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How Is King Lear's Redemption

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King Lear is one of William Shakespeare's tragedies, and as any tragedy, the play has a tragic hero who is according to Aristotle "an honorable protagonist with a tragic flaw, which eventually leads to his/her demise". As a consequence, King Lear meets all these requirements to become a tragic hero. The plot of the play is based on King Lear's continuously loss, as he loses his authority as a king, his identity as a father, and his sanity as a man. More over, King Lear's greatest loss which distinguishes this tragedy from other tragedies is King Lear's chance of redemption. This portrayal of King Lear makes him a tragic hero and sets the play as an ultimate tragedy. At the beginning of the play king Lear decides to divide …show more content…

King Lear reaches a moment of epiphany, he wishes to regain his sanity and be able to redeem himself from all of his flaws and mistakes. King Lear realizes that the only one who can encourage him to redeem himself is his loyal daughter Cordelia. After the storm, King Lear finally reunited with Cordelia and although he disinherited her, Cordelia's love for her father never fades a way. When Cordelia sees king Lear in his miserable state, she could not bear seeing him like this and she says "[O] my dear father, restoration hang thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss repair those violent harms that my two sisters have in thy reverence made" (4,7,27_30). Shakespeare's mention of "restoration" and "repair" signify Cordelia's ability to redeem King Lear of his previous flaws and mistakes. Shakespeare not only gives the audience a chance to sympathy with king Lear but he also paves the way to a sense of hope in the play. More over, King Lear admits "I am a very foolish fond old man\ I fear I am in my perfect mind" (4.7.61-65) and this reveals that king Lear is fully aware of his flaws and Insanity which is the first step of his

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