The Concept of Art in King Lear - Essay Example

25 September 2007 Art is essentially serious and beneficial, a game played against chaos and death Throughout the history, art plays an important role in life of ordinary people determining their preferences and tastes, reflecting cultural values and traditions. Identifying art is a pressing issue; one could no longer suppose that there is a tacit or implicit cultural understanding ready-to-hand and non-Western art hailed from other cultures, with potentially different prevailing assumptions, anyway (Eldridge 27). The importance of art is that it influences emotions of people and is able to create positive or negative feelings and thoughts. King Lear by Shakespeare is one of the plays which demonstrate impact of art on people, their thoughts, emotions and actions. King Lear reflects philosophical trends and world views as the social and political foundations of society. Thesis Art helps the main characters to find the truth, understanding the meaning of friendship and love, and resist chaos and evil. In King Lear, the concept of art is based on binary opposition; good - evil, life – death, chaos – order. Using his techniques, Shakespeare ‘teaches’ the audience about good and bad, virtues and sins, social and immoral behavior. For instance, actions of Duke of Cornwall and Regan depict low morals of people who act in their own interests only forgetting about human virtues and goodness. Regan sarcastically comments: “Which the most precious square of sense possesses, / And find I am alone felicitate / In your dear Highness love” (Shakespeare 1999). Using binary opposition of good and evil, Shakespeare unveils consequences of selfishness and egoism, aggressiveness and low personal values of people. In opposition to Regan and Goneril, Shakespeare creates a character of Cordelia a loving and sympathetic daughter. The nonsensical action caused sufferings for many innocent people because of dishonor, falsehood, low moral values ‘preached’ by the society. Evil and sins ruin happiness and art seeing as a constructive force of happiness and love. In contras to her sisters Cordelia truly loves her father and cares about him: “O dear father, / It is thy business that I go about” (Shakespeare 1999). Without this opposition, the audience would be unable to see the differences and contrasts between good and evil nature. Following Eldridge (2003): “conceptual art are “at the service of the mind” in that they are intended to set up in an audience a line of thinking about a subject matter. Most literary works clearly undertake to describe an action, situation, or event” (25). These contrasts and oppositions help Shakespeare to create a story conflict and draw attention to contrasting elements and personal traits. For instance, Earl of Gloucester is a foil of King Lear who commits the same faults as Lear. For while deploying descriptive detail in the conventional realistic way to build up a rich and convincing impression of Earl of Gloucester and the world he creates, Shakespeare uses realism. In contrast to King Lear, Gloucester is not so powerful and stubborn. Gloucester says: “I desird their leave that I might pity him, they took from / me the use of mine own house, chargd me on pain of perpetual/ displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor sny / way sustain him” (Shakespeare 1999). Shakespeare compares and contrasts both rulers who suffer the burdens of rule. It is important to note that identifying something as art, then, is indispensable to artistic practices. That something is art signals how and even whether readers are to respond to it interpretively, aesthetically, and appreciatively. King Lear demonstrates that art is an important part of life because it leads to self-knowledge and self-development. What is particularly interesting in the plot of King Lear is its exceptionally broad psychological and sociological scope, involving characters from practically all bands of the dynamic spectrum and social classes. Eldridge (2003) comments: “A work depicts a particular actual object if in authorized games [of imagining or making-believe] it is fictional [i.e. part of the game] that that object is what the viewer sees” (35). In King Lear, it appears that the imbalance is found in the development of characters and their personal traits which offers a wide picture of society. The art can lead to self-knowledge through teaching and learning, self-assessment and evaluation of human actions. For instance, Edgar comments: “Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, / Am pregnant to good pity” (Shakespeare 1999). Cordelia is another character who is searching for self-knowledge and envelopment. She comments: “If for I want that glib and oily art / To speak and purpose not, since what I well intend” (Shakespeare 1999). The plays emotional range, intensity, and extremity are nowhere better exemplified than in the figure of Lear whose static heroic character provides a psychological link between the opportunists and idealists. As a static character Lear also dramatically bridges the world of civilization associated with the self-knowledge and with the realm of wild nature. Lear comments: 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 Thats sorry yet for thee (Shakespeare 1999). The diminished importance of external circumstances increases the importance of internal causes of behavior, turning Lear’s tragedy into one of character rather than that of situation. Chaos is a destroying force which ruins love, friendship and human relations, thus art is a constructive force which gives hope and optimism. Far from being "absurd” Lear’s initial intentions and arrangements regarding his retirement and the division of the kingdom appear logical, legal, and practical, and given his static character also psychologically inevitable. Following Eldridge (2003) ‘in looking at the representer continuously and with attention to different aspects of it, one takes oneself, in the game, to get more information about what is represented” (35). ‘The art’ in King Lear is to overcome chaos and construct social order even if this order can be interpreted differently by different characters. For instance, at his age Lear feels he has the right to be relieved of the burden of his political duties, but as a responsible man he wants to ensure a peaceful transition of power and its equitable distribution The stability of Lear’s mind depends on even the slightest confirmation that the old order and the traditional values that he takes so much for granted still apply. Lear says: I will have such revenges on you both That all the world shall- I will do such things- What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be The terrors of the earth! You think Ill weep (Shakespeare 1999) Confronted with contrary evidence, Lear is stunned with incredulity, explodes with righteous fury, or on occasion tries to keep his mental balance through self-deception, as when he naively accepts for a moment that Regan and Cornwall must indeed be sick if they cannot see him. But the mounting evidence of disrespect cannot be mentally suppressed, nor will Lear’s sense of honesty permit him for long to delay confronting the truth. After the renunciation of Goneril for snubbing her father and degrading him by a reduction of his retinue from a hundred t fifty, Lear has no choice but to turn to Regan in the last glimmer of self-deluding hope to find respect and to preserve the status quo, which his static mind needs desperately to hold its balance. At this stage, however, it is obvious for the audience except Lear that his hope of finding the last daughter "kind and comfortable [i.e., comforting]” (Shakespeare 1999) is more than illusory and vain. Hence the deepening sense of Lear’s mental isolation from those around him and his premonitory fear of psychological disintegration: O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! I / would not be mad. / Keep me in temper, I would not be mad” (Shakespeare 1999). For Lear, it becomes a kind of ‘a game’ which helps him to understand the truth of life and meaning of love and honesty. Before Lear finally breaks down and his mental crisis turns into mental chaos, his self-degradation before Regan is intensified by a concerted bullying by the two daughters, now acting together. Their combined attack effectively destroys Lear’s last shreds of hope and illusion that he still holds any power and that something still depends on him. In sum, King Lear demonstrates that art is a game played against the death and chaos, which leads to self-knowledge and self-development. It is important to disclose the eternal nature of art: it is opposition to chaos and death. Art is explained as a constructive force which helps the characters to oppose evil and chaos. What is realistic about this developmental pattern is the characters’ progression through the consecutive and dynamic stages of psychological growth. Art is portrayed as a game with certain rules and procedures. In other words, an artwork is generated by playing by the required rules and procedures. These social rules are the factors that make art possible. The relation of the art to the rules is not a manifest property of the artwork—a viewer/reader cannot look at it by concentrating on the object in isolation; it is a function of the social context into which the art is inserted. In King Lear, contrasts and oppositions between good and evil, chaos and order, honesty and dishonesty can be interpreted as art. Works Cited 1. Eldridge, R. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art. Cambridge University Press, 2003. 2. Shakespeare, W. Ling Lear. 1999. Read More

These contrasts and oppositions help Shakespeare to create a story conflict and draw attention to contrasting elements and personal traits. For instance, Earl of Gloucester is a foil of King Lear who commits the same faults as Lear. For while deploying descriptive detail in the conventional realistic way to build up a rich and convincing impression of Earl of Gloucester and the world he creates, Shakespeare uses realism. In contrast to King Lear, Gloucester is not so powerful and stubborn. Gloucester says: “I desird their leave that I might pity him, they took from / me the use of mine own house, chargd me on pain of perpetual/ displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor sny / way sustain him” (Shakespeare 1999).

Shakespeare compares and contrasts both rulers who suffer the burdens of rule. It is important to note that identifying something as art, then, is indispensable to artistic practices. That something is art signals how and even whether readers are to respond to it interpretively, aesthetically, and appreciatively. King Lear demonstrates that art is an important part of life because it leads to self-knowledge and self-development. What is particularly interesting in the plot of King Lear is its exceptionally broad psychological and sociological scope, involving characters from practically all bands of the dynamic spectrum and social classes.

Eldridge (2003) comments: “A work depicts a particular actual object if in authorized games [of imagining or making-believe] it is fictional [i.e. part of the game] that that object is what the viewer sees” (35). In King Lear, it appears that the imbalance is found in the development of characters and their personal traits which offers a wide picture of society. The art can lead to self-knowledge through teaching and learning, self-assessment and evaluation of human actions. For instance, Edgar comments: “Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, / Am pregnant to good pity” (Shakespeare 1999).

Cordelia is another character who is searching for self-knowledge and envelopment. She comments: “If for I want that glib and oily art / To speak and purpose not, since what I well intend” (Shakespeare 1999). The plays emotional range, intensity, and extremity are nowhere better exemplified than in the figure of Lear whose static heroic character provides a psychological link between the opportunists and idealists. As a static character Lear also dramatically bridges the world of civilization associated with the self-knowledge and with the realm of wild nature.

Lear comments: 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 Thats sorry yet for thee (Shakespeare 1999). The diminished importance of external circumstances increases the importance of internal causes of behavior, turning Lear’s tragedy into one of character rather than that of situation. Chaos is a destroying force which ruins love, friendship and human relations, thus art is a constructive force which gives hope and optimism.

Far from being "absurd” Lear’s initial intentions and arrangements regarding his retirement and the division of the kingdom appear logical, legal, and practical, and given his static character also psychologically inevitable. Following Eldridge (2003) ‘in looking at the representer continuously and with attention to different aspects of it, one takes oneself, in the game, to get more information about what is represented” (35). ‘The art’ in King Lear is to overcome chaos and construct social order even if this order can be interpreted differently by different characters.

For instance, at his age Lear feels he has the right to be relieved of the burden of his political duties, but as a responsible man he wants to ensure a peaceful transition of power and its equitable distribution The stability of Lear’s mind depends on even the slightest confirmation that the old order and the traditional values that he takes so much for granted still apply.

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