King Lear is a one of the tragedy drama of William Shakespeare. Why I say it as tragedy? It’s because at the end of the play, many major characters die. The conflicts begin with Lear’s two elder daughters start concerning about the properties. At the beginning, Lear asks his three daughters to express their loves towards him. Goneril and Regan flatter Lear and make Lear believe that they truly love him. On the other hand, Cordelia is unable to put a word in her mouth to express her love to Lear. It is because she loves him very much and she even refuses to get marry so then she can stay with her old father. Unfortunately, Lear gets angry when Cordelia says, “Nothing, my Lord”. He immediately disowns her and does not hand any parts of land in Britain for her. And then prince of French who is touched by Cordelia’s kindness wants to take her hand to be Queen of French.
After Lear divides the lands, Goneril and Regan become cruel and mistreat Lear. Their target is actually to get rid of Lear from his throne and then Lear will become powerless without knights, and servants. Goneril and Regan do not house Lear when Lear is outside with the storm. The lock the door and never let Lear in for shelter. Gloucester who is kind-hearted go out to seek for Lear and gives him shelter. The result of Gloucester’s deed, Cornwall, the husband of Regan takes Glouscester’s eyes out. At first, he only blind one of Gloucester eye, then Regan provokes him to blind another eye. They are cruel. They are not only mistreating Lear but also mistreating Gloucester.
In this play, there is a Fool that always companies Lear. Uniquely, the Fool knows the truth about Goneril and Regan. He also mentions about the two cruel princesses in his riddles. Unfortunately, Lear does not notice it and he still puts his believe in her two cruel daugthers. After he realizes the meaning of the riddle, he's too late. He totally regrets and then becomes crazy. Lear in this play represents the ignorance while the Fool represents the knowledge. It is something interesting to be thought.
Because of properties, Goneril and Regan with the help of Edmund, the bastard, they claim war between Britain and French. Cordelia as the Queen of French tries to help his poor father but she lose to the cruel sisters. Edmund who is the real evil has ordered to hang Cordelia. He himself dies after lose to Edgar the illegitimate son of Gloucester. Goneril who is unable to win Edmund’s heart finally kills herself and before that she also poisons Regan because she does not want Edmund marries Regan. Lear died after he holds Cordelia’s body.
It is pretty much similar to other tragedy plays which are ended with death. The ignorance of Lear leads him to madness and he regrets with his wrong deeds to Cordelia. In this play, the issue of humanity also emerges. It has been shown by Goneril and Regan who have mistreated Lear, their own flesh and blood. They also plan to murder Lear and Cordelia with hope that they will govern Britain fully on their own. The issues of ignorance and humanity are good for readers to think about and take it as a lesson.
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Hye Wani... Wow your comment about king lear is great!!! I think those who haven't read the play king lear would have understood the play by reading ur blog on it. hehehe... but in my opinion, I feel that I enjoy this play of king lear compare to the play swordfish then the concubine... may be its because of various characters.. how about you? king lear is quite easy to understand moreover we watched the movie too. so i think that the reason why king lear seems to be easy for me to understand. besides that the story line is quite interesting right? with the presence of the character of Goneril and Regan.. they were devils..!!! hehehe... so wani i hope i can read the summary of the next play "streetcar named desire" in ur next blog hehehe....
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that both Cornwall and Regan are truly villainous characters as they both are responsible for Gloucester's lost of sight. It is very appealing to me about the way the playwright convey the idea of blindness by using the phrase "I stumbled when I saw” uttered by Gloucester. Yes, it sounds very ironic when someone is blind when he has the sight or when he can see. It is not the literal blind, but rather taken as “morally blind” where Gloucester at that point in time cannot distinguish between lies and truth due to lack of insight; misjudging his innocents son Edgar as he was blinds to believe Edmund’s lies.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "I stumbled when I saw", suggest that all this while although he has eyes to see but he failed to have insight. He later becomes literally blind as his eyes has been plucked out and says “And therefore want no eyes” as he realizes that he stumbled when he saw (in other words, he could not see when he had eyes). And yet, the issues of blindness does depicts in Lear; not able to see the honesty in Cordelia and the dishonesty in Regan and Goneril which later drags him into destruction of his life. Again, I notice that this blindness roots from the factor of being haughty and the arrogance of upholding their pride by refusing others’ advice and view. To see things vividly, we have to see it with our insight not only using our physical sight. This issue would be the best reminder for us to actually see without stumbling.
This play had make me learn about how human can change when the get power.Imagine daughter like Goneril and Regan had treat their father so badly and make him lost his mind.The poor King Lear that had be blind by his to daughter had cause his fall.A King that been descibe as strong as Dragon had fall and need to beg his two daughter to take care him.
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