loyalty in king lear thesis

Theme Of Loyalty In King Lear

King Lear is a play written by William Shakespeare that tells the story of a King who descends into madness after being betrayed by his daughters. The play explores the themes of loyalty, betrayal, and love. King Lear is a tragedy that ends in the deaths of many of its characters. Despite this, the play also has moments of hope and redemption.

The character of Cordelia, for example, represents loyalty and filial love. She is ultimately hanged but her death is an act of self-sacrifice that redeems her father and teaches him the value of true loyalty. King Lear is a complex play that examines the nature of human relationships. It is a timeless classic that continues to be relevant today.

Loyalty, like trust, is one of the most valuable possessions that any person can give to you. In William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear,” loyalty is introduced as a theme. Throughout his characters Cordelia, Kent, and the Fool, King Lear’s actions rather than his words demonstrate their loyalty. Although King Lear treated these people badly, they were the main characters in the story who showed loyalty to him despite his horrible treatment towards them. These characters’ devotion to King Lear was unwavering in both good and bad situations.

King Lear is a play written by William Shakespeare that was first performed in 1606. The play is set in Britain and revolves around the King of Britain, King Lear, and his three daughters. King Lear had previously given up his power to his two eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, due to their flattering words towards him. However, he banishes his youngest daughter, Cordelia, after she refuses to say anything flattering and instead speaks the truth.

King Lears’ decision to banish Cordelia comes back to haunt him as Goneril and Regan begin to mistreat him. King Lear then seeks refuge with his loyal servant Kent who disguises himself as a peasant in order to stay close to King Lear. King Lear also has a Fool who is also loyal to King Lear and provides him with words of wisdom.

Loyalty is seen throughout the characters Cordelia, Kent, and the Fool, due to their actions and not their words. Although King Lear mistreated these characters they were the main characters in the book who demonstrate loyalty towards King Lear despite his cruel actions towards them. Throughout King Lear’s good and bad conditions these characters loyalty for King Lear never changed.

This was first seen when King Lear banished Cordelia from his sight after she refused to say anything flattering about him (Shakespeare 1.1.95-118). Despite being banished by her father, Cordelia still showed her loyalty when she came back to save her father from execution (Shakespeare 4.7.35-39).

Loyalty, madness, and power are the major themes in King Lear. While certain characters in the play are cruel and villainous, others exhibit great loyalty and selflessness. Kent and Edgar are rewarded for their loyalty, but Cordelia’s devotion leads to her death.

Madness: King Lear descends into madness during the play, as a result of his failings as a father and ruler. His madness causes him to make poor decisions that lead to disaster. Power: King Lear is preoccupied with power and status throughout the play. He struggles to maintain his grip on power as his kingdom falls apart. These themes are explored in greater detail below.

Loyalty is a key theme in King Lear. Kent demonstrates great loyalty to Lear when he remains loyal to him despite being banished. When Kent is arrested, he still refuses to betray Lear. Edgar also displays loyalty to his father, even after he is banished. He disguises himself as a madman in order to protect himself from those who would seek to harm him. Cordelia is the most loyal of all, refusing to falsely flatter her father in order to gain favor. Her loyalty leads to her death, but it is also ultimately what wins her father’s approval.

Madness is another key theme in King Lear. King Lear descends into madness during the play, as a result of his failings as a father and ruler. His madness causes him to make poor decisions that lead to disaster. Gloucester is also driven mad by his illegitimate son Edmund. As a result, he suffers a terrible physical injury.

Power is another central theme in King Lear. King Lear is preoccupied with power and status throughout the play. He struggles to maintain his grip on power as his kingdom falls apart. Gloucester is also interested in power, and he is willing to do anything to maintain his position. Edmund is motivated by power as well, and he is willing to betray anyone in order to achieve it. These characters provide a fascinating exploration of the dark side of human nature. In the end, King Lear loses everything due to his thirst for power.

Later in the play, when Kind Lear is put into a difficult situation, he recognizes who has been loyal to him all along. William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” depicts loyalty versus power, with Cordelia, Kent, and the Fool as characters who demonstrate the act of loyalty despite their accusations of disrespect and dishonor. Cordelia, also known as King Lear’s daughter, shows devotion towards her father (King Lear). Following his abandonment of all authority, land, and home to her mother (Cordelia), King Lear becomes reliant on his daughters for support.

King Lear banishes her from his sight because she refuses to lie to him and tell him what he wanted to hear. Despite the fact that King Lear banished Cordelia, she is still willing to help King Lear when he is in need. When King Lear goes mad, she is the only one who is willing to take care of him even though he did not treat her well when she was by his side. She shows how much she loves her father by forgiving all his wrong doings and still being there for him when he needed someone the most.

Another character who demonstrates loyalty is Kent. Kent is also known as Caius or Earl of Gloucester. He was also accused by King Lear of being disrespectful but, he was actually trying to help King Lear since he was not in his right mind. Kent was willing to give up everything he had just to make sure King Lear was okay.

King Lear also has a Fool in the play who is loyal to King Lear. The Fool is someone who always tells King Lear the truth, no matter how harsh it might be. He is there for King Lear when everyone else abandons him and makes sure that King Lear knows that he is still loved. These characters show how important loyalty is in a relationship and how it can be tested at times but, it will always prevail in the end.

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King Lear Themes

Theme is a pervasive idea presented in a literary piece. King Lear , a masterpiece of William Shakespeare , has very thoughtful themes. It presents the dilemma of human relations and exposes the dark sides of human nature, such as infidelity and ungratefulness. Some of the major themes in King Lear have been discussed below.

Themes in King Lear

Age and the process of aging is a significant theme of the play , King Lear. When a person starts aging, he starts losing his significance. As King Lear starts aging, he starts making decisions about his kingdom and makes a bet on the persons expressing their profound love for them. However, old King Lear does not understand Cordelia is the loyal one. Sadly, he trusts the deceitful ones. On the other hand, Edmund also waits for his father, Gloucester, to die so that he could inherit something to win social legitimacy in the eyes of the social fabric he wants to live in. In fact, King Lear’s age heralds a new social circle forming around him where he is not the kingpin, but just a commoner having no authority as in the past. However, he wants to retain the same authority even in his old age, that seems impossible. That is why he admits of his being old and the desire for retirement without having to abandon his privileges. Therefore, old age and its attendant features of losing privileges.

Family Relations

Family relationships and family loyalty are equally prominent as King Lear checks the loyalty of his daughters through their love. Though superficially, love is in abundance, it becomes scary when it comes to its application and demonstration. Cordelia, however, shows true loyalty to her father by staying with him until the end when Goneril and Regan conspire to keep the old man out of their castles. Despite severe emotional consequences and legal and regal repercussions, Goneril and Regan do not budge from their stand of keeping the king out. Similarly, Gloucester’s act of fathering Edmund seems a matter of childishness for him and causes sufferings for all others. King Lear’s earlier act of seeing familial love through expressions of love seems to hinge upon the fact that he wants to ensure family loyalty and blindly trusts the one who vocally vows to love him but abandon him later.

Madness and ensuing foolishness is another major theme of the play, King Lear. However, most of the characters , including that of the king, try to determine their reasonable behavior toward the choice they have to make. However, most often, they fail to think clearly. It is because most of them, including the King himself, try to keep their own interests before them, ignoring the interests of others. That is why he puts the entire kingdom in harm’s way with the desire for power come what may . His irrational desire to hear only love and nothing else and then irrational decision to cling to power even after dividing his kingdom seems a foolish decision, bordering madness. That is why the court jester, mostly known as fool, appears to help King Lear realize the situation prevalent in his kingdom. He makes the king realizes his own madness about judging people.

Significance of Order

Order and its significance in the world is another major theme of the play, King Lear. It is clear from the very start that King Lear is disrupting this order. He brings chaos in his family and his country. His desire for seeming love, even if it is flattery, makes him reject those who want to bring order and calmness. He almost disowns Cordelia for her honesty and divides his kingdom among two undeserving daughters. This brings chaos on which the court jester makes a commentary. Interestingly, even the jester taunts him for throwing away his kingdom. In fact, where Cordelia and Kent bring order and strength, Edmund, Edgar, Goneril, and Regan are the forces who bring disorder and disruption. Even King Lear himself wants disruption as he finally curses his treacherous daughter.

King Lear tests the loyalty of his daughters and their husbands through a test. He asks them to tell him how much they love him. Regan and Goneril instantly shower praises on him, vowing their everlasting and strong love, while Cordelia, who actually takes care of him and loves him very much, only states that she loves him. The king was enamored of this superficial realization of the love of his daughters that he instantly considers both of them worthy of the heritage to share his kingdom. However, he does not take care of Cordelia. Instead, he instantly disinherits her. Despite this treatment, she stays loyal to her father, demonstrating that the relationships of father-daughter are not subject to property and divisions; rather, it is an enduring bond of loyalty.

The theme of justice is intertwined with the theme of royal authority. King Lear does injustice to his daughter, Cordelia, who, despite her intense love for her father, is thrown away, while Regan and Goneril’s deception is bought by King Lear. He, however, faces injustice at the hands of both of his daughters so much so that he is left in the stormy weather to bear the brunt of his own doing. Later, he repents over this injustice meted out to him, saying that he has faced punishment more than his sin. However, later he seeks justice through a mock trial. Another point of injustice is to Edmund committed by Gloucester that he is illegitimate, which makes him jealous of his brother for which he plans his brother’s exile and murder Cordelia. The punishment meted out to him by the end is another instance of justice.

Appearance and Reality

Appearance and reality is another important theme of the play. Lear believes in the false narrative of his daughters, Goneril and Regan, that they love her more than he can think. However, he equally turns away his attention from the reality that his daughter, Cordelia, loves him the most. The appearances of his two elder daughters fool him, and he ignores his daughter, who shows him true love and loyalty. Similarly, Edmond, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, does not accept this reality and conspires to discredit his brother, Edgar, the legitimate son.

Compassion and humanity is another thematic strand that runs parallel to other themes. Although King Lear sends Kent into exile, he still comes back to serve him as a farmer. He knows that the king has done a wrong and would soon face repercussions. So, when the king sees the jester, he feels sympathy and compassion for him. The king also tears down his clothes to show his sympathy for poor Tom when he sees such poor people facing problems in life.

Nature and its impacts, like the storm in the play, shows that the kingdom of King Lear is in turmoil on account of his own actions. The turns in weather conditions also reflect how King Lear faces mental instability that leads to his confusion and madness. This is actually, as stated by King Lear himself, a tempest in his mind reflected through nature.

Vision is a minor yet important theme of the play, which is evident in many ways. Sometimes in literally and sometimes symbolically. King Lear’s call to his daughters to demonstrate their love is a loss of his vision that cost him his kingdom.

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How does William Shakespeare use the concept of loyalty in King Lear

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In William Shakespeare’s play “ King Lear ,” the concept of loyalty is explored through various characters and their relationships. The play highlights the importance of loyalty and the consequences of betrayal, emphasizing the fact that loyalty is not always reciprocal and can be fragile. In this essay, we will explore how Shakespeare uses the concept of loyalty in “King Lear.”

How does William Shakespeare use the concept of loyalty:- The first character to demonstrate loyalty in the play is Kent, a nobleman and loyal servant of King Lear. From the beginning of the play, Kent is shown to be devoted to the king, serving him with unwavering loyalty. However, when King Lear makes the mistake of banishing him, Kent disguises himself and continues to serve the king under a different name. This act of loyalty is demonstrated when Kent risks his own safety to protect the king from harm, including fighting a duel with Oswald, one of Goneril’s servants. Kent’s loyalty is also shown when he tries to reason with Lear and convince him not to disown Cordelia. Kent’s character illustrates the importance of loyalty and how it can lead to selfless acts.

King Lear “Summary”

“King Lear” is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare that explores themes of power, loyalty, family, justice, and the nature of humanity. The play is set in the kingdom of Britain, where an aging King Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. He asks each daughter to profess her love for him, with the promise that the daughter who loves him most will receive the largest portion of the kingdom.

How does William Shakespeare use the concept of loyalty:- Goneril and Regan are eager to flatter their father and profess their love, each claiming to love him more than the other. However, Cordelia refuses to play along, stating that she loves her father as a daughter should, without exaggeration. Angered by Cordelia’s response, Lear disinherits her and divides his kingdom between Goneril and Regan.

Lear soon discovers that his decision was a mistake, as Goneril and Regan begin to mistreat him and strip him of his power. Lear realizes too late that he has lost his true source of power and support, the loyalty of his family. He is eventually forced to flee from his daughters’ homes and wanders the countryside, accompanied only by his Fool and his loyal friend, the Earl of Kent.

How does William Shakespeare use the concept of loyalty:- Meanwhile, the subplot of the play follows the story of the Earl of Gloucester and his two sons, Edmund and Edgar. Edmund, the illegitimate son, plots to overthrow his legitimate brother Edgar and take his place as Gloucester’s heir. He manipulates his father into believing that Edgar is plotting against him, and Edgar is forced to flee for his life.

As Lear descends into madness, he is reunited with Cordelia, who has returned to Britain with a French army to restore her father to power. However, their reunion is short-lived, as Goneril and Regan’s armies defeat the French and capture both Lear and Cordelia. In the final act of the play, nearly all of the main characters meet tragic ends.

How does William Shakespeare use the concept of loyalty:- Goneril poisons Regan and then kills herself when she discovers that Edmund has betrayed her for Regan. Edmund is fatally wounded in a duel with Edgar, who reveals his true identity to his father and kills Edmund to avenge his brother’s honor. Gloucester dies of shock when he learns of Cordelia’s death, and Lear dies of a broken heart when he is reunited with his daughter’s lifeless body. The play ends with the bleak image of a world left in ruins by the characters’ blind ambition and greed.

How does William Shakespeare use the concept of loyalty:- Overall, “King Lear” is a powerful exploration of human nature and the complexities of human relationships. The play highlights the importance of loyalty and the consequences of betrayal, emphasizing that loyalty is not always reciprocal and can be fragile. The tragic endings of the play’s main characters serve as a reminder that power can corrupt and that greed can lead to destruction. Through its exploration of these themes, “King Lear” provides timeless insights into the human condition and the consequences of our actions.

William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear” is a powerful exploration of the concept of loyalty and its complexities. The characters in the play demonstrate different aspects of loyalty, including unwavering devotion, selfless acts, betrayal, and nefarious motives. The play highlights the importance of loyalty and the consequences of disloyalty, emphasizing the fact that loyalty is not always reciprocal and can be fragile. The tragic endings of the play’s main characters serve as a reminder that loyalty can lead to both triumph and tragedy, and that it is ultimately up to the individual to determine the nature and consequences of their loyalty. Through its exploration of loyalty, “King Lear” provides timeless insights into human nature and the complexities of human relationships.

Q: What is “King Lear” about?

A: “King Lear” is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. The play tells the story of King Lear, an aging monarch who decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters. When his youngest daughter, Cordelia, refuses to flatter him and is disowned, Lear’s decision leads to a chain of tragic events that ultimately result in the deaths of many of the play’s characters.

Q: What themes are explored in “King Lear”?

A: “King Lear” explores a variety of themes, including power, loyalty, family, justice, and the nature of humanity. The play also delves into issues of aging, madness, and betrayal, among other topics.

Q: Who are the main characters in “King Lear”?

A: The main characters in “King Lear” include King Lear, his three daughters (Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia), the Earl of Gloucester, his sons (Edmund and Edgar), and several other nobleman and servants who become entangled in the unfolding tragedy.

Q: What is the significance of the Fool in “King Lear”?

A: The Fool is a jester who serves as a companion and confidante to King Lear throughout the play. The Fool uses his wit and humor to comment on the unfolding events, often serving as a voice of reason and wisdom in a chaotic world. His presence also highlights the theme of the transformative power of suffering.

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Theme Of Loyalty In King Lear Essay

Loyalty is one of the most prize possessions any human being can offer unto you along with trust. In the book “King Lear”, William Shakespeare introduces readers to the theme of the book which is loyalty. Loyalty is seen throughout the characters Cordelia, Kent, and the Fool, due to their actions and not their words. Although King Lear mistreated these characters they were the main characters in the book who demonstrate loyalty towards King Lear despite his cruel actions towards them. Throughout King Lear’s good and bad conditions these characters loyalty for King Lear never changed .

Later on in the paly Kind Lear realizes who had been loyal to him all along when he is placed in a bad situation. William Shakespeare play “King Lear” represents loyalty over power and the characters who demonstrates the act of loyalty are Cordelia, Kent, and the Fool although they were accused by the king to be disrespectful an dishonorable. Cordelia, also known as the daughter of King Lear demonstrates the act of loyalty towards her father (King Lear). Cordelia is one of the characters in the play who care for King Lear after he gave up all his power, his land, and his home.

King Lear considers Goneril and Regan his two daughters out of the three to be his only children who are loyal since their speeches spoken to him said so. As for Cordelia she is disclaimed by her father due to her poor speech when she said to him “… by all the operation of the orbs from whom we do exist and cease to be here I disclaim all your paternal care, propinquity, and property of blood, and as a stranger to my heart and me hold thee from this forever” (Shakespeare, 111-116). Although King Lear feel betrayed by his own daughter Cordelia due her poor speech that is not the case.

When asked by King Lear for Cordelia to confess her love for her him, she responded her love for her father was nothing more than the bond giving by him. Although she tried to explain to her father she will not speak for the love she has for him in order to receive riches due to the fact that would be deceiving. King Lear fuming with anger after hearing the words of Cordelia evicts her without any of his inheritance or money. Although he mistreated Cordelia, not once did Cordelia think of doing the same to her father.

When King Lear was put in one of his worst situations ever Cordelia could have treated him with hate but instead came to him with a clean heart when said to her father “O you kind gods, cure this great breach in his abused nature, th’ untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up, of this child-changed father ! ” (Shakespeare, 4. 7. 12-15). Cordelia’s actions towards her father during his hard time speak for her loyalty in the play. Although mistreated by her father she didn’t hold a grudge against her father, but still with love and respect honors King Lear as her father.

Kent, a servant of King Lear demonstrates loyalty in “King Lear” by William Shakespeare’s. Kent was banished from King Lear presences after stating the truth about the mistake Lear was making when he said “Royal Lear, whom I have ever honored as my king, loved as my father, as my master followed, as my great patron thought in my prayers.. / Let it fall rather, though the fork invade the region of my heart. Be Kent unmannerly when Lear is mad…. Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak when power to flattery bows? To plainness honor’s bound when majesty falls to folly.

Reserve thy state… ” (Shakespeare, 1. 1. 139/ 144). Due to Kent loyalty and honesty, King Lear took it as betrayal and dishonor. Kent was banished from the town and if he was to be spotted on the land a week after it would result in the end of his life . The motivation and intention of Kent was to serve and protect the King, and not be rewarded for his loyalty. Although banished by King Lear, Kent did anything in his will to make sure he was close to the King. King Lear couldn’t recognize Kent and Kent did not reveal his identity either. Kent remained a loyal servant and a friend to the King.

Kent also demonstrated his loyalty towards th king when he stated “… Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel. Some Friendship will it lend you ‘gainst the tempest. Repose you there… ” (Shakespeare, 3. 2. 59-61). Kent didn’t have to help the King, but he did it anyway even if it caused him his life. His actions rather than his words demonstrated the love and loyalty he had for King Lear even if he didn’t realize it himself. Loyalty is also proven in “King Lear” by the character the Fool. The Fool demonstrates loyalty because he carry the same characteristics as Kent.

The Fool is full of wisdom but also speaks his peace of mind and remains by the side of King Lear like Kent. The Fool reveals to readers that he is not afraid to tell things how they are and how he sees it. Although the purpose of the fool in the play is to lessen the mood of what’s going on, he also touches on reality by being completely honest when he stated“… Nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou’lt catch cold shortly. There, take my coxcomb. Why, this fellow has banished two on’s daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will. If thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb” (Shakespeare, 1. 4. 87-92).

Within The Fool being honest opened the eyes of King Lear around his wrongs and damages he caused by letting go of his power along with his kingdom. The Fool had to harshly let King Lear know these things since Lear wasn’t trying to listen to anybody else who warned when he stated “Fools had ne’er less wit in a year, for wise men are grown foppish. They know not how their wits to wear, their manners are so apish” (Shakespeare, 1. 4. 149-152). The fool, although harshly letting King Lear know his wrongs also reveal his loyalty towards the King. The Fool escorts the king through his unhappy, depressed, miserable journey to help him.

The Fool shows his loyalty and gratitude through his directness, but it was nothing but good intentions towards King Lear. The Fool loyalty towards the king later on leads to his own death. The play written by Shakespeare “King Lear” is about loyalty. This play revealed to readers Loyalty over rules power. Loyalty was shown through actions rather than words. The characters who demonstrated loyalty towards King Lear were Cordelia, Kent, and the fool. Cordelia who was banished by her father King Lear, yet instead of her turning her back on her father she still remained loyal during his hardship.

Kent, King Lear’s who did everything in his will to protect the king was banished by the king himself. Although Kent was banished by the king did not stop him from remaining loyal to King Lear. Kent still remained by his side even if it cost him his life. The Fool was also a character in the play who showed King Lear loyalty The Fool let King Lear know what he was doing wrong harshly, not only that but the fool stuck by King Lear side to guide him through his miserable journey to the point it even cost him his own life.

Throughout many characters, Shakespeare shows that through his rough situations, those who he banished from his presence were the ones who stuck by his side until the end . Shakespeare also lay emphasis on those who King Lear thought less of, were those who were truthfully loyal to him up until the end. In the end, “loyalty” is a mutual theme of King Lear, Shakespeare throughout the play illustrates that loyalty does not just mean words, but by actions .

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Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s King Lear

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s King Lear

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 1 )

There is perhaps no play which keeps the attention so strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and interests our curiosity. The artful involutions of distinct interests, the striking opposition of contrary characters, the sudden changes of fortune, and the quick succession of events, fill the mind with a perpetual tumult of indignation, pity, and hope. There is no scene which does not contribute to the aggravation of the distress or conduct of the action, and scarce a line which does not conduce to the progress of the scene. So powerful is the current of the poet’s imagination, that the mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried irresistibly along.

—Samuel Johnson, The Plays of William Shakespeare

For its unsurpassed combination of sheer terrifying force and its existential and cosmic reach, King Lear leads this ranking as drama’s supreme achievement. The notion that King Lear is Shakespeare’s (and by implication drama’s) greatest play is certainly debatable, but consensus in its favor has gradually coalesced over the centuries since its first performance around 1606. During and immediately following William Shakespeare’s lifetime, there is no evidence that King Lear was particularly valued over other of the playwright’s dramas. It was later considered a play in need of an improving makeover. In 1681 poet and dramatist Nahum Tate, calling King Lear “a Heap of Jewels unstrung and unpolish’d,” altered what many Restoration critics and audiences found unbecoming and unbearable in the drama. Tate eliminated the Fool, whose presence was considered too vulgar for a proper tragedy, and gave the play a happy ending, restoring Lear to his throne and arranging the marriage of Cordelia and Edgar, neatly tying together with poetic justice the double strands of Shakespeare’s far bleaker drama. Tate’s bowdlerization of King Lear continued to be presented throughout the 18th century, and the original play was not performed again until 1826. By then the Romantics had reclaimed Shakespeare’s version, and an appreciation of the majesty and profundity of King Lear as Shakespeare’s greatest achievement had begun. Samuel Taylor Coleridge declared the play “the most tremendous effort of Shakespeare as a poet”; while Percy Bysshe Shelley considered it “the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world.” John Keats, who described the play as “the fierce dispute / Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay,” offered King Lear as the best example of the intensity, with its “close relationship with Beauty & Truth,” that is the “Excellence of every Art.” Dissenting voices, however, challenged the supremacy of King Lear . Essayist Charles Lamb judged the play to have “nothing in it but what is painful and disgusting” and deemed it “essentially impossible to be represented on a stage.” The great Shakespearean scholar A. C. Bradley acknowledged King Lear as “Shakespeare’s greatest achievement” but “not his best play.” For Bradley, King Lear , with its immense scope and the variety and intensity of its scenes, is simply “too huge for the stage.” Perhaps the most notorious dissenter against the greatness of King Lear was Leo Tolstoy, who found its fable-like unreality reprehensible and ruled it a “very bad, carelessly composed production” that “cannot evoke amongst us anything but aversion and weariness.” Such qualifications and dismissals began to diminish in light of 20thcentury history. The existential vision of King Lear has seemed even more pertinent and telling as a reflection of the human condition; while modern dramatic artistry with its contrapuntal structure and anti-realistic elements has caught up with Shakespeare’s play. Today King Lear is commonly judged unsurpassed in its dramatization of so many painful but inescapable human and cosmic truths.

King Lear is based on a well-known story from ancient Celtic and British mythology, first given literary form by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Britain (c. 1137). Raphael Holinshed later repeated the story of Lear and his daughters in his Chronicles (1587), and Edmund Spenser, the first to name the youngest daughter, presents the story in book 2 of The Faerie Queene (1589). A dramatic version— The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his three daughters, Gonerill, Ragan, and Cordella —appeared around 1594. All these versions record Lear dividing his kingdom, disinheriting his youngest daughter, and being driven out by his two eldest daughters before reuniting with his youngest, who helps restore him to the throne and bring her wicked sisters to justice. Shakespeare is the first to give the story an unhappy ending, to turn it from a sentimental, essentially comic tale in which the good are eventually rewarded and the evil punished into a cosmic tragedy. Other plot elements—Lear’s madness, Cordelia’s hanging, Lear’s death from a broken heart, as well as Kent’s devotion and the role of the Fool—are also Shakespeare’s inventions, as is the addition of the parallel plot of Gloucester and his sons, which Shakespeare adapted from a tale in Philip Sidney’s Arcadia . The play’s double plot in which the central situation of Lear’s suffering and self-knowledge is paralleled and counterpointed in Gloucester’s circumstances makes King Lear different from all the other great tragedies. The effect widens and deepens the play into a universal tragedy of symphonic proportions.

King Lear opens with the tragic turning point in its very first scene. Compared to the long delays in Hamle t and Othello for the decisive tragic blow to fall, King Lear , like Macbeth , shifts its emphasis from cause to consequence. The play foregoes nearly all exposition or character development and immediately presents a show trial with devastating consequences. The aging Lear has decided to divest himself of kingly responsibilities by dividing his kingdom among his three daughters. Although the maps of the divisions are already drawn, Lear stages a contest for his daughters to claim their portion by a public profession of their love. “Tell me, my daughters,” Lear commands, “. . . Which of you shall we say doth love us most.” Lear’s self-indulgence—bargaining power for love—is both a disruption of the political and natural order and an essential human violation in his demanding an accounting of love that defies the means of measuring it. Goneril and Regan, however, vie to outdo the other in fulsome pledges of their love, while Cordelia, the favorite, responds to Lear’s question “what can you say to draw / A third more opulent than your sisters” with the devastatingly honest truth: “Nothing,” a word that will reverberate through the entire play. Cordelia forcefully and simply explains that she loves Lear “According to my bond, no more nor less.” Lear is too blind and too needy to appreciate her fidelity or yet understand the nature of love, or the ingenuous flattery of his older daughters. He responds to the hurt he feels by exiling the one who loves him most authentically and deeply. The rest of the play will school Lear in his mistake, teaching him the lesson of humanity that he violates in the play’s opening scene.

The devastating consequences of his decision follow. Lear learns that he cannot give away power and still command allegiance from Goneril or Regan. Their avowals of love quickly turn into disrespect for a now useless and demanding parent. From the opening scene in which Lear appears in all his regal splendor, he will be successively stripped of all that invests a king in majesty and insulates a human being from first-hand knowledge of suffering and core existential truths. Urged to give up 50 of his attending knights by Goneril, Lear claims more gratitude from Regan, who joins her sister in further whittling down Lear’s retinue from 100 knights to 50, to 25, 10, 5, to none, ironically in the language of calculation of the first scene. Lear explodes:

O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous. Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man’s life is cheap as beast’s .

Lear is now readied to face reality as a “poorest thing.” Lear’s betrayal by his daughters is paralleled by the treachery of the earl of Gloucester’s bastard son, Edmund, who plots to supplant the legitimate son, Edgar, and eventually claim supremacy over his father. Edmund, one of the most calculating and coldblooded of Shakespeare’s villains, rejects all the bonds of family and morality early on in the play by affirming: “Thou, Nature, art my goddess, to thy law / My services are bound.” Refusing to accept the values of a society that rejects him as a bastard, Edmund will operate only by the laws of survival of the fittest in a relentless drive for dominance. He convinces Edgar that Gloucester means to kill him, forcing his brother into exile, disguised as Tom o’ Bedlam, a mad beggar. In the play’s overwhelming third act—perhaps the most overpowering in all of drama—Edgar encounters Lear, his Fool, and his lone retainer, the disguised Kent, whom Lear had banished in the first scene for challenging Lear’s treatment of Cordelia. The scene is a deserted heath with a fierce storm raging, as Lear, maddened by the treatment of his daughters, rails at his fate in apocalyptic fury:

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak cleaving thunderbolts, S inge my white head; and thou all-shaking thunder, Strike fl at the thick rotundity o’ th’ world, Crack nature’s mould, all germens spill at once, That makes ingrateful man.

The storm is a brilliant expressionistic projection of Lear’s inner fury, with his language universalizing his private experience in a combat with elemental forces. Beseeching divine justice, Lear is bereft and inconsolable, declaring “My wits begin to turn.” His descent into madness is completed when he meets the disguised Edgar who serves as Lear’s mirror and emblem of humanity as “unaccommodated man”—a “poor, bare, forked animal”:

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp, Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.

Lear’s suffering has led him to compassion and an understanding of the human needs he had formerly ignored. It is one of the rare moments of regenerative hope before the play plunges into further chaos and violence.

Act 3 concludes with what has been called the most horrifying scene in dramatic literature. Gloucester is condemned as a traitor for colluding with Cordelia and the French invasion force. Cornwall, Regan’s husband, orders Gloucester bound and rips out one of his eyes. Urged on by Regan (“One side will mock another; th’ other too”), Cornwall completes Gloucester’s blinding after a protesting servant stabs Cornwall and is slain by Regan. In agony, Gloucester calls out for Edmund as Regan supplies the crushing truth:

Out, treacherous villain! Thou call’st on him that hates thee. It was he That made the overture of thy treasons to us, Who is too good to pity thee.

Oedipus-like, Gloucester, though blind, now sees the truth of Edmund’s villainy and Edgar’s innocence. Thrown out of the castle, he is ordered to “smell / His way to Dover.”

Act 4 arranges reunions and the expectation that the suffering of both Lear and Gloucester will be compensated and villainy purged. Edgar, still posing as Poor Tom, meets his father and agrees to guide him to Dover where the despairing Gloucester intends to kill himself by jumping from its cliffs. On arriving, Edgar convinces his father that he has fallen and survived, and Gloucester accepts his preservation as an act of the gods and vows “Henceforth I’ll bear / Affliction till it do cry out itself / ‘Enough, enough,’ and die.” The act concludes with Lear’s being reunited with Cordelia. Awaking in her tent, convinced that he has died, Lear gradually recognizes his daughter and begs her forgiveness as a “very foolish, fond old man.”

The stage is now set in act 5 for a restoration of order and Lear, having achieved the requisite self-knowledge through suffering, but Shakespeare pushes the play beyond the reach of consolation. Although Edmund is bested in combat by his brother, and Regan is poisoned by Goneril before she kills herself, neither poetic nor divine justice prevails. Lear and Cordelia are taken prisoner, but their rescue comes too late. As Shakespeare’s stage directions state, “Enter Lear with Cordelia in his arms,” and the play concludes with one of the most heart-wrenching scenes and the most overpowering lines in all of drama. Lear, although desperate to believe that his beloved daughter is alive, gradually accepts the awful truth:

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all. Thou’lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never!

Lear dies with this realization of cosmic injustice and indifference, while holding onto the illusion that Cordelia might still survive (“Look on her, look, her lips / Look there, look there!”). The play ends not with the restoration of divine, political, or familial order but in a final nihilistic vision. Shakespeare pushes the usual tragic progression of action leading to suffering and then to self-knowledge to a view into the abyss of life’s purposelessness and cruelty. The best Shakespeare manages to affirm in the face of intractable human evil and cosmic indifference is the heroism of endurance. Urging his despairing father on, Edgar states in the play’s opposition to despair:

. . . Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither; Ripeness is all. Come on.

Ultimately, King Lear , more than any other drama, in my view, allows its audience to test the limits of endurance in the face of mortality and meaninglessness. It has been said that only the greatest art sustains without consoling. There is no better example of this than King Lear .

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Oxford Lecture King Lear

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Authority: Kent as a Model of Loyalty in King Lear Nadia Berenstein

King Lear, as both head of state and paterfamilias, has multiple claims to power, and to obedience. His spectacle of dividing the kingdom between his daughters confuses their obligations to him as subjects with their filial obligations, duties which are not necessarily equivalent. Cordelia cannot play both roles at once; she favors her role as daughter over her duty to her father as a subject in his kingdom. The duty that Lear expects can only be acquitted by speaking. Cordelia damns herself by being unable to speak what is expected. Kent, an alternate model of loyalty in the play, incurs Lear's wrath by speaking too plainly. Kent's loyalty - which distinguishes itself from obedience - demonstrates the suspicious attitude the play has of speech. He departs from the forms of affection that attempt to measure loyalty in terms of simple, spoken complaisance.

A corollary of Kent's distrust of rhetoric seems to be his attention to physical presence, his dependence on optical proof. This model of knowledge allows Kent to seem nearly prescient in recognizing the deception of Lear's elder daughters. It also contributes to an important part of his service to the King; looking past the words, spoken in madness, by Lear,...

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Shakespeare’s Demonstration of Loyalty in King Lear

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The Role Of Loyalty In William Shakespeare’s King Lear

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