King Lear and White Devil: A Comparison of their Corruption - Coursework Example

? King Lear and White Devil: A Comparison of their Corruption King Lear and White Devil: A Comparison of their Corruption There are many pieces of literature that are held as valuable and given the honor of being called a classic. Many of them were composed by very noteworthy authors who have given the world a gift in the form of a library of astonishing works which display the genius and the wisdom of the authors who wrote them. Two titles that have fallen into the category of the classics include King Lear by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and White Devil by John Webster (1580-1625). Both of these tales inspires the reader to think as they read them. An insight into them both will reveal some great and important themes such as spirituality, class, romance, and corruption. When speaking of King Lear, it has been said it “is a wrenching, profound, and very poetic tragedy, set in the pre-Norman, quasi-mythical period of British history” (Shakespeare’s King Lear, 2005). In a critical analysis of White Devil, it has been noted that it is “a dramatic reflection of the crisis which brought about a new consciousness of life and death” (Fernandez, 1996). This paper will focus on the corruption that is presented in both of these classics. In particular, the political and societal parts of the corruption will be discussed. It can be discovered that there are commonalities in both of these literary works in regards to their corruption themes and that such themes can help to illuminate some aspects of the nature of society and political structure. The focus of King Lear revolves around King Lear himself, who has aged and realized that the time has come that he must step down from the throne. This realization causes him to face a challenge; deciding who is going to succeed him. King Lear has three daughters that all serve as candidates for the crown. In order to make his decision easier, he chooses to put them all to a test. The three daughters of King Lear are Cordelia, Goneril and Regan. Lear designs the method by which he will award the crown based on love. Whichever of his daughters that will declare their love for him will get a portion of his kingdom. However, in a search for their sincerity, the king does not reveal this criterion to them. Yet, Lear’s two oldest daughters has this plan all figured out. When the king asks them, Goneril and Regan both flatter their father with adoration. For example, in reply to his questioning Goneril answers, “Sir, I lave you more than words can wield the matter; Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty; Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; As much as child e’er lov’d, or father found; A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable. Beyond all manner of so much I love you” (Shakespeare,1606). The king, however, does not detect their insincerity and grants them both portions. Cordelia, the youngest daughter, loses out on her portion because she made no such claims when the king asked for her expressions of love, but did the thing she thought was wise and said nothing. Although Cordelia’s intentions were to express her overwhelming love for her father by a lack of words, her response, or rather the lack thereof, causes her father to go into a rage of fury. Misinterpreting her reply, he denies Cordelia her portion of the kingdom and divides it between the husbands of Goneril and Regan. Cordelia becomes disowned by Lear and leaves for France to marry the king that resides over that land. However, through the course of events through the tale, all three daughters are killed, and Lear dies out of grief. King Lear is a very tragic tale. At first look, some criticism may arise in the mind of the readers for the parenting skills of Lear. After all, should not a father know his children better? King Lear may be a king, but he does not appear to be a very wise one. His two oldest daughters were only saying what they knew he wanted to hear. One would think that a king would have a better ability to discern those around him. It was wrong of Lear to disown Cordelia who, as he later discovered, had a better love for him than his other daughters. However, none of them were fated to rule any portion of the throne. While a great criticism can be given on the actions of many of the main characters in this play, the fact of the matter is that their story is not odd in comparison to the occurrences within real-life kingdoms. Shakespeare, in his genus simply served to teach a lesson and bring light to situations such as this. White Devil is a story woven in complexity with the cords of lust, revenge, adultery, injustice and murder. The play surrounds a cast of characters that can be described as anything but morally upstanding. In the play, Vittoria Corombona, the daughter of a poor but noble family, becomes the focus of lust for the Duke of Brachiano who just so happens to be married. Vittoria’s brother Flamineo, who is serving as Brachiano’s secretary sees the Count’s lust as an opportunity for personal advancement. He devises a scheme to get the Count and his sister together. Vittoria just so happened to be married as well. Her husband’s name is Camillo. The marriages of the Duke and Vittoria gain no respect from Flamineo, who arranges to have both of their spouses killed in order to unite the two as a couple. However, Vittoria is convicted for the murder of her husband and gets locked away. Meanwhile there is a Count Lodovico who had been banished from Rome for crimes of his own. This count had been secretly in love with the Duke’s wife, Isabella. The Count gets to return to Rome. He takes up a vow of revenge for the murder of Isabella. Eventually Vittoria and Brachiano do get married, but they get excommunicated by Cardinal Monticelso, who is elected pope. At the end of the play, Brachiano is dead from poisoning. Flamineo and Vittoria get killed by Count Lodovico and Gasparo. This is a play so twisted with corruption that it is often difficult to keep track of all the characters and their doings. White Devil is a tragedy that can be found very entertaining even in this modern time. Even today there are people whose lives are every bit as complicated as those of the characters in this tale. These are the kind of people that others love to talk about. Even though this play was a failure at its premiere, the plot is one that desires notoriety. One can only hope that no such things will appear in their own lives. This tale shows just how dangerous lust can be. Both of these two tales feature various types of corruption. Both King Lear and White Devil feature not only political and social corruption, but moral corruption as well. For example, the political corruption in King Lear is in how his two oldest daughters put on false acts in order to gain power and the fact that the ruler of a land can be chosen by flattery. In White Devil, corruption that has to do with political and social issues has to be Vittoria’s brother scheming and committing murder in order to get a promotion. The moral corruption in the tale is the adultery and lust committed by the Duke. A look into the corruption presented in these two tales can give some insight into the very nature of the relationship between political structure and corruption in society that may be applicable even now. Goneril and Regan were not being sincere when they flattered their father. They did not love him as much as they claimed. Cordelia loved him much more than they did even though she did not say so. However, Goneril and Regan had a motivation that is often common to heirs; money and power. They wanted the goods for themselves and they were not going to lose it my telling the absolute truth. They should be given credit for being able to tell that is was this lie that was going to win them the kingdom. These two are a prime example of the corruption present within the tale, but they are not the only characters that displayed this element of character. Even the would be innocent victim Cordelia displayed some corruption in her character. At one point in the play she embarrass her teacher, taking advantage of the position that she has in society. Some corruption was also displayed in the side tale about Edmand and his father. Being born a bastard, his hunt for power drove him to destroy the relationship that Lord Gloucester, his father, had with his full son. It was this same greed for gain that caused Edmand to chase after King Lear’s daughters. He did not really want them, he wanted the money and power that he would be privy to by being married to one of them. The great many occurrences of corruption in White Devil are not as easily summarized as those in King Lear. There is corruption leaping from almost every page of this tale. The adultery that happened between Vittoria and Brachiano is definitely an example of moral corruption. However, there is also the corruption of Vittoria’s brother who sees the murder of two people as a great way to earn advancement. Also, there is the corruption in Count Lodovico who seeks out bloody revenge and Francisco, a state representative who uses the Count for his own vengeful purposes. Then, there is the Pope, Monticelso, who uses his authority to get revenge. Possibly, the Pope’s revenge may be considered the most corrupt because of the fact that he is a religious leader. Although both of these tales include instances of lust and adultery, what will now be illuminated is the corruption in both of these tales from a political and social perspective. Of all the characters in these tales the ones that most closely complement each other in the given theme are King Lear’s two older daughters and Vittoria’s brother. In both tales, these characters do dishonest things in order to gain money and power. These characters are both working to manipulate men of power that they might obtain some benefits from them. As well, these characters are using love as a way of manipulation. While love is not often considered in the arena of politics, it is often used in the background to affect politics. Even though the case of Vittoria’s brother had less to do with politics than the case of Lear’s daughters, in both cases the person doing the manipulation would have increased in authority over someone who was considered less than the position to which they would have been promoted. In this analysis, power and politics are synonymous. Vittoria’s brother would have had more influence where he worked. Increasing in power, he would have had more authority. Nevertheless, the methods that he used to gain that authority suggest that he would not have made a good leader. In these two tales, the political corruption seems to have come from the way in which the society was organized. In both of these tales there are elites to which one must go for advancement. The advancement did not come from one’s own diligence and hard work, but by the favor of those that rule. These tales bring to light issues with such a political system. The characters that were corrupt seemed to be so because they saw no other way by which they may obtain advancement. After all, Lear did not look to see which of his daughters was the hardest worker; he only wanted to be pleased by them. His decision was based on his own personal favor upon them. In such cases people tend to put on a false exterior in order to impress the elite. Possibly, this is one of the lessons that both authors had in mind for their readers. References Fernandez, J. (1996) The Jacobean Radical Picture of the White Devil. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 9:53-61. Shakespeare’s King Lear (2005)SMART. Retrieved online 24 Sept 2011 from http://www.bju.edu/events/fine-arts/cod/archive/king-lear/lear-smart.pdf Shakespeare, W. (1606) The Tragedy of King Lear. Renascence Editions. Web. Retrieved online 24 Sept 2011 from https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/862/lear.pdf?sequence=1 Read More