ipl-logo

Power And Obedience In Shakespeare's King Lear

694 Words3 Pages

Samuel Johnson wrote in a preface to William Shakespeare’s King Lear, “There is perhaps no play which keeps the attention so strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and interests our curiosity.” King Lear is a prime example of Shakespeare’s ability to generate conversation. The play’s parallel storylines between Gloucester and Lear focuses the reader’s mind towards Shakespeare’s underlying messages. The uncommon structure for the tragedy facilitates an emphasis on the consequences of corruption of political power and obedience over true loyalty that are central to both plots of the play. The corrupting nature of power is a major idea in the play in both the main plot and the subplot that forces the reader fix their attention on …show more content…

Goneril and Regan do not exhibit genuine devotion to Lear, but they do have obedience to him before they are given power. Goneril claims that she loves Lear “As much as child e’er loved, or father found,” (1.1.59), but in the end, her words are meaningless. She lied about her love for her father with of her lack compassion for Lear during his stay at her castle. Additionally, Lear finally finds the most love from Cordelia in the final scenes of the play. Thus, Cordelia’s thoughts, “since I am sure my love’s / More ponderous than my tongue” (1.1.78-79), holds true from the beginning to the end of the play. Cordelia’s actions to bring French army to fight for Lear demonstrate her love him; therefore, she is Lear’s only daughter to exhibit a true loyalty for her father. Comparable to this, Edmund is also only obedient to father in order to profit for himself. Edmunds action to “find means and acquaint [Gloucester] withal” (1.2.102) is faked and his words are used to only to facilitate his ascension to power. However, Edgar shows compassion for Gloucester when he “Led him, begged for him, saved him from despair, / Never - O fault! - revealed [Edgar] unto [Gloucester]” (5.3.190-191). Edgar’s actions to save his father from suicide validate his loyalty for his father. Once again, the two storylines are brought together. Shakespeare ultimately decides kills Goneril, Regan, and

Show More
Related

  • Cordely Love Lear Rhetorical Analysis

    257 Words  | 2 Pages

    The two daughters plan to take over Lear’s power. They deceive him into thinking they love him through their compelling words, but they do don’t actually love him. The reality is that Cordelia loves Lear, but because Lear is obsessed with his vanity so

    Read More

  • Blindness In King Lear Essay

    1190 Words  | 5 Pages

    Blindness or the lack of self-awareness seem to be a recurring theme in the story. Characters’ inability in seeing the truth often resulted in reprehensible decisions: Edmund’s perception of his life resulted in schemes that would eventually cause great strife in the story, the two fathers who are unable to see the true intentions of their children, paving the way for the events that make the play so tragic, and a man who was blinded by love, leaving his wife uncontested. Nonetheless, once these characters are able to see the world for what it is, they are able to relieve the tension of the ending through reconciliation and the implementation of justice where “The wheel [has] come full circle” (5.3.200).

    Read More

  • Money And Power In Shakespeare's King Lear

    1961 Words  | 8 Pages

    Once he realizes his wrongdoing he calls out to the gods that they need to prosper Edgar and not Edmund. This is ironic because Gloucester realizes that he made a blind decision only when he is actually

    Read More

  • King Lear Quotes

    795 Words  | 4 Pages

    In The Tragedy of King Lear, Shakespeare portrays the character Gloucester, the father of Edgar, his legitimate son, and Edmund, who is deemed a bastard. Throughout the events that occur in the play, the power that Gloucester processes parallels his sight-- both figuratively and literally. As the story develops, the dreadful consequences of Gloucester’s inability to see what is happening around him are shown to be caused by the power he processes and his overall incompetence, which helps to convey Shakespeare’s overall message that too much power can corrupt anyone. Initially, Gloucester is introduced as a man with a large amount of power, who, at the same time, is very gullible and overall unaware of the reality of the events occurring around

    Read More

  • Rashness In King Lear

    1388 Words  | 6 Pages

    ACT I Early on in the Shakespearean play, King Lear makes the decision to refuse giving Cordelia a portion of the kingdom and disowns her as she does not falsely amplify her love to her father the way her sisters had. The decision is rash and even Lear’s servant Kent tries to tell Lear that he is not thinking on this decision clearly. Lear stubbornly keeps his word even though he admitted that Cordelia was his favorite and that he planned to spend his old age with her. The question as to why Lear did not swallow his pride despite his regret and hands the kingdom over to Cordelia’s two sisters and their husbands.

    Read More

  • Oedipus The King-Changes Of The Tragic Hero

    1506 Words  | 7 Pages

    Lear, from the beginning, characterizes himself as a terrible person and King. He gives his daughter the chance to “say doth love us most” (Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 1 pg. 49). Lear bases the taking over portions of his kingdom by words that could absolutely have no truth; and when the only daughter who truly loves him refuses to say anything, Lear tells her to “hence and avoid my sight” (Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 1, pg. 55). He outcasts the only daughter who shows true kindness and love towards him; embarrassing her and calling her unmarriable in front of everyone. When Kent, his loyal servant of many years, attempts to have Lear see reason and to not be so harsh on Cordelia he tells Kent he has “Five days we do allot thee for provision/

    Read More

  • Loyalty In King Lear

    261 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare shows that even they may have a parent to child relationship they can still turn on each other. King Lear states, “Here I disclaim all my paternal care…” meaning that he no longer views Cordelia to be his daughter and strips her of everything she has and could have gotten from him (line 114 of 1.1). Even though Cordelia

    Read More

  • Lies And Manipulation In King Lear

    842 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout William Shakespeare’s tragic play, King Lear, the goal of gaining control over the kingdom and boasting about one’s status drove the characters to deceive each other through the use of lies and manipulation. Right from the start, King Lear demanded that his daughter profess their love for him, causing Regan and Goneril to exaggerate their love all to flatter their father and gain the most of his land. When it was Cordelia’s turn, even though she spoke from her heart about how much her father means to her, her words did not praise her father enough as he insisted she revise her confession. Act 1 Scene 1 started the destruction of the Lear family as Regan and Goneril proved successful in gaining their father’s land by spreading lies

    Read More

  • Theme Of Deception In King Lear

    765 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the play, deception is a vital element in the betrayal of both King Lear and Gloucester. For example, Shakespeare depicts Edgar’s scheme personality by saying, “A credulous father, and a brother noble— / Whose nature is so far from doing harms” (1.2. 192-193). By utilizing descriptions such as “credulous” and “noble” to describe Gloucester and Edgar, it reveals the malicious aspect of deception. Shakespeare shows the evil behind this deception by revealing Edgar wants to take advantage of the innocent for his own personal gain. In contrast, Kent’s deception is seen as, “If but as well I other accents borrow, /

    Read More

  • King Lear Theme Of Deception

    1019 Words  | 5 Pages

    On the contrary, Cordelia sees through the meaninglessness of speech and says nothing about her love. Infuriated, the King disowns Cordelia and divides his kingdom between his two remaining daughters who soon plots to kill him. Meanwhile, Gloucester keeps on demeaning his illegitimate son, Edmund, in public. Vengeful,

    Read More

  • King Lear Character Development

    1057 Words  | 5 Pages

    Edmund plots against his legitimate brother Edgar and wants to get what is his “Edmund the base/ Shall top the legitimate. I grow, I prosper:/ Now gods, stand up for bastards” (Shakespeare 1.2.20-23) Another thing that should make Gloucester suspicious towards Edmund is that he planned to send him away again “He hath been out nine years and away he shall again” Although Gloucester should be aware of the envy that Edmund feels towards his brother Edgar and the hatred that he might feel towards Gloucester himself he doesn’t see these feelings as a possibility and trusts Edmund when he presents the letter which he claims is from Edgar and in which he supposedly conspires against his own father. This is a foreshadowing about the physical blindness that shall befall Gloucester later in the Play, because he couldn’t tell which of his sons he could trust and because he was blind towards the greed and envy of Edmund.

    Read More

  • Nature And Culture In Shakespeare's King Lear

    1226 Words  | 5 Pages

    William Shakespeare's King Lear is depressing and has no mercy, but it also encounters many more aspects which are quite important for everyone to know, such as: trails of deaths, battles, love, hatred, treacheries and most importantly nature and culture. Shakespeare created a play where the world was cruel and there was only plotting and tragedy with no shining light at the end of the tunnel. Shakespeare makes King Lear, a natural figure to show the hypocrisy. The connection between King Lear and Cordelia is an analogy for the relationship of nature and culture. It seems that King Lear believed in culture instead of nature, he could not understand his youngest, nicest and the most loving daughter Cordelia only because she had no words to

    Read More

  • Arcadia In Shakespeare's King Lear

    736 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edgar leads the blind Edgar toward Dover, where Lear’s party has just been sent. Hence, the two meet. The French army has landed in that area, Cordelia meets Lear and brings him to her camp to rest. It is not far from her camp that the final battle is fought and the action of the play is resolved. The quick stream of events in King Lear makes what happens more intriguing than where it takes place (Harbage,

    Read More

  • The Tragic Hero In Shakespeare's King Lear

    1560 Words  | 7 Pages

    Practice can make things perfect, but it is the passion that persuades them. In King Lear, Lear’s first phase of development is about his wild enthusiasm (passion). First and foremost of the play, Lear enters his castle and begins to discuss the division of Britain between his daughters: Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. Lear says that he will handover his throne, but whoever expresses greater amount of their affection shall get the largest bounty; “Which of you shall we say doth love us most?” (1.1.52).

    Read More

  • Examples Of Blindness In King Lear

    1533 Words  | 7 Pages

    Gloucester’s unsettling events occur for his blindness to see which son is the truthful and honest son to him. Edmund is jealous of his brother’s legitimacy to his father and festers up a plan to eliminate Edgar to take over the throne. “Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, / And my invention thrive, Edmund, the base / Shall top the' legitimate." (King Lear I, II, 19-21) Gloucester foolishly believes Edmund as he is too blind to see where the real evil lies.

    Read More

More about Power And Obedience In Shakespeare's King Lear

Open Document