Shakespeares King Lear - Book Report/Review Example

Shakespeare’s King Lear King Lear is one of Shakespeare’s most horrific and tragic plays. Not only do we suffer the loss of Cordelia, an allegory for innocence and goodness, but Lear, at the very moment of his enlightenment, dies, never to reap the benefits of redemption. Our only solace, as a reader, comes from the knowledge that his lonely and painful journey from tyranny to compassion is complete. The play is about division at many levels and the quest for union. The kingdom, the family, Lear’s soul and sight and his reasoning are all divided and separated from their natural states, One imbalance leads to another and the world becomes a stage for chaos. Politically, Lear begins as a tyrant, divides his kingdom, which leads to his loss of kingship and then learns the true meaning of kingship as he embraces his humanity. As a father, he severs his natural bonds by misunderstanding the true meaning of familial duty and learns the meaning of unconditional love through the unadorned love of his youngest. As a man, he begins his journey isolated from those who love him and then regains his humanity while locked up in prison. Throughout the chaos, the poetry is ripe with imagery of sight. Lear begins the play with no insight, no ability for introspection and leaves the mortal world with eyes open and sight restored. The first act of King Lear identifies all the divisions. Lear expresses his “darker purposes” (Shakespeare 548), to divide his kingdom, ironically, in the hopes “that future strife May be prevented now” (Shakespeare 549). But, as we soon see, there can only be strife because there is an unnatural balance, a division of all things, which leads to chaos and then, as all begins to become reconciled and balanced, there emerges hope for a better future. It all stems from Lear’s inability to reconcile his will with reason. Dividing up his kingdom is his first serious mistake. He violates the law of nature at the highest level of order, that of the State. He thinks he can “…shake all cares and business from our age,” (Shakespeare 708) but still keep the superficial trappings of a king. Then he divides his family by acting as a tyrant. A tyrant sees no “otherness”. He sees the world only through his own eyes. He separated himself from the world and thereby has no understanding of what goes on around him. Lear banishes the two people, Cordelia and Kent, who love him because he sees love and daughters as a commodity. He then leaves evil to rule the kingdom. Lear is blind to the truth. When Kent asks him to reconsider, Lear says, “Out of my sight” and Kent responds, “See better Lear, and let me still remain the True blank of thine eye” (Shakespeare 555). Lear’s last words in 5.3 are ripe with images of sight which mirror his statements in Act I. “Mine eyes are not o’ the best, I’ll tell you straight” ( Shakespeare 780). Lear’s physical sight is waning but he now sees the truth because he has regained his reason, which allows him to see more clearly his duties as a father, a human being and a king. Lear looses his kingship, dignity, and family very quickly, Goneril and Reagan conspire to leave him defenseless. It seems that Shakepseare wants to get the details of the plot over very quickly so that he can concentrate on character development. Lear’s first stage of enlightenment or reconciliation comes during the storm, a powerful example of pathetic fallacy, into which his two daughters send him, saying “”Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest, And must needs taste his folly.” (Shakespeare 741). Good advice from an unlikely source. Lear must go through the storm of self-discovery if he is to reconcile himself with reasoning and integrity. Gloucester’s blinding signals a moment of greatest pain. The crisis of madness that Lear has unleashed in his kingdom. And then there’s a turning point. The storm symbolizes the cathartic moment between chaos and the beginnings of a reconstruction. Not until Lear is physically striped of all his royal markings, does he begin to understand that a real king is not identified by his crowns and servants but by his will to maintain the balance of order in all facets of life, not just the kingdom. “ My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That’s sorry yet for thee.” ( Shakespeare 744) Lear’s “wits” indeed are beginning to turn. He, has, perhaps for the first time, shown compassion for someone. His protective armor of tyranny is breaking and this connects him with his humanity. Shakespeare sets the moments of enlightenment in nature and the barbaric acts of humans within the walls of the kingdom. The storm scene and Gloucester’s attempted suicide scene are both powerful moments of self-discovery for Lear, deliberately set in the self-balancing backdrop of nature. As Lear comes closer to understanding his own nature, as a human being, we as readers, understand the precarious balance of natural and unnatural in both humanity and nature. Lear’s transformation is complete in Act 4.7 when he wakes up to soothing music and talks to Cordelia. He doesn’t recognize himself, or his surroundings, an allegorical reference to his rebirth. He is not who he was. He now wants to “deal plainly” . I fear I am not in my perfect mind. Methinks I should know you, and know this man; Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant What place this is; and all the skill I have Remembers not these garments; nor I know not Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me; For, as I am a man, I think this lady To be my child Cordelia.” (Shakespeare 770). As Lear now is a man, reconciled with humanity, so he is able to see his daughter, who from the very beginning understood the natural bond between father and child. She refused to adorn her love with empty rhetoric. Lear is indeed not in his perfect mind. he sees perfect as something he once had. Ironically, his mind is now more whole than it ever was before. He has reconciled will with reason, father with daughter, his humanity or soul with his mind, and, there is hope that Albany will bring order to the fractured kingdom. Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Shakespeare Tragedies New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. Read More