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The Truth In Shakespeare's King Lear

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The inability to see the truth leaves the characters in Shakespeare's King Lear to cause their own destruction and throw the ones they love into utter chaos. Two fathers, King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester are blinded by their own rage and mistrust of their children, causing their own downfall. In the beginning of the play, King Lear does not see his daughter Cordelia's earnest love and instead banishes her for her honesty. The three sisters are supposed to profess their love for Lear, so when Cordelia answers without all the flattery and glamour of her two cunning sisters, Lear feels betrayed. He immediately orders " Hence and avoid my sight!" (1.1.138-9). The use of sight here is important as Lear lets his ego get in the way of the truth. He lets the two elder sisters get away with their gross …show more content…

He believes that only if his daughters undevotingly profess their love, that they are worthy and kind daughters. In his own rage, he decides to never see his one daughter who is honest with him. Even his advisor Kent tries to stop Cordelia's banishment by reasoning that she is the only honest daughter, stirring more of Lear's rage as his pride is hurt once again. He thinks that Kent is evil and a usurper because he doesn’t blindly agree to the kings every whim, and so proceeds to banish him as well. Kent begs " See better, Lear, and let me still remain the true blank of thine eye"(1.1.180-1). Once again it is shown how King Lear does not see the difference between his enemies and his allies. Kent is a devoted and honest advisor, but Lear's rage blinds him and he ends up losing his sight for good. Without the aid of his two most serving, kind, and

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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

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988 Words | 4 Pages

Abominable villain! (1.2.75-78)”. This shows how Gloucester’s rashness is very like King Lear’s. They both fail to analyze evidence properly, and both rush to conclusion. They both against the nature of villain, comparatively Lear called Cordelia as a wretch.

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1037 Words | 5 Pages

Gloucester says, “It did always see so to us; but now in the division of the kingdom it appears not which of the dukes he values most…” (1.1. 3-5). Their conversation, though only the first seven lines in the play, gives the audience the tone of the play as they rush to arrive at the palace. With urgency, they wonder what King Lear will do before he retires as king. In addition, Gloucester and Kent also talk about Edmund. Kent asks Gloucester, “Is not this your son?”

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842 Words | 4 Pages

In addition, the negative connotation of “nothing” repeated several times and the breakdown of the language foreshadows a breakdown of the family. As she reasons about her answer, Cordelia also expresses her compassion towards her father through a hyperbole by stating, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth” (Lear 1.1.93-94). Justifying her response, Cordelia expresses that her love towards him cannot be properly expressed as she contrasts how he has “begot [her], fed [her], loved [her]” and in return she “obeyed [him], loved [him], and most honored [him]” to show that she loves her fathers as much as their relationship requires (Lear 1.1.99-101). Though she speaks from her heart, Lear ultimately rejects her argument, recognizing that she is not worthy of his wealth as expressed through his belittling tone. As a result, Lear blesses his kingdom upon his ungrateful, lying daughters who he believes to have loved him the most when in fact, he exiled the only daughter to have truly loved him.

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1336 Words | 6 Pages

No protagonist’s journey is complete without an antagonist there to reap in their sorrows. One could argue that King Lear there is no protagonist, but there are clear antagonists. Edmund, bastard son of Gloucester, is one of these painfully obvious villains. Every motive he has is to make himself the victor and drag someone else down. The treachery of Edmund’s villainy enhances the meaning of King Lear by putting him in situations that are not only dramatic, but outrageous.

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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, /

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1987 Words | 8 Pages

Witnessing the powerful forces of the natural world, Lear comes to understand that he, like the rest of humanity, is irrelevant in the world. This realization proves much more important than the realization of his loss of political control, as it enforces him to set up his values and become gentle and caring. With this newfound understanding of himself, Lear hopes to be able to accost the chaos in the political realm as well. King Lear is a symbol of a strong man, who has a Reason that counts, a powerful King who gives everything and gets nothing. King Lear, we may say that he lost his authority to his daughters, as a father, once he gave them

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In moments like these, when deep observation is neccessary, the audience can see Shakespeare’s message, showing how ignorance is bliss, but sometimes, the truth is the very thing that people need to hear. Secondly, Kent also uses dishonesty to find his way back into the service of the king, which may have been for the better. “Lear: What art thou? Kent: A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King.

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676 Words | 3 Pages

Lear’s misjudgement leads him to disown Cordelia, his only faithful daughter. Goneril and Regan, are greedy for Lear’s money, and power. Therefore, they are willing to do anything to appease Lear. Unfortunately, Lear’s blindness leads to his downfall (tragic flaw), and the death of Cordelia. If Lear’s ego did not blind him, he would have possibly saved Cordelia from her death.

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885 Words | 4 Pages

As Lear falls victim to his insanity, he causes the death of Cordelia as the result not believing in his only truthful and loving daughter. From Lear’s blindness, he did not believe Cordelia as she spoke truth and love. As a result of his misjudgment, he banishes Cordelia, who later returns from her banishment to see Lear, To only later die from lynching. “No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage: When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness…“ (V, III) After coming to terms with his actions Lear feels guilt as a result of him not believing the love and truth of his daughter. In addition to Lear kickstarting a tragedy, Gloucester contributed as well, and both fell to their blindness.

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748 Words | 3 Pages

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1388 Words | 6 Pages

Anyone in a position of power similar to Lear’s would likely have an ego problem, this being one of the reasons he did not go back on his word. A king cannot back down, especially from a little girl despite whether or not she is his own daughter. In a way, this was meant to save face for King Lear and keep his reputation. Regan and Goneril discuss the issue as well, referring to Lear as “senile” and that his old age was surely the reason for his poor decision making and rashness. The possibility that Lear does not understand actual

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1057 Words | 5 Pages

In this essay I want to show that in the first act of King Lear it was already hinted at some points of the development that the characters of King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester go through. The character Lear shows signs that he is becoming mad while it begins to affect his life and those of the other characters in the play . In the beginning of the Play King Lear decides to divide his Kingdom into three parts and split it among his three daughters with the goal to prevent future conflicts and to rid him of the burden of ruling. However he decides that the Kingdom should be split according to how much his daughters love him and not by who is the best ruler “Which of you shall we say doth love us most, / that we our largest bounty may extend

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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).

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1327 Words | 6 Pages

These metaphors refer to the blindness to the truth. Neither Lear nor Gloucester see the truth in the beginning of the play, but rather regard the truth as lie and vice versa. The constant reference to blindness in the play shows the importance of this flaw of the two characters. The fact that they are blind to the true characters of their children leads them to their tragic

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