Love Theme In King Lear

Throughout centuries, many authors has written plays with theme of love. In this play King Lear, Shakespeare claims that there are different types of love, such as unconditional love, and forgery love. He also asserts that humanity and love is related. Shakespeare puts characters in different situations to reinforce the theme and uses loyalty, reality, ambition and betrayal to support the theme.

As a tragic hero, Lear demonstrates hubris and experiences ate. He ignores people who truly love him, and put others who lie around him. However, he ends up being with people who tells him the truth and reality straight forward. Loyalty, justice, reality, ambition are well-demonstrated in this play, showing the relations between them and different

Cordelia, Lear’s favorite daughter tells him, “Why have my sisters husbands if they say they love you all?” (King Lear, Act 1 Scene 1 Line 109) Cordelia knows that Goneril, Regan and their husbands just told Lear that they love him just to flatter him to give them part of the country. Cordelia sees the reality and how her sisters are lying to her father. In fact, Lear soon realize that Goneril and Regan were buttering up to him when they kick him out of their castle. “And speak ‘t again, my lord. No more with me” (King Lear, Act 2 Scene 4 Line 293). Lear needed a place to stay with his soldiers but Goneril and Regan tells him to reduce the number of soldiers or else, he can’t stay. Lear realizes that Goneril and Regan has lied to him about their love for him and that Cordelia was right, which leads him into the storm and regretting about what he did to Cordelia. Ultimately, after Cornwall plucks Gloucester’s eyes, Regan tells Gloucester that Edmund is the one who told on him to Cornwall. So Gloucester finally knows the truth, “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused” (King Lear, Act 3 Scene 7 Line 111). Subsequently, Gloucester is punished for not trusting his own son, and not even asking Edgar if it was true that Edgar was trying to kill