King Lear
 
By William Shakespeare
 
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 commits in this play. By abdicating his throne to
fuel his ego, he 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 and leaves him very vulnerable

 Following the committing of his sins, Lear becomes
abandoned and estranged from his kingdom which causes him
to loose his sanity. While lost in his grief and self-pity,
the fool is introduced to guide Lear back to the sane world
and find himself.... " to help find the Lear that was once
shielded by 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 of 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. 

 The pinnacle of this hell that is experienced by Lear
occurs 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 may 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 have been many different views expressed when it
comes to categorizing this play. The two most popular ones
are that this work could be either a comedy or a tragedy. 
" King Lear" to some people may be a comedy because they
believe that the plot 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? Two highly respected interpreters of
this work are Andrew Cecil Bradley, defining it as a
tragedy and G. Wilson Knight, defining it as a comedy. 

 Bradley states that a Shakespearean tragedy must present
the story of a hero who experiences exceptional suffering
and calamity which is then contrasted to happier times. The
hero must be of a high status on the chain of command and
possess 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. The play "King Lear" depicts the
problems and tribulations of the monarch and the cause of
his downfall and death. There is also the feeling of fear
in the play when men realize that they are at the mercy of
fate and that they cannot know ahead of time when fortune
or tragedy would strike them. 

 King Lear meets all of the requirements that have been
laid out by Bradley. The main character is King Lear who
in terms of Bradley is the hero and holds the highest
position in the social chain. Lear out of Pride and anger
has banished Cordelia, his youngest daughter and rewarded
his two other daughters, Goneril and Regan, for what he
believes to be their loyalty towards him. He does this by
stepping down from the throne, dividing the kingdom in two
and empowering his daughters to rule. This is Lear's
tragic mistake as he allows his pride and anger to override
his judgment. 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. 

 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 throne. Due
to this flaw, Lear has given the two older daughters the
opportunity 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 of inner turmoil,
inflicted by the gods, and begins to lose his sanity. 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 lack of rest because he is constantly
wandering from place to place. 

The incident that totally breaks him, is the death of his
youngest daughter Cordelia. This suffering can be
contrasted with other happier times, when Lear was still
king and before he had been banished by his two daughters.
The feeling of fear can be seen when Lear is in the storm,
brought on by the gods, where he tells them 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 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 are banished, and
Albany realizes his wife's true heart. Everything that
happened to these characters were caused by Lear's initial
act. If Lear had not banished Cordelia and Kent then the
two sisters would not have been able to plot against their
father. Without the plot of the two sisters then Gloucester
would not have committed 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 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 as
a man in pain, with the knowledge that Cordelia is dead.
"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!" 

The play, " King Lear", has met all the requirements that
Bradley has stated as a Shakespearean tragedy. Lear has a
tragic flaw, 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. 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
over the death of his daughter Cordelia.