Effects Of Power In King Lear

What effects does power have on a person? At the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, King

Lear, Lear no longer wants to lead the kingdom, so he gives it to his daughters and their

husbands. His daughters start to turn against him. While this happened, Edmund was trying to

gain power. A major theme in King Lear is that power always has consequences.

Anything that has to do with power has consequences. Specifically, Edmund’s obsession

with power has the consequence of his family and later his life. Edmund wanted power so much

that he did not care about who he hurt along the way. “A credulous father! and a brother noble,/

Whose nature is so far from doing harms/ That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty/ My

practices ride easy! I see the

Which means his values had to do a complete one

eighty since gaining power. Losing his morals is the consequence Cornwall has for gaining

Whether you are gaining or losing it, power will always have consequences. For Lear it is

the sudden loss of power that causes him to descend into madness. King Lear gives away his

power to his daughters and all seemed okay for a while until they try to take away his knights

and he goes off into the storm. “Importune him once more to go, my lord; / his wits begin to

unsettle.” (66) Basically, Kent is saying that Lear is going crazy. Lear is cast off with only three

other people and he does not have any knights, so he no longer has any power when the madness

starts to take him.

This is not the only consequence Lear has from losing his power, he also loses his status

within the family because of it. For example the fool says, “ I have used it, nuncle, ever since

thou madest thy daughters/ thy mother: for when thou gavest them the rod and puttest down

/thine own breeches…” This shows that King Lear no longer has the power in his