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King Lear-Fortune Essay Example

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King Lear-Fortune Essay Example
In life, it seems as though fortune is always changing. It is hard to keep track of who is at the top of the wheel, and once there, it is a challenge to survive. In Shakespeare's King Lear, all of the characters make their way around the wheel of fortune, with the wrong people to rising above. Evil sisters Goneril and Regan work together, planning their rise to the top only to weaken later on. Edmund uses his illegitimacy as a reason to scheme his way to the top, also resulting in his eventual demise. Gloucester and Edgar both fall for Edmund's sly plan placing them together at the bottom, and Lear has a drastic journey from peaks to valleys. In the midst of all this, the fool lurks and watches the wheel, observing the inside, while the rest of the characters are trapped on the wheel of fortune awaiting their turn. Throughout the play, unfortunate things pass over good people while good fortune falls into the hands of the undeserving; however, most character of King Lear end at the bottom of the wheel.

Although it may not last long, when fortune passes over the wrong people it can have the gravest effects. In the case of Goneril and Regan, it comes to them when their father who is the king decides to divide his kingdom between them. Once all of the power is in their hands, the sisters secretly begin planning ways to take all the remaining authority from their father. Their scheming begins with a conversation between them when Goneril says:
There is further compliment of leavetaking between France and him. Pray you, let's hit together: if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.

REGAN
We shall further think on't.

GONERIL
We must do something, and i' the heat. ( I i 321-326)

The sisters agree that with some power still in the hands of their father, they will not reach their ultimate purpose, that of absolute power. They decide that they will have to act quickly in order to
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