Overview of Shakespeare's King Lear

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Shakespeare's play, King Lear, tells a tale of misshapen oath through a series of betrayals and treason. When one is too deeply in love with his or her own world, he or she tends not to hear, purposefully, of the advice given by any other, if the given information is not to his liking. Such ignorant engrossment in one's illusions brought out a theme that a man's benighted misconceptions can lead to the ruination of his or her once unblemished world.
In the play, Lear lived a cavernous life as the King, sheltered by his own powers, wealth, and status. This lead him to intertwine his own veritable world with the characteristics of reality, which caused Lear to make the most dreaded mistake of his life, bringing death upon himself and his most beloved daughter. Lear's greed for status yet indolent shift was the start of this chaos. Stationed in his illusions, Lear expected faithful devotion and love from everyone beneath him, including his own three daughters, especially the youngest Cordelia. As a result, the King decided to split his land up amongst his three daughters in return for the daughters' words of love for him. Cordelia thought to herself, “What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent” (11). As the favorite daughter of King Lear, Cordelia also offers his father the most pure and wholehearted devotion. However, her reticent nature prevented Cordelia from speaking her feelings aloud. Her love for her father is simply too great to describe in words, unlike the sheer flattery her two elder sisters spouted. “Then poor Cordelia! (to herself) And yet not so,
Zhou 2 since I am sure my love's more ponderous than my tongue” (11). Although Cordelia is Lear's favorite daughter, Lear's misconceptions prevented him from listening t...

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...elming his heart as well, for his imprudence had killed the purest love given to him by his most beloved daughter.
A mistrust of the good and complete trust of the evil brought about the Gods' punishment on mere mankind. One foolish mistake lead to the eruption of chaos, and both the good and the bad suffered great loss. The sins of adultery and treachery against kinship is not so easily overlooked by the powers of the Divinity. Although one may break out from his or her illusions after experiencing through traumatizing despair, the reality he or she faces is much more barbarous. Such misconceptions on reality due to ignorance and naïvety lead to the downfall of not only the virtuous, but the iniquitous as well.

Works Cited

Shakespeare. King Lear. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York City: Washington Square Publication of POCKET BOOKS, 1993. Print.

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