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Development of king lear through the play
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In the movie Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond’s delusions are caused by her butler and ex-husband Max. Similarly, in King Lear, Kent caused King Lear to have delusions. The common downfall of Norma Desmond and King Lear is caused by the people around them crossing the line from aegis to enabler. They tell them what they want to hear, which causes them to be unable to see reality, to only see what they want to see, and ultimately puts them in a state of denial.
Shakespeare wrote one of his most famous tragedies, King Lear, between 1603 and 1607. In the center of the play is king Lear and his relations with his three daughters; Cordelia, Regan and Goneril. He asks them to describe how much they love him so he could decide how to divide his kingdom between them. The first mention of nothingness is introduced by Cordelia after she answers 'Nothing, my lord. ' With her repetition of nothingness, Shakespeare introduces one of the authors of the Chain of Being, Aristotle, who stated that 'nothing comes out of nothing '.
Johnson 1 Leo Johnson Mr. Scopelleti English 11 9/6/2017 King Lear The play King Lear is a insane story about a king who is stepping down from the throne and splitting his power to his Three daughters. King Lear at the beginning sounds like a demanding king and he wants everything he asks for. It starts off with the three girls trying to show how much they love their father. How the girls did this was they each stepped up to there father and expressed how much they love him by saying “I love you more then words can express” (Page 25/ King Lear/ William Shakespeare). After they’re done with their speeches, The king finally decides who is the best fit.
Cordelia also says that if Regan and Goneril were as loyal as they say to their father, they wouldn’t just only have affection for Lear but also to their husbands. Another quote from Shakespeare’s King Lear is when Cordelia gets captured by Edmund. “For thee, oppressed King, I am cast down, Myself could else outgrown false fortune’s frown. Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?”
Shakespeare, like any other man in the 16th and 17th century, saw ambitious and dominant women as evil and even disturbing or disturbed. From Macbeth, we can see Shakespeare feels women should be challenged and punished because they are trying to change society. Nowadays these ambitious and dominant women are regarded as brave and respected because of their ambition, such as Lady Macbeth’s ambition to become Queen. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as mentally disturbed.
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
What Will Be Your Ending? Humans only get one life. The way you live it shows what you wanted out of life. Sometimes we are humiliated and let that take over our lives and sometimes we learn from our mistake, which causes us to be humble. Shakespeare shows us that we have the choice on how our life will turn out.
King Lear was a man who loved his daughters very much, he had three daughters. He believed he was ready to give over the land and kingdom power to his daughters, so he went and sat all three of his daughters down. He then begin to ask them each how much they loved them. One of his daughters said that she loved him with all her heart and every ounce of her self being, of course this joke of a king, believed his daughter and gave her the biggest chunk of land, and then the second gets asked how much does she love her father and she says the nearly the exact same phrase as her sibling. Then her came the last daughter and the king asked her "how much do you love me?"and she said that she loved him no more or mo less than she already does, and
(Machiavelli, XVII, Paragraph 5). Lear employs this philosophy and tries to make his subjects fear incurring his wrath. Lear banishes Cordelia for not professing her love for him. “Here I disclaim al my paternal care,
He worked day and night to become the great writer, he is known to be. Character truly defines a person. They maybe blinded by their ego, or misjudgement, alike Lear’s ego blinds him from judging Cordelia’s love. All the reasons must be considered before judging another individual, unlike Lear fails to judge Cordelia’s love, he does not consider her actions. He/she who judges another individual based on their appearance is no less than a fool.
In this paper, I will discuss how the following events in this tragic play can help us to analyze the character growth of King Lear. It is important for us to recognize the flaws and weaknesses of Lear’s personality to see how his actions and decisions led to his ruin. However, although he faces the misfortune of losing the things that he cherished the most, he also has the opportunity of transitioning into his being and experiencing the new-found attentiveness of love and morality. Whilst analyzing the progression of Lear’s complex character development, we must start from the beginning.
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.
Textual Analysis In Act I scene i of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, the protagonist, Lear, demands his daughters to publicly profess their love for him. Two of his daughters, Regan and Goneril do not hesitate to praise King Lear and exaggerate their love for him, whereas his third daughter Cordelia honestly admits that she cannot flatter him like her sisters. When King Lear warns her she will not bequeath any land, the Earl of Kent, Lear’s loyal advisor, points out that this is a mistake and he should not fall for the flattering words, but rather for actions. Shakespeare underscores the theme of deceit versus honesty through Kent’s language and actions which I attempt to communicated to the audience through interpretations of the text focusing on his gestures, tone, and physicality.
As for mercy (V.ii. 55-65) In fact, filial ingratitude is related to filial relationship in this play, that it is common to find many sons and daughters who show much ingratitude and cruelty towards their parents. It was filial ingratitude which opened King Lear's eyes to the painful truth of the ingratitude of his two daughters Goneril and Regan. A. B. W. Schlegel comments on King Lear's state, saying that:
It is a striking event how he treats his alleged favourite daughter and how easily he believes the lies he is being fed. Despite this, his quote holds a certain truth to it. As Lear has sinned against Cordelia, his other two daughters have sinned against him. He is right in his words for the reason that, although he was unjust and treated Cordelia disrespectfully, he did it because he felt betrayed.