Theme Of King Lear Greed

Lear’s greed leads to his metaphorical blindness which prevents him from discerning and distinguishing the forces of evil, that are also fuelled by greed, against him. Lear demonstrates this human folly clearly at the beginning of play. In conjunction to the relatively greedy act of relinquishing political power (his responsibilities) while keeping his title of King, Lear attempts to achieve self-assurance and satisfy his narcissistic desires by conducting a love test where his daughters must profess their love for him in exchange for a part of his kingdom. Hence, ‘love’ is commodified and is treated like a valuable material possession by Lear as shown when he states “Which of you shall we say doth love us most That we our largest bounty may extend.” (Act I, scene i). His greed for the idolisation fit for a divine being prevents him from being able to see through Gonerill and Regan’s heavily embellished and exaggerated proclamation and downplays the true value of Cordelia’s honest assertion. Lear’s dissatisfaction. magnified especially since Cordelia is considered to be his favourite, led to his rash decision of banishing Cordelia, his only truly loyal daughter, who may very well be a force of ‘good’ alongside Kent who eventually disguises himself and comes back. Thus, Lear’s insatiable greed made him blind to the true nature of his …show more content…
Lear’s place on the balance of good and evil however, is not quite as clear. Ian Johnston of Malaspina University places the blame Hence, the accuracy of Lear’s self-proclamation of being ‘a