These five stages included pre-eminence, tragic flaw, downfall, gaining of insight, and rise. The three reasons that made King Lear a tragic hero in this tragedy are King Lear’s tragic flaw, the downfall of King Lear, and Lear’s gaining of insight. All these reasons make the ideal protagonist a perfect candidate to be a tragic hero.
According to many readers, a common characteristic of all tragic heroes is tragic flaw. Tragic flaw is a decision made by a protagonist that leads to an event in which it leads to the protagonist 's downfall. In the novel when the reader immediately meet the charter King Lear, the first characteristics that arrogant and oblivious. He is very arrogant because of his pre eminence, him being the King and coming from a rich …show more content…
That downfall normally happens to the main protagonist. In the tragedy King Lear, King Lear after splitting his kingdom is the initial start to his downfall. Since Lear kicked out Cordelia of his kingdom and he had nowhere to go he went to go live with his daughter Goneril. Goneril getting the nicer chunk of his kingdom despised having her father living with her. Her father was described to being a very rowdy drunk man and his fleet of nights were extremely rude. Lear not may not be the shiniest penny of the much but he caught onto this quite quickly. He began to question his daughter loyalty to him and if she truly loved him. Goneril then being unfair to her father, Lear makes the decision to go his other daughter house that he shared the kingdom with, Regan. When he arrived his daughter was not giving him respect either. This drivers Lear insane. He threatens his daughters that he will get them back for what they have done to him. At this point of the novel there is a huge storm brewing which can be considered a symbol because it corresponds to what is going on with Lear. “Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air Hang fated o 'er men 's faults light on thy daughters”(Shakespeare Act 3, Scene 4). The significance of this quote is when Lear originally finds out what his daughters have done to him and he will get them back for it. In every tragedy there is always a downfall. The downfall