King Lear

In creating King Lear, William Shakespeare set the stage for one of the bleakest portrayals of our world ever to be written. Although this play was written in the early 1600s, its dark implications resonate all too easily in our modern world. In King Lear, Shakespeare explores many themes about the coldness of the world. But is the natural world unjustified in its cruelty to humankind? Or does humankind invite this torment upon itself with its selfish and unnatural behaviors? This question lies at the heart of the play.
King Lear is a story of a man who loses everything. Yet, contrary to many stories of this type, there is no redemption for Lear in the end. Even in the tragedy genre, some good can usually be gleaned from the text, or at least …show more content…
He has decided to divide his kingdom in three and give those portions to his daughters. Lear claims, " '[T]is our fast intent / To shake all cares and business from our age, / Conferring them on younger strengths while we / Unburdened crawl toward death" (I.i.38-41). This abdication of the throne is not a noble deed, but "an act of folly and an affront to nature" (Moore 177). Lear is relinquishing his responsibilities before his time, and subsequently pays for that mistake, because eventually, this "reversal of nature [...] brings down the storm on Lear's head" (Moore 177). After announcing that the daughter who professes the greatest love for him will receive the largest section of the kingdom, his two vile daughters, Goneril and Regan, gush with false proclamations of love for him. His youngest and favorite daughter, Cordelia, speaks from her heart, saying, "You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I / Return those duties back as are right fit, / Obey you, love you, and most honor you" (I.i.96-98). She loves him exactly as a daughter should love her father, but this is not good enough for Lear, and he disowns her. Out of concern for Cordelia's unwarranted banishment, Kent objects to Lear's rash behavior, protesting, "Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, / Nor are those emptyhearted whose low sounds / Reverb no hollowness" (I.i.153-155). This enrages Lear even more, and …show more content…
To have that suddenly disappear confuses his sense of self. Lear's lost authority now belongs to his two deceitful daughters, and they relish in using this power against him. In fact, the roles of Lear and his two daughters reverse, making his authority inferior to that of his own children. Lear is now at the mercy of Goneril and Regan's ruthless quest for power. This is first played out on stage in Act 1 Scene 4 at Albany's palace. Here, Goneril reveals to her father her true feelings for him. She does not love him with "A love that makes breath poor and speech unable," as she claims in the first scene (I.i.60). She certainly is speechless no longer, reprimanding him for the way his servants have apparently defiled her home. She orders the reduction of Lear's attendants, yet another loss. While Goneril is telling him this, Lear reveals his diminished sense of identity, asking, "Who is it that can tell me who I am?" (I.iv.227). His daughters no longer obey him and are now commanding him. The children now govern their father, something entirely unnatural. This would not be the case if Lear had not stepped down from the throne before his time was through. His unnatural actions are already breeding vengeance from nature, stripping him not only of royal authority, but of authority over his own flesh and