Human Experience In King Lear

English Assignment: King Lear - Term 3 - Nikhar Harpalani

How does your KING LEAR communicate key ideas about the human experience?

Hello to all my peers and teachers.

Today we will be looking at Shakespeare’s King Lear and its correspondence with many forms of human experiences. At the core, deception (betrayal), loss and insanity are key themes that depict human experience through each character. Open to interpretation, many characters undergo significant change throughout the course of the play, allowing for further thought and introduction of human experience. Within ‘King Lear’, such changes are sparked through defining moments which further develops characters and enables advancements in the tragedy.

True to Shakespeare, deception

Younger sister, Regan follows suit, falsely praising and flattering her father, who cannot recognise the deceptive nature of his own daughters. Cordelia attempts, through her naivety to explain her love claiming that “My lord, you brought me up and loved me, and I’m giving back just as I should: I obey you, love you, and honor you.” The child-like response invokes sympathy throughout the audience when Lear is maddened by Cordelia and therefore banishes her. It is important to note that while King Lear is unaware, Kent agnizes Cordelia’s true love for her father. Furthermore, deception is also essential for the subplot of Edmund and Edgar. Edmund, the bastard son, conspires to get land and the title of Earl of Gloucester from his

Hidden within the play, there are various junctures of loss that demonstrate significant change and glimpses of hope, explicitly shown through behavioural changes and interactions. As heard in the listening stimulus, Lear to Gloucester, “A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears.” Speaking metaphorically in reference to Gloucester’s blindness, we can see symbolism of how in order to see the truth, he had to lose his sight. This is further emphasised through Lear’s rhetorical questions, “Hark in thine ear: change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?” These questions heavily highlight Lear’s understanding of his circumstances. Metaphorically, Lear is blinded by his insanity, and unable to see the truth, but he, here, through his madness, gives some of the greatest of his hidden