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King Lear Essay Research Paper King LearKing

King Lear Essay, Research Paper


King Lear


King Lear is the tale of a vain, prideful, and foolish old man who


is blinded by his rage and too stubborn to mend his ways. The “self”


of Lear is overwhelmed by the authority of the “King,” in the grip of


the most primitive of emotions, a human being dying inside a model.


By the time of Lear’s redemption, however, from this honorable self,


what is mortal in him has been lost to any role that might be


accommodated in the structured world of man. Lear is a fool and it is


not Lears tradgedy but his fate because he was nothing more than a


fool.


As King Lear opens, Lear presents his three daughters with a


plaaned meeting that allows them to make a public announcement of


their love for him. He is delighted when Goneril says hers is “Dearer


than eyesight, space and liberty” (1.1.56). He is also pleased with


Regan’s praises. Lear foolishly believes that Goneril and Regan love


and respect him the way they say they do; he is oblivious to the fact


that his daughters, or anyone for that matter, may lie for their own


benefit. Because he believes his eldest daughters’ insincere adulation,


Lear’s trial proves him a fool.


In addition, Lear senselessly concludes that Cordelia is a


disrespectful daughter and not worthy of her share of the kingdom. He


is displeased when she states simply that she loves her father as a


daughter should, no more and no less: “I love your majesty/According


to my bond, no more nor less” (1.1.92-93). Angry and humiliated at


her lack of honor, Lear immediately exiles Cordelia from the country.


Through banishment, Lear intends “to reduce her to nothing, this


being the payment that she had earned by not pleasing him wiht her


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answer. He then orders her to marry the King of France and finally


divides the kingdom between his two eldest daughters and their


husbands.


Furthermore, Lear’s foolishness is again evident when both


Goneril and Regan later shun him. As he ventures into the night’s


storm, he tells the Fool, “O fool, I shall go mad” (2.2.475). He later


remarks, “My wits begin to turn” (3.2.68). Here, Lear begins his


downward spiral toward madness. But in his madness, he discovers the


essence of humanity; he descends from his majestic position to a


ranking of lower class. He declares, “When we are born we cry that we


are come/To this great stage of fools” (4.6.182-83). The Fool


accurately comments, “this cold night will turn us all to fools and


mad/men” (3.4.79-80). Ironically, the Fool and the king begin to swap


positions. Up until this point, the Fool has granted Lear helpful


understanding of his decisions; this establishes the question of which


of the two is now the real fool. Lear asks, “Dost thou call me a fool,


boy?” The Fool replies, “All thy other titles thou hast given away; that


thou/ wast born with” (1.4.145-147). The king has been openly told by


the fool that he has diminished to the level of the Fool.


Moreover, when Lear is reunited with Cordelia at the end of the


play, it is not as the petty unjust king who has banished her but as a


fool who has himself been banished by such a king. Lear is fooled a


final time by Cordelia’s death. As Lear falls to his death, he has a


glimmer of hope. He asks, “Do you see this? Look on her: look, her


lips,/Look there, look there” (5.3.317-318). Rather than part in misery,


Lear journeys to his final rest content for he is fooled into thinking


Cordelia still lives.

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