American Influence On King Lear

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Although Shakespeare was known to be a talented writer, there seems to be many things that have inspired Shakespeare to write this play. King Lear, for example, it mainly based of King Leir, a legendary king of the Britons, which was accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae in 1135. However, the play King Lear seems to be influenced and inspired by many historical events and lawsuits occurred in Britain at the time it was written. According to Historia Regum Britanniae, King Leir is a legendary king of ancient Britain. He does not have a male heir to inherit his kingdom so he decides to split the kingdom to his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, and their husband. Just like in King Lear, Cordelia refused …show more content…

The court case was involving with Sir William Allen, former Lord Mayor of London who was also a leading figure in the Company of Merchant Adventures, and her three daughters. All three of Sir William Allen’s daughters were married. Sir William Allen felt that his death is near, so he decided to divide his property between his daughters and he would stay at each in turn. As in King Lear, her daughters did not treat him the way he thought they would. They took away everything for him and claimed coal was a waste for someone like him. They treated him with scorn and disdain. Sir William Allen died in misery and were cursing his daughters when he was dying. This court case have many parallel events to King Lear after King Lear gives away his kingdom to Goneril and Regan. They treats King Lear with scorn and disdain. They even takes away King Lear’s knight that asked to keep in exchange for giving out the kingdom to them. When the storm strike, King Lear had nowhere to go. He was left in the forest and eventually met Edgar who is in disguise. King Lear cursed his daughters again and again. Eventually, he drove himself mad and many people pitied this man who was once the King of England. To some extent, Sir William Allen’s misery must had a huge influence on Shakespeare when writing the tragic play King Lear. Other than the ongoing events that influenced King Lear, some words used in the play actually allude to something else. After Gloucester’s trust for Edgar was manipulated by Edmund, Edgar had to disguise himself as poor Tom or a Bedlam beggar. However, the word “Bedlam” was a slang for “Bethlehem,” which was the name of a mental institution in

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