King Lear - A Complete Analysis (Shakespeare's Works Explained)

King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the year 605 and tells the tale of a king named Nia who decides to give away his power to his three daughters in exchange for their declaration of love the place sees an ensuing power struggle between the kingdom and we see King Lear descend into madness as a result of the ill treatment he believes he receives from his daughters subsequent to his relinquish thing of the throne the place thought to have been derived from the legend of Leah of Britain a mythological Celtic King whose story was recounted in the pseudo historical book history of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey Monmouth what's interesting about King Lear is that historically there exists more than one version an original draft by Shakespeare in 1605 known sometimes as the cuarto version or the 1623 version published in the first folio which featured a collection of revised plays in fact they have since been variations of King Lear particularly after the English restoration in the mid 17th century that implemented a happy ending for Leia and his daughter Cordelia because the audience disliked the depressing tone of death hid so heavily in the final scene typically Leah in the quarter version and the First Folio are conflated into one story and it is the one we most recognized today from the beginning of the play we learned that King Lear is elderly and wishes to retire from his royal duties with his court in session he divides his realm into three shares amongst his daughters and states their shares will be given based on how much affection they declare for him the eldest daughters named Goneril and Regan speak first and declare a few sentences about their intense love for their father for which they receive equal portions of his kingdom the third daughter Cordelia however is unable to formulate such words she tells her father that she loves him but cannot speak as fluently as Goneril and Regan due to this Leah believes she is ungrateful and therefore disinherits her and banishes her dividing her share amongst her sisters the Earl of Gloucester known simply as Gloucester and the Earl of Kent known simply as Kent see this as a foolish move on behalf of the King because there are always now split 50-50 between Goneril and Regan this puts their husband's the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cornwall at equal odds and potential contenders for war given they now own half the realm each a Kent haven't been a trusted adviser and friend of King Lear believes he is not being fair on Cordelia who could not muster up the words to speak of her love but Lea doesn't care he believes Kent speaks out of line for such defense of Cordelia and banishes him from the realm as Kent leaves Lea's summons to Duke of Burgundy and the King of France both of whom had proposed to marry Cordelia but upon learning that King Lear has disinherited her the Duke of Burgundy backs out of the marriage proposal the King of France however is more impressed by Cordelia's honesty and seems to fight her all the more attractive for it despite knowing that in marrying her he will receive none of Lea's role he agrees to marry Cordelia and takes her away to France we also see here the introduction of the main villain Edmund the illegitimate son of Gloucester who he introduces to Kent with Kent banished and Cordelia taken to France Lea tells his remaining daughters Goneril and Regan that he will live alternatively with them and their husbands he reserves himself one hundred Knights they will become his travelling companions and who will be supported fed and housed by both Goneril and Regan when he comes to visit Goneril and Regan agree but privately they revealed their disdain for having to house their father let alone his knights and reveal that their declarations of love were fake they no longer see their father as a king but more so a foolish old man Gloucester's illegitimate son Edmund the main villain of the play often receives his own moments with the audience similar to Yaga from Othello where he reveals his plans to us and how he intends to implement them he tells the audience that he resents being a bastard because he would never be heir to anything and it is something he deserves a hell of a lot more than his legitimate brother Edgar who he plots to get rid of Edmund forges a letter implicates his brother Edgar of planning the assumption of Gloucester's estate and ultimately gives it to Gloucester who falls for the letter entirely Edmund later finds his brother Edgar and tells him their father is outraged at something relating to him and an Edgar should lay low for a while and keep out of their father's sight Kent who was dismissed by Leia actually wants to come back he declares that he's loyal to the king despite having been thrown out by him and seeks to return to his service with Leah now staying at Guerrero's house with his a hundred Knights can put his own clan in motion he dons a disguise and goes by the name Caius and is able to worm his way back into Leah's employ as a servant after having chastised when I've gone rules trusted servants Oswald for having offended the king he actually trips over Oswald and so impressed by this show near hires Caius to join him none the wiser to who he actually is it's understood that Lear and his one hundred Knights become insufferable to gonoro she lectures lea about their presence declaring that they are unruly and savage and that he need not have so many in his entourage she demands that he reduce his party size enraged by his daughter's orders and unwilling to the diminishes retin-a by even one Lea denounces her and departs for Reagan's Home Instead amongst Lea is the character known as the fool and he seems to be the only one who gets away with undermining or downright insulting Lea as he proceeds to troll him telling him that he is foolish if he thinks Reagan will accept him any better than Goneril has meanwhile Edmund tricks his brother Edgar into fleeing from their home claiming at the Duke of Cornwall who has come to visit their family home is coming to kill him Edgar believes his brother speaks truly and so flees into the night Edmund then ended him self on purpose so as to appear as if there was a struggle reported to Gloucester Edmund tells his father that Edgar attacked him and with conjunction of the fake letter that promised to usurp him Gloucester labels Edgar an outlaw and the disa mises Edmund Kent arrives at Gloucester's home as well and seeks to bring a message from Lea that he has left goneril's house it now seeks to come and live with her but whilst here Kent runs into Oswald again the same stool of gonoro that he had pushed over and the to have another altercation however Ragan and Cornwall appear to break it up and seem to side with Oswald as Kent is put in the stocks and left there all night Lea arrives the next morning and is mortified at the mistreatment of Kent he berates Reagan for treating him this way but Reagan doesn't seem to care much she speaks to him the same way Goneril did and like the full predicted doesn't welcome him with any warmer reception ken is freed from his bonds but not before gonoro arrives to support her sister as they both essentially tell Lea he shouldn't expect anything from them but they won't wait on his disorderly nights and that he should start acting with more grace Elia goes the complete opposite way and marches off outside and into a storm here we see him rage against the gods with only the company of Kent and the fool one who tries to console him and the other pretty much there to say I told you so Kent need some food a storm and through the terrain where eventually they stumble upon the madman Tom a bedlam which actually happens to be Edgar in disguise Lea who is further descending into madness himself recognizes Tom a bedlam as a philosopher of great wisdom and he joins their sorrowful party as they wade through the storm toward shelter meanwhile Koster reveals that he thinks it is wrong that Lea is being treated this way by his daughters he tells Edmund he has word of a French invasion as landed in Britain and that under the orders of the King of France and Cordelia has been designed to reinstate Lea as king learning of this Edmund sees another opportunity to accelerate his master plan and betrays his father to Cornwall Regan and Goneril telling him that Gloucester has been conspiring with a French to take the realm back and give it to lea gonoro leaves with Edmund to inform her husband Albany of this news Gloucester is arrested by Reagan and Cornwall and under interrogation proceeded to gouge out his eyes sickened by this a servant strikes Cornwall and mortally wounds him Regan then kills the servant and reveals to Gloucester that it was Edmund who betrayed him no longer seeing him as a threat given that he has no eyes left she pushes him out of the door and into the wilderness meanwhile Edgar in his madmen disguise stumbles upon his blinded father in the wilderness Gloucester who is sightless fails to recognise his son and isn't able to place his voice it makes Edgar to lead into a cliff so that he might jump but Edgar leads him to a small mound and when Gloucester jumps he doesn't fall very far and of course survives Edgar pretends that Gloucester had survived the fall from the highest point and feigns astonishment claiming it to be a miracle meanwhile Goneril starts to find Edmund attractive more so than her husband Albany who she views as cowardly given that Albany has begun to feel bad about the whole situation with Lea he becomes disgusted by the way gonoro has treated her father and there and then denounces his wife goner will sends Edmund back to Reagan but after hearing about Cornwall's death that her sister no longer has a husband Goneril fears Regan might try to steal Edmund from her so she sends him a letter through a steward Oswald Kent is successful in leading layer to safety as he gets him into custody of the French army commanded by Cordelia who receives him with relief Lea still half-mad appears embarrassed and regretful over the way he had treated Cordelia and for his previous errors Regan procedures Albany to join forces with her against the French and we see her intercept Oswald learn of the letter sent by gonoro regarding Edmund and proceeds to confirm her sisters suspicions Regan too has a thing for Edmund and she convinces Oswald that she is a far better match for him Aswad goes looking for Edwin to pass on the message but happens to come across Edgar and Gloucester with who he has been tasked to kill by Regan in an attempt to complete his mission Maas who is slain by Edgar Edgar inspects Oswald's pockets and finds goneril's letter addressed to Edmund in which she encourages him to kill her husband Albany and to take her as his wife Greg and Goneril Albany and Edmund meet with their army where Albany insists that their armies fight the French by retrieve Lea and Cordelia alive we also learn that while the two sisters lust for Edmund Edmund has promised himself to birth and is now posed with the dilemma in this he begins to plot the deaths of Albany Lear and Cordelia Edgar stow in disguise approaches Albany and hands him the letter intended for Edmund that details the instructions bygone rule to kill him the combined forces of Albany and Regan crushed the French forces and both Lear and Cordelia are captured the British leaders me to discuss their victory where Regan announces that she will be marrying Edmund Albany steals her thunder though and reveals the letter handed to him by Edgar incriminates Edmund as a would-be assassin he declares Edmund the traitor it means to expose him for his devious plot II at this moment Regan falls ill and dies having been poisoned off-screen by her sister gonoro in an attempt to have Edmund for herself Albany continues to accuse Edmund but Edmund defends himself and intends to clear his name via a trial by combat it's here that a masked man appears an armour and presents himself as Edmunds Challenger they fight but the armored man mortally wounds Edmund and wins the trial in Albany's favor the armored man then takes off his mask and is none other than Edgar himself Albany then confronts gonoro with the letter that she had written to order Edmund to kill him but she frees from the scene Edgar reveals to Edmund that their father Gloucester has died and while we don't see this on screen Edgar notes that Gloucester's death came about out of shock when Edgar revealed who he really was meanwhile Goneril commits suicide offstage after realizing how plans were thwarted and her true love Edmond now lies bleeding out a dying Edwin chose to do at least one redeeming act though admits it is against his character he speaks of orders he had given to have Leah and Cordelia killed and Ed Edgar hurries he can stop it from happening Albany sends his men to counter Edmonds orders but they are too late Edwin dies and Lea enters the scene carrying Cordelia's corpse in his arms he explains that he himself had survived after he had killed his own executioner but that Cordelia was not so lucky Kent appears and Lea finally recognizes him though it brings him little relief with Cordelia now dead in his arms Albany urges Leah to retake the throne but it appears Leo becomes too overwhelmed with all that has taken place and he too dies where he stands Albany turns to Kent and Edgar and asks them to take charge of the realm alongside him but Ken declines and takes his leave in the quarto version it is Albany who assumes control over the realm but in the First Folio version it is implied that it is Edgar who becomes king believe or not King Leo is actually considered to be the main protagonist of the play despite the fact that his incessant lamenting zuv pity self-destructive behavior is what most of us remember about him he doesn't display any real heroics doesn't act nobly doesn't really do anything except push away those who loved him most and demonstrate the same tactics for attention that a child having a tantrum might he even runs off into the stormy night without his coat on if that doesn't scream attention-seeker then I don't know what does except maybe the way he Gordon a prances about with his a hundred Knights or makes a show about who will get his inheritance or who he'll live with literally everything he does requires the validation of another human being stooping his low in fact to seek the attention of one Tamil bedlam the alter ego of a crazed and naked Edgar the conditions which Leah's daughters have to earn their inheritance so what type of egomaniac we're dealing with here he doesn't award his kingdom based on his daughter's duty not even their age but instead over who can flatter him the most which of you shall we say doth love us most he asks that we are our largest bounty may extend here Leah doesn't come across as a king nor even a man of nobility he sinks to having his ego stroked by his own daughters no less which paints him out to be quite pathetic he's willing to give up his kingdom for proclamations of love and this makes me wonder how deprived this madness of affection we never see or hear about his wife the Queen and so perhaps this is a sign of how lonely leah is that he would do anything to feel appreciated by someone it would explain why he's so blind to the lives of Goneril and Regan and perhaps why he gets so defensive and hateful when Cordelia declares to him nothing my lord that she denies him of the flattery he so desperately craves causes him to respond in a most harsh manner exhaling out from the kingdom and his heart as he pulls her off to the King of France his anger is so toxic that he even gets rid of his loyal follower Kent who tries to defend Cordelia again we see a man who is more like a spoiled child who doesn't get his way the fact that Ken calls him out for his behavior wounds Leah's ego so badly that he banishes him to declaring turned I hated back upon our kingdom if one the next day following thy banished trunk be found in our dominions the moment is fight death away he's willing to kill one of his most devoted men simply because he disagrees with him showing us he's not open to criticism doesn't take resistance well and reacts to such encounters with the utmost immaturity it is this sort of hubris that causes Leah's downfall very Spanish king of his most loyal acquaintances in Kent and his daughter Cordelia leave him open to the scheming of his for shrewder and cunning daughters we see the theme of hubris used quite a lot in ancient Greek tales the idea of pride leading to one's downfall or pride going before fall as the saying goes Greek hero Bellerophon becomes so prideful he ascends to Olympus believing he belongs there only to be struck by his ooze and sent crashing back down to earth the same might be said of Leah who with such an abundance of fried refuses to be told no by anyone even when he's retired from the throne and lodging with his daughters darkness and Devils he tells Goneril after she calls him out for his gallant behavior in her home saddle my horses call my train together degenerate bastard I'll not trouble thee he's plainly in the wrong face disrespect of her residence and yet he still thinks he is in the right and that gonoro is a bad daughter for not enduring him his pride is such a reinforced element of him and he fails to even recognize the possibility that he's a bit of a dick it is hubris that carries lair down this stream of soft destruction and like the Greek heroes it eventually blows up in his face throughout the play we get to see how Leah adapts to transitioning from being a king to having relatively little power over anyone other than his unruly Knights we see him react with shock when people don't obey Him a prime example being goneril's servant Oswald who actually ignored Nia and brushes him off when Oswald is asked in act 1 scene for who Lia is he replies my lady's father too it sets layer off into a rage as he says my lady's father my Lords knave you horse and dog each slave you cur he then proceeds to strike Oswald all because he did not receive the answer he wanted at this point you might say that Lea is slipping further into madness he resorts to violence when he doesn't receive validation and evidently isn't used to being told no or being corrected he's not prepared for a life where he's not King I cannot deal with any of the scenarios where he's seemingly wronged without responding with an emotional outburst or straight-up violence when the storm breaks out and his daughter's birth stand against him desire to maintain his Knights he tells his daughters I will have such revenge upon you both that all the world shall I will do such things what they are yet I know not but they shall be the terrors of the earth and this is reminiscent to me of a child threatening to run away from home after being told no they can't have any more ice cream it is nothing more than an empty threat and everyone knows it Neera is too old and too much of an idiot to exact revenge on anyone and yet he's fused the words of such passion that it appears he actually believes in what he's saying and to think this all comes about because Lia can't get his way with his Knights interestingly the Knights aren't necessarily the problem here it's what the Knights represent they are a symbol of his fading power a final remnant of his once omnipotence as king a reminder of the man he once was by having them stripped away it leaves him in a runnable place a place he doesn't wish to go to because there he's no longer king and people like Oswald are able to disrespect him as they please they are not obliged to stroke his ego pay him flatteries or abide by anything he says and philia this is too scary of a reality to face lea intends even in a thick of the storm to be in charge of his destiny despite no longer being king he wishes to live on his own terms even if that means wandering the wilderness in the raging storm you might say that by retreating into the storm is a tactical move to furthermore protect his ego from being choose live away by his daughters he tells us neg 3 scene 4 thou thinkest is much that this contentious storm invades us to the skin so it is to thee but where the greater malady is fixed the lesser is scarce felt doubted son of bear but if I lay towards the raging sea thou dost meet the bear in the mouth when the minds free the body's delicate the tempest in my mind off from my senses take all feeling else what are you saying here is that while the storm might seem like a big deal to everyone else to him it is nothing because he is going through a worser storm in his head that he thinks his daughters have done him and that now he truly has nothing he adds that there is a storm in his mind and that this prevents him from feeling anything else meaning he can endure the cold and the wind and the rain far more than he can endure being undermined and disobeyed by his daughters and his former subjects his ego out here in the storm is therefore saved while he is soaked and battered by the winds no one amongst his current and limited company of Kent and the fool will disobey Him ironically here in these conditions no one can tell him no and here in the wilderness he maintains some element of control once more though we can see how prideful he is and how immature he is that he will not acquiesce to his daughters and would rather stay out in the rain fleeing into the storm is a no-brainer for him like the child who flees to his room or to Troon because he cannot face the reality what is happening around him despite his unlikable traits the audience are led to feel sympathy for Lea in a number of ways firstly after facing the harshness of the storm and the bitter reality that he is no longer a king Leo begins to empathize with those who are less fortunate than him the experiences of being poor begin to resonate with him as in the first time in his life he places himself in another person's shoes poor naked wretches where so are you are that by the pelting of this pitiless storm how shall your houseless heads and unfed slides your Luton windowed raggedness defend you from seasons such as these here leo recognizes the poor have it for harsher than he ever did and admits he did not do enough to protect those who needed it by experiencing pain himself Lia is able to see himself as a poor beggar as he begins to finally understand he's no longer king however you might also say that his sympathy for the poor only manifests because of his sympathy for himself but he is now one of them by the end of the play we finally see some redemption of alia who recovers from his spell of insanity and appears to be more humbled for it in acts 4 scene 7 where he awakens to Cordelia he tells her pray do not mock me I am a very foolish old man fourscore and upward not an hour more or less and to deal plainly I fear I am not in my perfect mind as can be seen he recognizes his own limitations and at last admits he is foolish and old something he never would have done in the first scenes of the play he understands he is not of perfect mind and could finally admit he is runnable and fallible he immediately becomes a different character no longer brash and childish with his interactions and no longer seeking of flattery and subservience in every encounter he appears to be wiser after his bout with insanity and seeks forgiveness from Cordelia even going as far as to admit he was wrong if you have poisoned for me I will drink it he tells her showing that he would do whatever it takes to repay her for the heard that he has caused in sending her away even in defeat Edmunds army Lea has high spirits and despite becoming a prisoner he doesn't lash out nor respond with heated emotion he submits entirely to Cordelia telling her in acts 5 scene 3 we two alone will sing like birds in the cage when thou dost ask me blessing our kneel down and ask of thee forgiveness what was once a man clinging to the last vestiges of his power in the form of his knights becomes a man who is content to be a prisoner with nothing more but his daughter by his side the saddest thing about this of course is right as Leah comes to realize the error in his ways in that all his pride and hubris pushed away the one daughter who truly loved him she too is ripped away from him the tragedy here of course is that hadn't Leah realized earlier that he could be content with just his daughter's love he could have been happy for the rest of his days instead he beholds a dead Cordelia in his arms I believe Kent sums up Leah's fate best in act 5 scene 3 as he states a fortune brag of two she loved and hated one of them we behold the fool while we see that leah suffers nothing in the way of bat.chat rebukes or anyone trying to disagree with him he does leave room for one character to essentially troll him throughout the entire plane whilst Cordelia and Leah are banished for what some might see as the slightest insubordination the fool gets a free pass it's a pretty cool parallel to the contemporary stigma of a full service in his recent times fools were hired to entertain royalty with songs dance and comedy but it was not uncommon for a fool to be beaten for making a mockery of the king or for causing offence the fool in Leah cruises through this expectation and not only mocks Leah to his face but does the one thing that Kent his most trusted ally attempts to do in telling Leah why he is wrong in fact while Kent aims to do this diplomatically the fool pretty much tells Leah he is a and at one point even offers Kent his own fools hat implying that Kent would be a fault in himself to follow one as stupid as Leah he even tells Leah to his face that he ought to get a cap himself from his daughters who have made a mockery of him as he states in act 1 scene 4 if I gave them all my living I'd keep my cockscombs myself there's mine beg another of thy daughters in response to this Leah does threatened to whip the fool in one of the only times he seems to reprimand him but the fool sees this as no more as an empty threat and goes on to point knee logic ality of having him whipped for speaking the truth he stays truth a dog that must stir kennel he must be whipped out when Lady Bracknell fire and stink and what he means by this is that it's foolish of Leah to have him whipped for speaking honestly when Goneril whose house they are in stands they're spouting false words we get to see the wisdom of the fall from his very first few lines and despite being a fool he demonstrates the chasm wide gap between his intellect and that of both Leah and Kent half more than thou ShoWest speak less than thou knowest learn less than thou owest write more than thou goest learn more than thou truest set less than their thirst leave thy drink and thy and keep in a door and thou shalt have more than two tens to a score this is the first song that the fool sings to Leah and appears to be a cautionary song about being humble about keeping to oneself about being weary of trusting others and about saving money given that this is Santa Lear it's possibly also hiding the full delivery of irony to Leah who has not been careful has not been humble and has not been wary of trusting to Kent though the song makes no sense for showing how smart the fool is that he even has Kent baffled the fool then calls back to Leah's own words to Cordelia possibly again a form of irony as he tells Kent you gave me nothing for it can you make no use of nothing nuncle Leah then confirms this without realising he's been quoted and possibly mocked saying why no boy nothing can be made of nothing the fourth disobedience and lack of regard for the LEAs threats become so common that it would appear that Lia simply doesn't bother at reminding him anymore he can only hope to question the fool as a form of rebuke saying things like dost thou call me a fool boy to which the fool Emily responds although other titles thou has given away that the house was born with meaning that the only title alia has right to claim haven't given away everything else is the title of fool the fool himself is a favour of mine not only because of how secretly smart he is but also because of how much of a savage he is thou madest thy daughters thy mother's he insults Lia implying that having given them his lands they have become like mothers to him completely in control of him and higher than him in rank I'd rather be any kind of thing than a fool yet I would not be thee he tells Lia show how much pity he has for the King and how he's glad he's not in the same predicament nor of the same foolish mind now thou art a zero without a figure I am better than thou art now I am a fool thou art nothing he continues and this all only in his first appearance in the play he not only destroys alia with these attacks but he does so calmly without seeming too personal it's as if he exists outside of Lea's corporeal world like a voice in his head telling him all the things he's unwilling to face or admit the voice he is powerless to stop perhaps one of the harshest lines that comes out from the fools mouth is one of the most honest when Lia demands to know who he is to make a point to Goneril the full answers your Lia shadow through this the full appears to give voice not only to his own observations but also the deeper and truer feelings of every other character including those who are too nice or too loyal to say anything inflammatory about the former King you might say it is what is most liked about the fool that he provides her a sort of social commentary throughout the play often touching upon our own thoughts and feelings towards the characters as he remains as much a spectator as we are but while the four had been keen to mock Lea in previous scenes he becomes far more compassionate in act three during the storm he even willingly enables a Lea's madness when he holds an imaginary trial for Regan and Goneril in the hut though being a rational man the fact that he goes along with this role play all to appease Leah shows us that the fool must value him that he pretends to be the judge in this fantasy courtroom just to satisfy his former king this unfortunately is the last time we see the fool perhaps because he realizes he can no longer serve a completely mad Lea who not only ignores reason I would probably ignore the fool stripes and irony even more as it would likely go over his head the thought becomes redundant to a magistrate and Lea and given I didn't listen to the fool when he was sane it would be hard to imagine he would listen to him now we learned by the end of the play that the fool was hanged and again we are shown the tragedy of Lea in his fullest as he realizes too late of his follies Cordelia along with the fool Cordelia shows us to be one of the most honest characters in the play while she doesn't actually appear for the majority of the play she is kept alive in the audience's mind by the other characters and their frequent mentions of her including her unfair dismissal and of course by Lea's constant elimination of how his daughters have wronged him it is Cordelia's banishment in the beginning of the play which sets up how he feel about the protagonist Lea and how we come to look unfavorably upon him because of his mistreatment of one so obviously honest her character is marked with integrity from the very beginning as we see her refuse to play the game her sisters do in Ryan to lea to obtain his riches and we empathize with her immediately by the way we become privy to her thoughts as she reveals her anxiety to speak of her feelings and thus gets us on her side we can't help but feel immediately drawn to her because it seems as if she confides in us her true feelings feelings she is seemingly unable to speak up to her own father then poor Cordelia she says in act 1 scene 1 when Lea first asks face daughters to declare their affection and yet not so since I am sure my love's more ponderous than my tongue meanwhile what is her tender declare her laughter Lea she simply tells him nothing my lord because she's unable to form her love into words and does not try to lie about it like her sisters did the King of France perceives her integrity and finds it most appealing he shares our high opinion of Cordelia and chooses to marry her despite knowing he will not receive any of liaison heritance as she is exiled whilst this is the last we see of Cordelia for a while we are pleased at her earnest behavior is met with the reward of a husband who seems honorable and honest himself in a way we are glad Cordelia is spared the unfolding tensions in the room that see Kent fired and the Reformation of gonorrhea and Reagan's disdain towards their father which foreshadowed the dramatic twists of the rest of the play that Cordelia is taken out of the scene so early gives us some hope based on her morals and love for Leah that she will return to save him at some point and through this she takes on the role as a rescuer and a much needed aide to Leah despite him not exactly deserving it still by act 4 where Cordelia does return she does not demonstrate a bitterness towards her father despite having every reason to you despite his madness she meets him with compassion and shows him the greatest concern as if he'd never wronged her in the first place in this leah realizes that Cordelia is the best of his three daughters and out of all of them it is certainly her who loves him the most like she tried to explain in act 1 you have begot me bred me loved me I returned those duties back as our right fit by this she proves herself right in there just because one might declare their love does not make it so but more so it is their actions that prove their truest feelings once more Cordelia is a beacon of hope as she proceeds to nurse Leah back to health and we hope he is able to find redemption as he admits his follies and begs her for forgiveness Cordelia's portrayal as a selfless beacon of hope makes her death more devastating for the audience and allows Leah's final act of revenge which is killing Cordelia's hangman to appear heroic adding further to his terrible and tragic downfall Leah's response to Cordelia's death finally restores his sense of good judgment for the audience and he is redeemed it appears he finally learns the value of true emotion and true love albeit moments too late and this makes the depth of his grief palpable we can see his passionate tirade exemplify this in acts 5 scene 3 when he unleashes upon all in attendance in the wake of Cordelia's death a plague upon you murderers traitors all I might have saved her now she's gone forever Cordelia Cordelia stay a little huh what is it thou sayest her voice was ever soft gentle and lo an excellent thing in a woman the fact that Cordelia is killed off at all has drawn a lot of controversy given as she is pretty much the only character that is entirely innocent and pure of heart she doesn't do anything to harm anyone and yet pays the ultimate price you might say that this happened so that Lia can fully grasp the reality of his actions and that her death serves as the final blow that sees him lose everything that he could have ever possibly cared about fact that Cordelia was Leah's favorite daughter combined with the fact that she is the only one who had his back in the end certainly makes her and her fade the true tragedy of this play Edmund the younger illegitimate son of Gloucester takes on the role as the main antagonist despite not having any contact with the protagonist Leah it wasn't a question who exactly is the main protagonist of the story given that there appears to be two very different stories running adjacently throughout the play leah struggle with his realm his mental health and his feeling of betrayal has very little to do with Edmund and likewise Edmunds ambition and eagerness to usurp his father has very little to do with Leah despite their roles as protagonist and antagonist they don't seem to acknowledge one another you might link an admin to the likes of Iago former fella in that both take their time to explain their plans to the audience both deceive and manipulate others as if they were mayor pieces on the chessboard and both ultimately get what they deserve unlike Iago though Edwin is not driven by a petty jealousy but instead ambition and the will to step up from his older brother shadow a brother who is favored because of his legitimacy we learned early on there Edwin seeks recognition and that his plot isn't established out of disdain for others but for a more selfish need that he has having been shunned and out cost of his heritage many look upon Edmunds motives favorably and see him as a heroic character yet he is the kind of underdog and one we sympathize with - having been forced to take a back seat all his life his plot isn't a thirst for power which would be typical of a villain but instead of rebellion against the zeitgeist that deemed him lesser because of his illegitimate see we can see his frustration early on in act 1 scene 2 where he tells us their nature are my goddess to thy law my services are bound wherefore should I stand in the plague of custom and permit the curiosity of nations to deprive me for the I am some twelve or fourteen moon shines lag of a brother why bastard wherefore base when my dimensions are as well compact my mind is generous and my shape as true through this he seeks to point out the unfairness in the way he is treated just because he is born out of wedlock he outlines that he doesn't lack the mental capacity physicality or any other aspect of life but still he is condemned as a bastard it becomes impossible for him to view his brother Edgar who is to inherit everything in a positive light and Edgar's inheritance could be the catalyst which sets Edwin on his path of wickedness we see how he comes to resent his brother and Edwin outlines this in the same monologue as he singles out Edgar saying well then legitimate Edgar I must have your land our father's love is to the bastard Edmund as to the legitimate fine word legitimate well my legitimate if this letter speed and my invention thrive Edmund the base shall top the legitimate I bro I prosper now gods stand up for bastards you noticed that he refers to him as legitimate Edgar the word legitimate used ironically so as to exemplify his point that he a mere bastard will ascend and topple his brother subverting the expectations of society itself he implies that he's that shrewd and that cunning that his plan will succeed even though the odds are certainly stacked against him his final line perhaps my favorite in the entire play shows Edmunds conviction and that while he's doing this primarily for himself he also keeps in mind every other illegitimate child in the world who suffers the same fate as he shouts now gods stand up for bastards he seeks to invoke the will of the gods furthermore suggesting that he will be unstoppable in his quest Oh Edmund is undoubtedly a liar and a bit of a snake in any turns Gloucester against Edgar has Edgar sent away under false pretenses and lies to pretty much everyone in order to further his own goals we see some light amongst the darkness of his character he acquiescence when defeated by Edmund in battle and States what you have charged me with that have I done and more much more the time will bring it out it is past and so am i through this we can see that Edmund realizes what he has done is wrong and he is remorseful for his harmful actions much like Lea they both appear to learn their lessons too late and is furthermore contributed to the tragedy of the entire story it's here at the close of the play that we also see Edmund realized that he was loved in spite of being a bastard he notes that he held the affections of both Goneril and Regan and by this we see that he's actually quite successful in stepping out of his role as a low-life whoreson given that he won the sentiments of two of the most powerful women in the realm he tells us yet Edmund was beloved the one the other poisoned for my sake and after slough herself his final moments see him make a u-turn in terms of his morality as he seeks to do one last good thing before his life ends it is something that is quite rare amongst Shakespearean villains just look at Claudius and Hamlet who goes through his evil plan all the way to the end or even Iago doesn't concede defeat even after his plan has been unraveled Edmond shows a more noble and humble side to him in his final moments before his demise as he seeks to save Leah and Cordelia from certain death it makes one wonder that admit all of Edmonds corrupt behavior and the immoral things he does that this stems not from an innate sense of villainy but instead from a frustrated and lonely part of him they just wanted to be as legitimate as his brother Edgar themes justice and karma King Lear is full of brutalities and tragic disasters some of which don't always appear to make much sense nor seem to be warranted things like Cordelia's death ghosts are losing his eyes and even the fool being supposedly hanged often seemed like too harsh allure punishment or perhaps straight-up ridiculous the chain of terrible events does raise the question of whether there is justice in the world of Leah and whether the characters actually reap what they sow due to the terrible nature of what before some of these characters it leads others to consider whether the idea of justice or Karma actually applies to this world and whether the characters are merely going through a series of unfortunate and random events as opposed to getting what they deserve we can see this in that good characters like Cordelia pay the ultimate price despite being mostly benign in nature and certainly not deserving of such a tragic end gosta whoo funnily enough gets his eyes gouged out yet another example of an overzealous punishment tells us as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods they kill us for their sport and this is one of his musings so there is no justice nor any real thing as karma and that we are all just merely playthings of the gods to do with as they please whether we deserve it or not it certainly pits the world of leah has been incongruent with the social and moral notions of justice that many hold on to the world roster comes to believe in is a bleak one one devoid of all color perhaps parallel to his own plight for he is no longer able to see but more optimistic characters like edgar insist at the end of the play the gods are just showing us that he does believe in some sort of moral order this may likely stem from the religious notions one may perceive about how the world works in that the gods serve as karma drinking with their judgment exactly that which someone has earned through this idea the gods cannot be wrong and so the punishments that the characters receive in Edgar's mind are totally warranted through this you might see the death of good characters like Cordelia as a mercy and not a tragedy in that going by a religious outlook Cordelia likely went to some eternal paradise by this we understand that there amongst the wickedness and madness into play there are also beacons of goodness though it is tricky to determine whether good triumphs over evil by the end we must also consider the extremities of the justice being served while we've spoken about Gloucester being a dick to his illegitimate son Edmund I can't say that this necessarily warrants having his eyes gouged out you might say that Cornwall was just in doing this because he believed that he was a traitor but why not just kill him Wyatt gouged his eyes out the justice delivered here I believe is far too extreme for such a crime and his perhaps more of a reflection of Cornwall and Regan and that their first thought of how to deal with Gloucester was to pluck out his eyes and send him out into the wilderness to wonder it leads us to question whether Lia deserved its fate he was a bit of a tyrant a heartless and foolish old man who made dumbass decisions but did he deserve to have to behold his dead daughter in his arms at the end you might say that this was the only way to get lia to really learn his lesson and for the morals of the tale to really sink through the layers of his ego but alternatively the fact that Lia died subsequently after this moment makes me wonder what was the point of learning this lesson for such a short time only to die all the same unless of course this lesson wasn't for Lia and was instead a lesson for the surviving characters like Edgar and Albany who would find themselves in the leadership role thereafter there's also a sense of political justice in the Edgar and Albany two of the most honourable characters end up rule in the king given their characters it is thought that their rule is a good one and that the realm continues to thrive with two well-intentioned figureheads at the helm we are left with the feeling that despite everything edgar in particular has gone through he gets rewarded for his valiant survival and gives us a sense that everything will be okay even in the wake of King Lia's death justice is served once more as we see edgar land a much higher position than he would have earned from glosses inheritance showing us that sometimes you just have to wade through the until you get to the gold reconciliation and forgiveness as we've discussed there is no shortage of darkness and misfortunes in King Lear and the devastating finale is a clear example of this the relationship between Lear and Cordelia resonates brightly by the end of the play for it stands for so much more than just the death of a beloved daughter but also a form of self-sacrificing love Cordelia's ability to forgive shows us how deep her love for our Father is but it is also the lesson in humility that Lea learns that allows the pair to truly reconcile her Lea becomes appreciative of her love and is mollified by unforgiveness through their reconciliation Lea is able to experience the death of what some might say is true love and not the past and flatteries of others that he had once mistaken for true affection with his ego in check Lea matures into a man who wants only to be his daughter's good books even if there has to be in a prison cell it is through this reunion that their love as father and daughter flourishes with Cordelia even nursing Lear back to health and this can be seen as something truly beautiful in a realm so engulfed by horror schemes and death interestingly Lea isn't the only father to be forgiven by his child when Gloucester is reunited with Edgar who he mistakes for the madman tamo bedlam Edgar has every reason to leave his father to wander blindly in the wilderness after all Gloucester had been influenced by Edmund it's a hating Edgar and mocking him as a criminal another person may have been riled and bitter towards their parent for being so gullible and condemning them to such a fate but Edgar doesn't even entertain these faults he even gives Gloucester hope in his moment of suicide telling his father after tricking him into thinking he'd left from a great height that therefore without happy father think that the clearest gods who make them honors of men's impossibilities have preserved thee and what he means by this is that the gods have saved his life and therefore must have some use for him yet despite his sightless condition and withering health he encourages his father not to kill himself and show some compassion went yet right to show him wrath the fact that father and son are able to reconcile is partly due to the maturity already developed in Edgar something Lea only learned by the end of the play Edgar though appears to be one of the more emotionally adept characters as he also forgives Edmund after their battle telling him let's exchange charity or let's put this behind us and forgive each other of course in fitting with the plays motif of death they are only able to reconcile in Edmunds dying moments showing us again that bittersweet interaction where two people make amends only for one to be tragically torn away lastly there is nihilism something that is littered throughout the play the nihilist rejects the idea of justice God religion and karma and asserts that life itself is meaningless something many of the characters begin to echo Lia tells us that when we are born we cry that we have come to this great stage of fools implying that the world and life itself is just a charade and endless performance of utter randomness Lia mostly in his state of madness presents the world as a bleak void one which is devoid of love and a mere shadow of that which we convinced ourselves to be true Gloucester has a similar feeling in his own state of madness telling us as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods they kill us for their sport implying that while there may be gods as mortals our lives are inconsequential and have as much value as flies to cruel boys a lot of the events in the play seem to adhere to this view of nihilism where bad things seem to happen for no apparent reason the plays tragic end is a good example of this given that except to show Lia how wrong he was about his daughter it offers no real lesson to anyone except maybe don't be an idiot and give away everything to your evil daughters I mean I guess there's some wisdom there in that we shouldn't take flattery as a form of true affection but the characters left alive seem to already know this and are left in despair at the death of both Cordelia and Lia through this you might say Cordelia dies for no reason heck half the characters die for no reason except to fit the plots tragic theme and narrative Gloucester even bites the dust' off-screen a seemingly senseless death that doesn't do his character justice given that he'd had his eyes gouged out perhaps it was a mercy but I for one expected a more triumphant end for the blind man The Fool appears to die again off-screen and for no particular reason except for being associated with Lia even Korn will get stabbed in the back by a side man who Shakespeare doesn't even assign a name to yet another random and unimaginative death you might say that Shakespeare was trying to convey the fragility of life and the fact that sometimes people die sometimes in da most ways like that kid from the left hand of God well maybe Shakespeare just wasn't that good at writing there I said it come at me but if you agree that nihilism is the way of life and nothing we do really matters then maybe you won't mind giving me monies yep the patreon push is upon us which signifies the end of this video so if you've enjoyed the journey then feel free to donate to the cause a simple dollar will go a long long long long way in helping me a quiet artwork so I can keep bringing you these videos as always don't forget to hit that like button and don't forget to subscribe otherwise I'll gouge your eyes out for absolutely no real reason and and then get stabbed by some random guy in the back and then my idiot wife will let you leave and then decide that she should have actually killed you and so sends her sister's man slave to kill you man this play was weird as

Channel: The Legends of Literature

Views: 45,066

Keywords: King Lear, Shakespeare, King Lear Explained, King Lear Analysis, King Lear Breakdown, Shakesperes Works, Legends of Literature, Legends of History

Id: 3sgGh5c32II

Length: 52min 28sec (3148 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020