As a literary tragedy spirals towards its inevitable conclusion, the main character, also known as the tragic hero, develops a hamartia, an extreme combination of internal and external forces leading to his or her downfall. William Shakespeare’s King Lear paints the picture of a man whose hamartia causes his life and very identity to crumble around him. Set in medieval Britain, the play tells the story of Lear, the ruler of Britain, who gives up his power to two daughters, Regan and Goneril, who profess to love him, and banishes a third, Cordelia, who tells him she loves him according to her familial bond with him. Many factors bring about this basic premise of the play and further contribute to the former king’s steady, unavoidable fall. Lear
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The first time Shakespeare reveals the daughters’ true natures is when Cordelia expresses her skepticism about the veracity of their claims of loving Lear; Cordelia warns them, “To your professed bosoms I commit him. But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place” (Lr1.1.274-276). Cordelia clearly cares about her father, but Lear’s banishment prevents her from taking care of him. She is hesitant to place trust in her sisters to nurture Lear, but has no choice in her situation. Cordelia is correct to worry about her sisters’ treatment of their father, as their actions in the rest of the play validate her fears; Regan and Goneril try their best to alienate Lear. The final straw for Lear is when Regan and Goneril try to reduce the number of knights he has with him, and then suggest he does not need any at all. Lear furiously shouts, “No, you unnatural hags! 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” (Lr2.4.277-281). Lear’s daughters have infuriated him so thoroughly that he cannot even figure out a threat with which to intimidate the women. He becomes so angry that he runs out of the castle into the woods and roams aimlessly, possibly losing his sanity. Despite Lear’s scrambled mind, the memory of his daughter’s cruelty continues to frustrate him, so much so that he pretends to hold a trial for them in the woods, envisioning each daughter and “convicting” them in his imaginary court. In the presence of only Edgar, Kent, and the Fool, Lear claims, “’Tis Goneril, I here take my oath before this honorable assembly, she killed the poor King her father” (Lr3.6.46-48). Lear exhibits multiple
The first time Shakespeare reveals the daughters’ true natures is when Cordelia expresses her skepticism about the veracity of their claims of loving Lear; Cordelia warns them, “To your professed bosoms I commit him. But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place” (Lr1.1.274-276). Cordelia clearly cares about her father, but Lear’s banishment prevents her from taking care of him. She is hesitant to place trust in her sisters to nurture Lear, but has no choice in her situation. Cordelia is correct to worry about her sisters’ treatment of their father, as their actions in the rest of the play validate her fears; Regan and Goneril try their best to alienate Lear. The final straw for Lear is when Regan and Goneril try to reduce the number of knights he has with him, and then suggest he does not need any at all. Lear furiously shouts, “No, you unnatural hags! 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” (Lr2.4.277-281). Lear’s daughters have infuriated him so thoroughly that he cannot even figure out a threat with which to intimidate the women. He becomes so angry that he runs out of the castle into the woods and roams aimlessly, possibly losing his sanity. Despite Lear’s scrambled mind, the memory of his daughter’s cruelty continues to frustrate him, so much so that he pretends to hold a trial for them in the woods, envisioning each daughter and “convicting” them in his imaginary court. In the presence of only Edgar, Kent, and the Fool, Lear claims, “’Tis Goneril, I here take my oath before this honorable assembly, she killed the poor King her father” (Lr3.6.46-48). Lear exhibits multiple