King Lear Essay, Research Paper

No.1 King Lear In the play King Lear by William Shakespeare, we see that we determine our destiny and not the stars. We determine our destiny through the actions we undertake, our faults, our motivation, and the truth. Edmund, Goneril, and Regan are Machiavellian villains. They are motivated by power, wealth, and sex and because of this they turn into animals and self-destruct. Their actions determine their destiny. Lear and Gloucester s faults lead them to suffering where they become wiser and redeemed. Their actions are rash and full of pride, they die but at least with the forgiveness of their friends. Edgar, Kent and Cordelia stand for the truth and loyalty. Their actions are all for good but for Cordelia her destiny is not reflected by her actions. At the end of the play we see justice done where the evil are destroyed and most of the good live. Through these characters, Shakespeare teaches us about the good and the evil. Gloucester and Lear through their faults determine their destiny and they suffer for their actions. Lear and Gloucester gain insight through their suffering. Neither Lear nor Gloucester realizes he has committed an error until he has suffered as Lear admits, I did her wrong. Lear’s suffering is so intense that it drives him mad; it is when he is going mad that he fully realizes his mistake in giving the kingdom to his two savage daughters and disowning the one daughter who loves him. Lear made the great mistake in this play when he decided to divide his kingdom to his three daughters. In order to determine which share each should get, he questions, Which of you shall we say doth love us most? We can take this as a sign of an insecure man or a man with an ego which needs to be fed; this is one of his faults. Cordelia, the youngest, refused to go overboard with her statement. When asked for her testimony, she simply replied, Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty according to my bond, no more no less. Lear becomes enraged and casts her off saying, Here I disclaim all my paternal care, propinquity and property of blood, and as a stranger to my heart and me hold this from thee for ever. This is another fault of Lear, his rashness. The moment these actions take place, his destiny is determined. When Lear sees Poor Tom, he realises,Poor naked wretches, whereso er you are,That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,Your loop d and window d raggedness, defend youFrom seasons such as these? O, I have ta enToo little care of this!Lear recognises the poor and asks for forgiveness which leads to his redemption. As the play progresses Lear requires patience and humility, he is appalled by injustice and expresses indignation and remorse. Gloucester s fault is that he had an illegitimate child and this produced Edmund, the barstard. Edmund tricked him into believing that his brother, Edgar wanted to kill him and take his inheritance. He wrote a phoney letter, which implied all of this. Gloucester became outraged and gave all his trust to Edmund. He even declares, O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter. Abhorred villain, unnatural, detested, brutish villain. When Gloucester defies Goneril and Regan by offering Lear and his party shelter from the storm, Kent remarks, The gods reward your kindness. After this Gloucester has his eyes gouged out and is out cast by Goneril as she remarks cruelly, Let him smell his way to Dover. Like Lear out in the open Gloucester learns acceptance and endurance. Both Lear and Gloucester through their actions determined their destiny, but they become better men who ask for forgiveness from their friends. Three characters who are motivated by power, wealth and sex determine their destiny through their actions, and they are Goneril, Regan, and Edmund. They believe humans are what they are because of choices, they are Machiavellian villains. They turn into animals as they kill and betray other people but in the end, they self-destruct. Edmund recognizes his own evil nature and decides to use it to his advantage. He mocks the belief of any kind of supernatural or divine influence over one’s destiny as he states, This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, moon and stars . The actions Edmund undertakes to achieve his goal of power and wealth shows us that if he wants something he is not going to wait for the stars to give it to him. Edgar must go into hiding because of Edmund’s deception, and later Edmund betrays Gloucester himself, naming him a traitor, which results in Gloucester’s eyes being put out. Edmund feels not the slightest remorse for any of his actions. Edmund instructs his captain to take Lear and Cordelia away to prison and to kill them, and make it look like suicide. Obviously there is no limit to the depths of Edmund’s evil. We also see that Goneril and Regan believe that we control our destiny and not the stars. Their first action is to praise their father so they can gain his wealth and power, once this is done, they make their father suffer so much that he calls them detested kites. They turn into animals and then fight against each other for the love of Edmund. Their actions can only lead to self-destruction. Kent, Cordelia, and Edgar only speak the truth and through this, their actions are honest and only meant to do good. Their destiny s are also determined by their actions although their destiny s should then be happy ones. When Cordelia says nothing she is being honest and through her fathers rashness she is banished. In addition, in the heat of the moment Kent is banished for standing up for Cordelia. Edgar whose nature is so far from doing harms that he suspects none is deceived by his brother and so he has to become the lowest of all lowest men. Edgar is a character in the play that believes that evil is caused by humans and not the gods. Edgar said, The gods are just, and of our peasant vices make instruments to plague us. Edgar clearly says that the gods are right and it is the people, who are responsible for promoting evil in the world. We make the instruments necessary for evil to spread and plague the world. Cordelia helps her father, Kent helps his master, and Edgar helps his father all three are good hearted people whose destiny s should reflect their lives.

Both Gloucester s and Lear s destinys are death, deserving or not. Edmund tells Cornwall of the letter that Gloucester had. He says to himself, This courtesy forbid thee shall the Duke instantly know, and of that letter too. This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me that which my father loses-no less than all. The younger rises when the old doth fall. This treachery by Edmund ultimately leads to Gloucester having his eyes gauged out. Despite the efforts of Edgar to take care of him and restore his desire to live, Gloucester dies of a broken heart. Edgar explains, His flawed heart – Alack, too weak the conflict to support – twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, burst smilingly . Edgar ends up killing Edmund, which means that Gloucester’s folly resulted in the deaths of both he and Edmund. Lear dies with Cordelia in his arms. The moment Lear had violated the duties of his kingship his destiny was set, he had learnt too much too late. Both Gloucester and Lear die with more wisdom, through their suffering they became more wise and then asked for forgiveness for their actions. Justice has been done as both men die happily; Lear thinking Cordelia is still alive and Gloucester happy with the return of his son. The three wicked children are all destroyed by their superficially sane pursuit of self-interest. Edmund, Regan, and Goneril all die because of their actions. The two conspiring sisters, Goneril and Regan, fall into a state of intense mutual suspicion and end up plotting against one another. In the end, they killed each other with Goneril poisoning Regan and then seeing Edmund slain by his brother Goneril stabs herself. The only one who shows some compassion is Edmund who says, some good I mean to do, despite of mine own nature by this he reveals he ordered Cordelia s death albeit to late. The more power they got the more they wanted and this lead to self-destruction. If Edmund had not plotted against his brother his brother would not have killed him, consequently his actions determined his destiny. Edgar is the hero of the play, saving his father and teaching us the lessons of endurance and forbearance, in the belief, that while evil may triumph for a time and cause almost unbelievable and apparently inexplicable suffering, it carries within itself the seed of its own destruction and will untimely fail. Edgar s destiny is the kingdom just what he deserves. His actions were honest and caring and this led him to a position of great respect amongst other people. We see at the end of the play we see Kent commenting, I have a journey, sir, shortly to go. Kent is going off to kill himself, as he too is heartbroken that his master is dead. Kent was a loyal man who deserved better treatment from Lear than he got. The destiny of Cordelia is unjust as she in no way deserved to die. The Gentleman refers to the holy water from her heavenly eyes and on waking Lear describes her as a soul in bliss . We see no justice in her death yet Cordelia herself has already made the point that not merely is there no guarantee in this world that the virtuous will be rewarded but they may indeed find themselves experiencing utterly unmerited suffering, we are not the first, who, with best meaning, have incurr d the worst . At the end of the play brings the restoration of order and a sense of divine justice, as good prevails over evil, with Edgar striking the keynote of the play with his reassuring statement that The gods are just . God overthrows the evil he destroys the Cornwalls, the Gonerils, and the Regans: he is just. God chastens those who err but who can be regenerated the Lears, the Gloucesters and in mercy, he redeems them: he is just and merciful. The joy of reconciliation, between Cordelia and Lear, however short lived, was not an illusion: and its significance is not wholly eradicated by Cordelia s death. Although there is no just done in the death of the innocent Cordelia and by this God is showing us that sometimes the innocent get caught up in the actions of the evil. Thus, by the end of the play, the wheel has turned full circle and order has been restored. We determine our destiny through our actions and not the stars. Edmund, Goneril and Regan all were destroyed because they had turned into animals. Their greediness and evilness overtook them and caused them to self-destruct. Gloucester and Lear through suffering became wiser men after their actions had caused many people to die. They died after being redeemed by God. Kent, Edgar and Cordelia were the innocent ones with Cordelia dying after becoming entangled with evil.