Analysis of William Shakespeare's King Lear

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In King Lear, William Shakespeare predominantly uses the two broad settings. These are the outdoor world and the indoor world. Inside the confines of walls it is Lear who holds power to do as he pleases, but outside the borders of brick and mortar, the very same man is at the mercy of Nature. Human hearts respond with hardness and devaluing ones self when given no love. Lear is one such character who due to family circumstances relies on his daughters to provide him with love but when he finds that this love for him is no longer what it used to be, he reacts by damaging not only the lives of people around him, but also himself. Shakespeare makes this apparent to the reader through the contrasting settings of the palace and of the heath.

The composition of Lear’s household and the events which unfold are used by Shakespeare to show the greed of man. Lear’s family constitutes, his three daughters and him. From the very start it is made obvious to the reader that there is no mother figure in the family. This fact compels the reader to infer that, it is from his daughters that Lear gets love. The first scene shows both the splitting up of the kingdom and a marriage proposal for Cordelia. This juxtapositioning of events shows that Lear holds a “darker purpose” (1,1,35) for doing so. Cordelia is Lear’s “last” (1,1,82) daughter, who is soon to be married to either, the “vines of France.. [or] the milk of Burgundy”. This foretells that after the events which transpire on this night there will be no reason for the three daughters to remain at home with the king. Lear uses the metonymy of the “vines... [and] milk”, both symbols of the power of the two lands, to show that only good awaits her if she is married off to any of these gentlemen....

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... this oxymoron that he only affection he feels now is through pain. By placing Lear in a setting where his craving for love and affection are not met, Shakespeare shows just how far man will go to feel some form love.

Love is like a double edged sword, Shakespeare is able to show this through the created settings of the Palace and the Heath. In the palace where Lear is in control, the lack of affection that he feels is channelled into vain acts of evil against others; whereas, in the setting of the Heath, Lear is at the mercy of nature and turns to self affliction as a means of filling the void within himself. Shakespeare shows the audience that in certain contexts, love is a tool which causes harm to others through the vanity it brings out, but by the same token, it also causes harm to oneself when trying to replace the lack of love felt.

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