King Lears Personal Journey and Self-realization Defines Tragedy - Coursework Example

?King Lear’s Personal Journey and Self-realization Defines Tragedy William Shakespeare, one of the greatest playwrights in history, captivates his audience using different genres, the most popular one being tragedy. A tragedy is defined as a kind of literature that evokes the “emotions of pity and fear” in the minds of the readers (Tragedy, 2009). Tragedy relates to various struggles in the life of a common man and this is what helps the audience to connect with tragic plays. Humans are bound to make mistakes and this fact is only restated through the tragedies that the characters of the plays have to go through. It can be seen that Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ becomes a very good example of tragedy, as it narrates the downfall of a king robbed of his title of nobility due to the elements of fate, evil forces acting against him, but most importantly his own tragic flaws or hamartia. In the beginning of ‘King Lear,’ the king is shown to propose division of his kingdom among the three daughters, where he says that the “largest bounty” will be given to the one who “shall we say doth love (him) most” (Shakespeare, Act 1, 2005). The king is actually shrugging of his responsibility, as he wants to live the rest of his days “unburthen'd” (Shakespeare, Act 1, 2005). Following the question, both of his daughters Goneril and Regan praise him as much as they can and he falls prey to their flattery. After hearing their answers, he expects an even better one from Cordelia, but to his astonishment and dismay, she says that she only loves him like a daughter is supposed to love her father. This makes him rage up with fury and he decides to banish Cordelia. He fails to understand reality and goes for what appears on the surface. He lacks reasoning, as the thought of why his daughters praised him so much, during that time, never occurred to him. He did not even realize that Cordelia was true to him and could simply not “heave her heart into her mouth” (Shakespeare, Act 1, 2005). The king later tells her that it was better if she “hadst not been born than not to have ‘pleased’ (him) better” (Shakespeare, Act 1, 2005). The use of the word ‘pleased’ itself is a proof of his character of analyzing things superficially and this is what forces him to make the wrong decisions, and here, the banishment of Cordelia. This over here is not just a mere mistake, it is a tragic error, as this decision in the first place is what entails the tragedy later. He fails to judiciously evaluate the reason behind each of his daughter’s answer. The King of France, however, unlike King of Burgundy, decides to marry Cordelia even though she does not have a single penny in her name to offer as dowry. This decision emerges out of his understanding of Cordelia and her true virtue. King Lear still goes forward with the decision of her banishment. The audience is exposed to his “poor judgment,” as Goneril calls it (Shakespeare, Act 1, 2005). It was also decided that King Lear would take turns and stay with Goneril and Regan for a month each. But he soon finds drastic changes in his daughter’s as well as son in laws’ behaviors, as they literally start showing that they do not want him to live with them or even visit them. When he visits his daughters at Gloucester’s castle, they end up arguing to him even more and do not call him in when he leaves in the storm. Their cruel behavior and “repeated attempts to strip him of his knights and his dignity” force his eyes open to the reality (Elliot $ Gandhi, 1997). Both the daughters scheme against him and want to put an end to any influence that he may have, so they ask him what need he has for so many men when there are “twice so many (who) have command on” him (Shakespeare, Act 2, 2005). The daughters do not understand that their father’s attendants are more than just people who serve him. They are ignorant to the king even when he says that it is not his need but keeping the attendants is what distinguishes as a human, as he is not just confining his reasons to basic needs. They discard him just as he disowned Cordelia and it dawns on him how foolish he had been in his decision. He reflects and starts regretting not heeding to the Fool’s warnings as well, telling him that he “shall go mad” (Shakespeare, Act 2, 2005). With no place to stay or go to, King Lear has no option but to leave. The audience feels pity on the king as he is not only disrobed off his authority, which is his own undoing, but also betrayed by the ones whom he thought to be loyal to him. He loses the ones who truly loved him such as Cordelia as well as Kent, who was his most loyal friend but was banished for taking Cordelia’s stance of not praising him. Therefore, he is isolated at this point of time and the audience can relate to his grief stricken heart. He evaluates his unwise decision and realizes how his hubris got in the way. His pride remains shattered now and without that pride as a shield he is left to fend for himself. He is now exposed to the truth and with it his daughter’s cruelty. The audience now has the fear of what would happen to him next, as they are aware of his elder daughters scheming against him and wanting to get rid of him. King Lear is then determined not to cry, not to break down. He decides that he would take revenge, but not weep. He develops a sort of taste for revenge and says that he would “punish home,” as in meaning to express his vengeance on Goneril and Regan as well as their husbands (Shakespeare, Act 3, 2005). William Shakespeare makes use of the episodic dramatic form in ‘King Lear,’ including elements of different places, various characters, subplot as well as juxtaposition. The story takes place in Britain, but also extends to France, when Cordelia leaves to France with the Prince. The subplot is the story of Gloucester, who suffers from family problems just like King Lear, and fails to understand which of his sons truly loves him. The main plot here is the betrayal of King Lear by his daughters Goneril and Regan, whereas the subplot is the betrayal of Gloucester by his illegitimate son Edmund. Both of them foolishly believe in the wrong child and are blinded by their pretence love. Shakespeare also makes use of juxtaposition, represented in terms of comparison and contrast between reality and appearance, chaos and order etc. The love and loyalty of Cordelia, Edgar, Kent as well as the Fool represent the reality and truth. On the other hand, Goneril and Regan only appear to be loyal to King Lear as well as their husbands, while they are actually allied with Edmund in scheming against the king and also Gloucester. Chaos is represented mainly through madness and betrayal among others, whereas order is portrayed through sanity and loyalty. In Tennessee William’s tragedy, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche is the protagonist, whose life turns into a tragedy just as King Lear’s. Blanche Dubois is a high school English teacher, who is around thirty years old. She has lost her family property ‘Belle Reve,’ and has gone to stay with her sister, Stella. Blanche’s downfall also begins with her own flaw just like King Lear. Her flaw is characterized mostly by her inability to control her desperate desire for sexual pleasure. Just like King Lear is unaware of the reality, same way Blanche is also not aware of the reality. In the former case, reality is covered by the deeds of others and the lack of its awareness is due to the way others portray and make themselves appear. However, in the latter, the reality is hidden under the imagination of the protagonist, Blanche. She starts to ignore reality and lives in a fantasy world where she can ignore the truth as well as her past, and live with a kind of new identity. Both the characters encounter a point where they go mad. King Lear experiences insanity when his beloved daughter Cordelia and the Fool are dead, whereas Blanche literally turns completely mental in the end of the story and is taken to the insane asylum. Both characters have lost people close to their heart, in Blanche’s case, her homosexual husband. In both the stories, tragedy is exemplified in a lot of ways. King Lear’s story is a tragedy in the way that it starts with his hamartia of being unreasonable and his tragic error of banishing the one who was truly loyal to him as well as blindly believing the ones who were plotting against him. When the truth slowly unravels in front of him, he is shown to be isolated. This isolation instills in him a feeling of revenge, though he does not take any revenge as such. He learns of everything around him and mostly himself. He realizes how frustrated and angry he was when his favorite daughter, Cordelia was not able to weave her love into words and flatter him. He reaches a state of insanity when he loses his daughter and his jester, the Fool to death all due to his hubris as well as poor judgment. In the end, due to the mounting intensity of grief, he dies. The cathartic element here is expressed through the deaths of antagonists like Edmund, Goneril and Regan, whose evil deeds come to an end along with the play’s ending, giving some relief to the audience despite various tragic events. Catharsis in King Lear exposes the readers to a ray of light in the eternal darkness of the tragedy that unfolds at various levels throughout the play. Like any tragedy, King Lear’s tale encompasses tragic flaws, tragic errors, loss, isolation, revenge, madness etc. Therefore, it becomes clear that King Lear’s personal journey and self-realization define tragedy. Reference List Tragedy. Department of English, Lilia Melani. Available at [Accessed on 03 November 2012]. Shakespeare, William (2005). Play Script: King Lear. Available at [Accessed on 03 November 2012]. Elliot, Andrea & Gandhi, Mahvash (1997). Elizabethan England: Shakespeare’s Tragedies. Available at [Accessed on 03 November 2012]. Read More