evil is masked in the characters ideas andactions. Most of the drama has a tense and cold feeling of evilness whichshows no sight of hope or a propitious stoping. Self domination andsatisfaction is seen as the complex ground for populating instead than to make God sgood will on Earth. True purposes are masked by the changeless usage of lyingand the use of linguistic communication, which includes treatury every bit good. This helpthem conceal the truth by giving less importance and value to the conversation.Gloucester s boy Edmund uses treatury to mask his true purpose. He lies toboth Lear and his brother Edgar by hammering a missive to King Lear of Edgar splan to slay him. he so sagely tells his brother that he is beingpersecuted by the King, and that he must fly at one time. Edmund seeks toensure his male parents heritage by extinguishing his competition. King Lear s girls are non all immorality. Merely Goneril, and Regain use deceitagainst their male parent to derive the throne. They both over-show fondness to Learwhen he inquiries their love for him. Goneril- Sir, I love you more than theworld can exert the affair ; Dearer than eyesight, infinite and autonomy ; Beyondwhat can be valued, rich or rare ; No less than life, with grace, wellness, beauty, award ; Equally much as kid vitamin E Er loved, or father found ; A love that makesbreath hapless, and address unable ; Beyond all mode of so much I loveyou. ( pg 5 ) The two sisters endure to bury their male parent in licking andinsanity. As for the King himself he shows his black bosom when his daughterCordelia refuses to turn out her love for him by reacting to her sister sspeeches of love for Lear. If on the 10th twenty-four hours following, Thy banished trunkbe found in our rules, The minute is thy decease. Away! By Jupiter, This shall non be revoked. ( pg 10 ) This is when Lear s insanity begins, he

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acts by attempting to cause depression and loneliness in Cordelia s life byparting her from her lover. In order for evil to exist there must be some good. The first obvious good in the play is Cordelia. She is the only one out of the three sistersthat does not feel it is necessary to exploit her love for her father King Lear.She responds to her father that she only loves him like a daughter is to loveher father, she is the only sister that is not after her father s throne, shespeaks the truth and is the only one that truly loves him. FurthermoreGloucester s good son Edgar, is very naive to his brothers plan against hisfamily. He never relizes until the end that his brother has double crossedhim. However good is mostly present near the end of the play on act five.This is when Edgar decides to confront his brother and defeats him in asword fight. As Edmund is dying he relizes that he is entering the afterlifeand speaks: I pant for life: some good I mean to do, Despite of mine ownnature. Quickly send, Be brief in it, to th castle; for my writ Is on the life ofLear and on Cordelia: Nay, send in time. (pg 142) His conscience speaks atthis point and mentions that some good he tries to do, and is the first timethat Edmund seems clean of evil. Likewise, Lear also speaks from his heartat the end of the play. one occasion is when he discovers that his fool hasdied. And my poor fool is hanged: no, no, no life? Why should a dog, ahorse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou It come no more,Never, never, never, never, never. Pray you, undo this button. Thank you,sir. (pg 144) For the first time he acted with affection towards one of hisservers, something he never did before. In addition he is devastated when hefinds his daughters dead, specially Cordelia. In this act the characters thatdid and lurked to do evil have given their life and eachothers a greaterimportance. Power and rank, are no longer the priority in Edmund, Regan,Lear, and Goneril s soul, they all have life, and perhaps love as a supremacy. Misinterpretation of the importance of being on this world has struckmany characters in the play. King Lear shows us through the characters how as individuals we give material possessions and power moresignificance over people, rather than to do the right thing and watch out foreachother. Good and evil is though of as a constant struggle inside us, but itis a choice we decide on. It is not something that happens as a mistake orfoult, people choose to do evil. And it is represented accordingly in WilliamShakespeare s play King Lear.