King Lear William Shakespeare

Ultimately, “King Lear” is about families and loyalty, and how what once seemed to be life’s solid foundation can so easily come apart. Tragedy starts when love is treated as inconsequential and ignored. “Shakespeare” infers that love is the language of life, hence life will give homage to figures of loyalty and goodness like “Cordelia”, while admonishing devils like “Goneril” and “Edmund”. The play depicts the gradual descent into madness of “King Lear”, after he disposes of his kingdom giving bequests to two of his three daughters based on their flattery of him. The second plot line of the play consists of “Gloucester” and his sons, “Edmund” and “Edgar”. “Edmund” forges a letter stating that “Edgar” planned to betray his father.

In fact, in “Shakespeare”, character is fate. Therefore; when the character suffers, it is due to some faults of character in themselves. Tragic fate brings the ruin or death of the protagonist. In the case of “King Lear”, the direst misfortune which he himself sets in motion, condemns him. The self-destructive conflict drags the innocents as collateral damage, as “Cordelia” succumbs to death in trying to restore her father’s honour and crown.

The play is distinctively unique in its structure. Considering that the climax takes place in Act Three, it actually initiates when the king divides the kingdom between his ungrateful daughters and where the conflict among the daughters is exposed. The change of the traditional Shakespearean structure is meant to shed light on the impact of the foolish decision that the king makes to divide his kingdom, providing a full picture of the disastrous consequences of such a decision.