The Importance Of Man In Shakespeare's King Lear

When faced with life’s circumstances, one is often told to “man up” because being a man is associated with having courage, wisdom, and responsibility. The essential man, however, is a man who possesses all the fundamental qualities necessary for survival which include consciousness, awareness, and self-realization. King Lear is a play that talks about the transformation of King Lear from a spoiled, childish, and stubborn king to a man that is wise and warm hearted. All that change was resulted by passing on the throne to two of his daughters who “played it right” and kept his ego intact, but later to destroy it when given the power to. It explains how only after a man strips himself of the superficiality and artificiality of the world around …show more content…
He wanted the knights, the true love of his children and the fancy lifestyle. King Lear is the oldest character in the play but while his age might convey certain wisdom his actions were similar to that of a child. (A1S1 56-59)He decided who the next ruler of the land should be by asking his daughters how much they loved him. During that time of history kings were granted unlimited control over the mass and had the very last word. Kings chose the heirs of the throne, but did King Lear have to make that a competition amongst his daughters of whom can flatter him the most? He did not want to hear the truth, even in the midst of asking for it, but rather wanted to hear what pleases him. (A1S1 125-133)By an uncalled for fit of rage he sent his favorite daughter Cordelia into exile all because she answered his question boldly and truthfully. (A1S1 191-203) He was so full of himself that even when his most trusted advisor, Kent, tried to steer him clear of the obvious mistake he was making by disowning Cordelia, he exiled him from the …show more content…
(A1S3 6-11) When it was time for him to live with his daughter Goneril, her irritation with his guards was obviously just a disguise to hide her true irritation with his overall presence. He was not ready to reveal the insecurities having knights hid, which is why he thought that maybe the other daughter would understand him. To be a true man one must be able to see the obvious truth and not put a hundred knights around him to shield him from it. The knights resemble the blindfold King Lear had on his eyes, only when the knights were gone and the blindfold was removed, he was able to recognize who he was and who he was surrounded by. For the third time, King Lear was denied the protectiveness of the guards who were protecting his juvenile characteristics, only at this time he had no power but to accept his loss. (A2S4 218-222)He felt profoundly betrayed when Regan and Goneril both agreed to his lack of need for the guards and sided with each other against him. When he was left to freeze out in the storm, he finally understood what was going on; his daughters did not love him as much as they said they did and fought him with the power he gave them. (A3S4 111-118)They did not only deny him their castle, which he had given to them, but also ordered that he had no shelter at all in hopes he would die in the storm. By this time he had not