FEATURED ESSAYS 1. King Lear - The Role Of The Fool 2. Analyzing King Lears Tragic Fl 3. King Lear As A Tragic Hero 4. King Lear: Consequences Of One Ma... 5. King Lear (play) 6. King Lear 7. King Lear: Consequences Of One Ma... 8. In The Play King Lear, Lear Re 9. King Lear - Disruption Of Order I... 10. King Lear: Journey To Expiate Sin 11. King Lear And The Fatal Flaw 12. Madness In King Lear 13. King Lear 14. Kubla Khan

King Lear: Consequences Of One Man's Decisions

    Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear is a detailed description of the
consequences of one man's decisions.  This fictitious man is Lear, King of
England, who's decisions greatly alter his life and the lives of those
around him.  As Lear bears the status of King he is, as one expects, a man
of great power but sinfully he surrenders all of this power to his
daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him.  This
untimely abdication of his throne results in a chain reaction of events
that send him through a journey of hell.  King Lear is a metaphorical
description of one man's journey through hell in order to expiate his sin.
     As the play opens one can almost immediately see that Lear begins to
make mistakes that will eventually result in his downfall.  The very first
words that he speaks in the play are :-

     "...Give me the map there. Know that we have
     divided In three our kingdom, and 'tis our
     fast intent To shake all cares and business
     from our age, Conferring them on younger
     strengths while we Unburdened crawl to death..."
                       (Act I, Sc i, Ln 38-41)

This gives the reader the first indication of Lear's intent to abdicate his
throne.  He goes on further to offer pieces of his kingdom to his daughters
as a form of reward to his test of love.

     "Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
     Long in our court have made their amorous
     sojourn, And here are to be answered. Tell me, my
     daughters (Since now we will divest us both of rule,
     Interest of territory, cares of state),
     Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
     That we our largest bounty may extend
     where nature doth with merit challenge."
                       (Act I, Sc i, Ln 47-53)

This is the first and most significant of the many sins that he makes in
this play.  By abdicating his throne to fuel his ego he is disrupts the
great chain of being which states that the King must not challenge the
position that God has given him.  This undermining of God's authority
results in chaos that tears apart Lear's world.  Leaving him, in the end,
with nothing.  Following this Lear begins to banish those around him that
genuinely care for him as at this stage he cannot see beyond the mask that
the evil wear.  He banishes Kent, a loyal servant to Lear, and his youngest
and previously most loved daughter Cordelia.  This results in Lear
surrounding himself with people who only wish to use him which leaves him
very vulnerable attack.  This is precisely what happens and it is through
this that he discovers his wrongs and amends them.
     Following the committing of his sins, Lear becomes abandoned and
estranged from his kingdom which causes him to loose insanity. While lost
in his grief and self-pity the fool is introduced to guide Lear back to the
sane world and to help find the lear that was ounce lost behind a hundred
Knights but now is out in the open and scared like a little child.  The
fact that Lear has now been pushed out from behind his Knights is
dramatically represented by him actually being out on the lawns f his
castle.  The terrified little child that is now unsheltered is dramatically
portrayed by Lear's sudden insanity and his rage and anger is seen through
the thunderous weather that is being experienced.   All of this contributes
to the suffering of Lear due to the gross sins that he has committed.
     The pinnacle of this hell that is experienced be Lear in order to
repay his sins is at the end of the play when Cordelia is killed.  Lear
says this before he himself dies as he cannot live without his daughter.

     "Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones.
     Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
     That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone
     for ever!
     I know when one is dead, and when one lives.
     She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass.
     If that her breath will mist or stain the
     stone,
     Why, then she lives."
                   (Act V, Sc iii, Ln 306-312)


     All of this pain that Lear suffered is traced back to the single most
important error that he made.  The choice to give up his throne.  This one
sin has proven to have massive repercussions upon Lear and the lives of
those around him eventually killing almost all of those who were involved. 
And one is left to ask one's self if a single wrong turn can do this to
Lear then what difficult corner lies ahead that ma cause similar
alterations in one's life.

               Reference List

Shakespeare, William. King Lear.  Eric A.
     McCann, ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovick
     Canada Inc., Canada. 1988.

     There has been many different views on the plays of William
Shakespeare and definitions of what kind of play they were.  The two most
popular would be the comedy and the tragedy.  King Lear to some people may
be a comedy because they believe that the play has been over exaggerated. 
Others would say King Lear was a tragedy because there is so much suffering
and chaos.
     What makes a Shakespearean play a comedy or a tragedy?  King Lear
would be a tragedy because it meets all the requirements of a tragedy as
defined by Andrew Cecil Bradley.  Bradley states that a Shakespearean
tragedy must have to be the story of the hero and that there is exceptional
suffering and calamity slowly being worn in as well as it being contrasted
to happier times. The play also depicts the troubled parts in his life and
eventually his death that is instantaneous caused by the suffering and
calamity.  There is the feeling of fear in the play as well, that makes men
see how blind they are not knowing when fortune or something else would be
on them.  The hero must be of a high status on the chain and the hero also
possesses a tragic flaw that initiates the tragedy.  The fall of the hero
is not felt by him alone but creates a chain reaction which affects
everything below him.  There must also be the element of chance or accident
that influences some point in the play.
     King Lear meets all of these requirements that has been laid out by
Bradley which is the most logical for a definition of a tragedy as compared
to the definition of a comedy by G. Wilson Knight.
     The main character of the play would be King Lear who in terms of
Bradley would be the hero and hold the highest position is the social chain.
 Lear out of Pride and anger has banished Cordelia and split the kingdom in
half to the two older sisters, Goneril and Regan.  This is Lear's tragic
flaw which prevents him to see the true faces of people because his pride
and anger overrides his judgement.  As we see in the first act, Lear does
not listen to Kent's plea to see closer to the true faces of his daughters.
Kent has hurt Lear's pride by disobeying his order to stay out of his and
Cordelia's way when Lear has already warned him,  "The bow is bent and
drawn, make from the shaft."  Kent still disobeys Lear and is banished. 
Because of this flaw, Lear has initiated the tragedy by disturbing the
order in the chain of being by dividing the kingdom, banishing his best
servant and daughter, and giving up his thrown.
     Due to this flaw, Lear has given way to the two older daughters to
conspire against him.  Lear is finally thrown out of his daughters home and
left with a fool, a servant and a beggar. This is when Lear realizes the
mistake that he has made and suffers the banishment of his two eldest
daughters.  Lear is caught in a storm and begins to lose his sanity because
he can not bear the treatment of his two daughters as well as the error he
has made with Cordelia and Kent.  Lear also suffers from rest when he is
moving all over the place and the thing that breaks him is the death of his
youngest daughter Cordelia.  This suffering can be contrasted with other
happier times like when Lear was still king and when he was not banished by
his two daughters.
      The feeling of fear is when Lear is in the storm raging against the
gods, "I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.  I never gave you
kingdom, called you children, you owe me no subscription.", telling them to
rage harder since he has not done anything for them and that he didn't
deserve what he has received from his two daughters.  The fear is how Lear
in a short period of time went from king to just a regular peasant and from
strong and prideful to weak and unconfident.  This shows that men do not
hold their own destiny and that even though things may be great now you can
be struck down just as fast as was to Lear.
     The fall of Lear is not just the suffering of one man but the
suffering of everyone down the chain.  Gloucester loses his status and eyes,
Cordelia and Kent banished, and Albany realizing his wife's true heart. 
Everything that happened to these characters are affected by Lear in one
way or another and that if Lear had not banished Cordelia and Kent then the
two sisters would not be able to plot against their father.  Without the
plot of the two sisters then Gloucester would not of lost his eyes to
Cornwall and his status because he was guilty of treason.
     There is an element of chance in the play in which Edgar meets Oswald
trying to kill his father because he is a traitor. Oswald is slain asks
Edgar, "And give the letters which thou find'st about me to Edmund Earl of
Gloucester.  Seek him out upon the English party."  Edgar finds a letter to
Edmund from Goneril about the conspiracy to kill Albany.  This part in the
play affects the outcome of Goneril and Edmund in which will lead to both
of their deaths.
     The pain and suffering endured by Lear eventually tears down his
strength and sanity.  Lear is not as strong, arrogant, and prideful as he
was in the beginning of the play instead he is weak, scared, and a confused
old man.  At the end of the play Lear has completely lost his sanity with
the loss of his daughter Cordelia and this is the thing that breaks Lear
and leads to his death.  Lear dies with the knowledge that Cordelia is dead
and dies as a man in pain.

     "And my poor fool is hanged!  No, no, no life!
     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!"

     King Lear has met all the requirements that Bradley has stated as a
Shakespearean tragedy.  Lear has a tragic flaw which is his pride that
prevents him to see the true faces of people. He also initiates the tragedy
by the banishment of Cordelia and Kent as well as dividing the kingdom. 
Lear has also suffered and endured the pains of his error which leads to
his death and which is contrasted to that of happier times.  There is the
feeling of fear in the play which is of a King losing his crown and
becoming a peasant.  Lear has also created a chain reaction that affects
everything down the chain.  The element of chance is also introduced in the
play with Edgar and Oswald, Oswald possessing the letter to Edmund.  And
the final part is the death of King Lear dying in suffering of the death of
his daughter Cordelia.