William Shakespeare’s play King Lear is an in-depth exploration of human inadequacy and the resulting misfortunes that arise from our total inability to fully comprehend the world around us. By placing characters in negative scenarios where such proclivities are allowed to become pronounced, the play demonstrates how the underlying cause of these tragedies and misfortunes is ultimately the mistake of misjudging nature and thereby developing a flawed perception of reality. Mistaking the nature of something or someone by means of a flawed judgement gives rise to even further downfalls and sins, including misplaced identity and more personal transgressions, including as lies and deception.
An example of this can be found in the entire character arch of the play’s central figure, King Lear himself. At the beginning of the play, King Lear decides to divide up his entire kingdom among his three daughters and that the amount that each one should receive would be contingent upon the degree to which each of his daughters was able to convey their love and admiration for him (i.e. flatter him). The first two daughters, Goneril and Regan, are deceitful and proclaim their love to Lear with excessive and hollow statements of admiration. Lear is greatly pleased and makes the dangerous mistake of beginning to rely on his daughter’s flattery as his one and only source of validation for who he is. This mistake subsequently begins to weaken his character and moral resolve until finally, when Cordelia, Lear’s third daughter, refuses to flatter him with false compliments, Lear’s identity as a king, a father, and a man is shattered. Without the affection and validation (i.e. flattery) of all three of his daughters, Lear’s scaffolding that he has built up underneath himself to support his identity is stripped away and he falls like a stone, not only in an emotional and mental sense, but also in political power, as he shirks all kingly responsibilities to wander out into nature and wallow in his own shame and defeated pride. In this particular example, flattery proves to be the agent that ultimately caused the downfall of Lear and is what creates in him a false perception of reality – he expects validation from a single source (i.e. his daughters), but when that source fails, he no longer has anything to prop up his self-imposed sense of prideful identity. However, despite this loss of validation, Lear continues to make …show more content…
No longer able to garner approval for his daughters to validate his identity, Lear turns to his crown and his authority as king, believing that his position of authority grants him power over everyone and everything within his kingdom, even nature itself. He casts himself out upon the heath in the middle of a violent thunderstorm and attempts to defy the raging weather by standing firm in the rain, wind, thunder, and lightening. Lear soon realizes that not even the authority and power of is crown is able to shield him from the storm or keep the rain off of his face and he is forced to take cover in a “lowly hovel”. It is at this point when he casts aside all hope in his earthly authority and gives in to his humanity, declaring that man is “unaccommodated” and is nothing more than a mere beast under the power of nature, or “As flies to wanton boys we are to the gods…” – King Lear: Act 4, Scene 1, Line
An example of this can be found in the entire character arch of the play’s central figure, King Lear himself. At the beginning of the play, King Lear decides to divide up his entire kingdom among his three daughters and that the amount that each one should receive would be contingent upon the degree to which each of his daughters was able to convey their love and admiration for him (i.e. flatter him). The first two daughters, Goneril and Regan, are deceitful and proclaim their love to Lear with excessive and hollow statements of admiration. Lear is greatly pleased and makes the dangerous mistake of beginning to rely on his daughter’s flattery as his one and only source of validation for who he is. This mistake subsequently begins to weaken his character and moral resolve until finally, when Cordelia, Lear’s third daughter, refuses to flatter him with false compliments, Lear’s identity as a king, a father, and a man is shattered. Without the affection and validation (i.e. flattery) of all three of his daughters, Lear’s scaffolding that he has built up underneath himself to support his identity is stripped away and he falls like a stone, not only in an emotional and mental sense, but also in political power, as he shirks all kingly responsibilities to wander out into nature and wallow in his own shame and defeated pride. In this particular example, flattery proves to be the agent that ultimately caused the downfall of Lear and is what creates in him a false perception of reality – he expects validation from a single source (i.e. his daughters), but when that source fails, he no longer has anything to prop up his self-imposed sense of prideful identity. However, despite this loss of validation, Lear continues to make …show more content…
No longer able to garner approval for his daughters to validate his identity, Lear turns to his crown and his authority as king, believing that his position of authority grants him power over everyone and everything within his kingdom, even nature itself. He casts himself out upon the heath in the middle of a violent thunderstorm and attempts to defy the raging weather by standing firm in the rain, wind, thunder, and lightening. Lear soon realizes that not even the authority and power of is crown is able to shield him from the storm or keep the rain off of his face and he is forced to take cover in a “lowly hovel”. It is at this point when he casts aside all hope in his earthly authority and gives in to his humanity, declaring that man is “unaccommodated” and is nothing more than a mere beast under the power of nature, or “As flies to wanton boys we are to the gods…” – King Lear: Act 4, Scene 1, Line