The End of King Lear at the Hands of Woman - Essay Example

King Lear by William Shakespeare is about the King of Britain who is dying and before dying hands all his power to his two daughters Goneril and Regan on the basis of their love for him expressed in merely fake words. The third daughter does not get anything and is otherwise bashed by the King and sent away because she fails to find words to express her love for her father. King Lear is a political and family drama which consists of various themes that can be used to interpret the beliefs of Shakespeare and the representation of women in a way which is otherwise unexpected from them. Women in King Lear are mostly represented as negative and powerful which was not expected from them while class turns out to be a very important part of the society at that time. Gender and class are the two elements which turn the tables for King Lear and his family. The main presentation of how the gender roles have reversed is through the King’s decision to hand over his power to his two daughters. This theme can also represent the larger theme of the novel which tells how the King suffered and his kingdom declines due to his decision of trusting his daughters. The King is also seen very lazy enough to give away the authority and also the future of Britain to two unworthy women only on the basis of their love for their father. Hence, the King has forced the chaos and instability in the Kingdom that he successfully ruled for several years. As the play progresses, the audience gets to know how Goneril and Regan take their power for granted and flex their muscles because of which Britain is led into greater depths of cruelty and chaos. The fact that this is something wrong and unacceptable is symbolized through Act III in which the King is seen going mad due to the daughter’s betrayal but he also gives a speech which tells us that he is not actually insane (Shakespeare 257). In the beginning of the play, the kingship hierarchy was well presented and stable until the power went to the daughters who used the prestige and power that they had inherited. This reversal of gender roles is definitely negative for everyone who is concerned. Women are portrayed negative in the most part of the play due to the characters of Goneril and Regan. Their gender roles have reversed but it turns out to be a wrong decision made by the King. It also shows how power and greed can take away the love of children and make a person mad. Goneril gets half of the King’s lands and he immediately betrays him but doesn’t show until she is forced by Lear to wander in the nature as a homeless being exposed to the real world (Shakespeare 25). Both the daughters showed evil, disloyalty, and the reasons for all problems in this world. Regan, the other daughter, is more passive and she would oppose her father directly on her own. However, her role is seen corrupt when she gets men to do dirty work for her like in the scene with Regan, Cornwall, and Gloucester. King Lear was also seen having issues with women as his daughters betrayed him and he formed an internal grudge against women, specifically the sexuality that is seen at various occasions throughout the play. In a parallel world, the subplot of the play counters all negative feelings about the evil daughters. This subplot consists of Edmund, Edgar, and Earl of Gloucester. Edmund is the illegitimate son of Gloucester who abuses and bashes him often as he took his illegitimacy lightly and joked about it. Edmund lashes out against his father’s abuse and turns into the counterpart to Goneril and Regan as they both also become frustrated by their father for reasons which eventually drove them to take the decision of destroying their fathers (Shakespeare 32). This parallel between the two stories showing the lives of both families gives us the idea that women aren’t the only ones who are evil and able to betray their fathers. Even though they are evil and disloyal, it is not because they are women. Shakespeare clears this theme through the introduction of the parallel subplot where Edmund lashes against his father. The connotations and plans of the daughters are far more negative than those of Edmund who is simply using the bastard factor to gain some sympathy. There is no sympathy for the two daughters but the subplot tends to counterbalance the gender roles to a great extent. Another way through which the gender roles are skewed in the play is through the absence of the mothers. This is a unique factor which most of the audience wouldn’t even consider but the physical absence of mothers give out a big message. The play is about the family dynamics of two families but without a mother being involved in either family. The normal family relationships consist of mothers but in this play Shakespeare is giving us different messages. The major reason for this representation is that Shakespeare wanted to focus more on the relationship between the children and their fathers. The Shakespearean society, in which this play was written and had functioned at that time, was a patriarchal society where father was the head of the family, the strongest, the most influential, and the one who is always right member of the family. The father had many roles than just being a parent as he was the head and ruler of everything in the house. In this story, the roles of the daughters is dramatized and extended because of the fact that Lear was not just the head of the family but also the head of the nation. The absence of mothers also eliminated the possibility of the mother’s character scheming which is very common. By not including mothers, Shakespeare wanted to represent something important that how a normal stable family can turn into a chaotic family. Class influence was also seen as King Lear, once removed from his position and country, was just an insignificant person just like every other citizen was. It shows how the people with class and power can rule over everyone, even their fathers who were the past head of the nation. The class and gender roles can influence our interpretation of the play as we could look at it in a more feminist way on the strong and powerful roles of women that can overtake the patriarchal society. On the other hand, these gender and class roles display a negative aspect of the females and can be used to interpret that women are untrustworthy and disloyal. The characters that are most significant are King Lear, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. These women characters show how Shakespeare has influenced on the negativity of the females and their characters as strong and powerful. The acts in which this is shown is when both the daughters go against the King and he goes insane to a level that he decided to leave his kingdom and go away from the betrayals (Shakespeare 35). Then another scene shows how he expresses his rage and aggression for his life where he is facing torture and struggle as an ordinary, classless man (Shakespeare 259). Another scene is when Cordelia comes to save her father without him asking her for help and giving her life away for him. At the end of the story, he comes with Cordelia’s dead body and is so grieved and despaired that he kills himself (Shakespeare 280). Shakespeare lived in an era where women were considered as weak and suppressed. They had no say in the male-dominated society and were treated badly. As Shakespeare wrote this play he reversed the gender roles in the society that pre-existed. He wrote his play focusing on women of the society that how women caused the problems to the King and how women eventually saved him. This shows the dominance and power of women which Shakespeare wanted to display through his writing. He wanted to tell the people around him that women can be influential and powerful too. He did show a negative aspect of women in the shape of the two daughters Goneril and Regan but with the subplot of Edmund he counterbalanced the gender roles to show that women are not the only ones who can be evil or negative, men can be too. In personal and politics, the Shakespearean era talked about the dominance of men and their power but Shakespeare reversed these expected gender roles and displayed the strength of women. He also blurred the class hierarchy and its importance but at a larger theme it was evident that his era focused on the class and power of a person as the King was powerful and respected until he was in power and later even his servants weren’t with him and he wandered like an insignificant normal human. Work Cited Shakespeare William. King Lear. Read More