Manipulation In King Lear Essay

The tragedy King Lear is centered on King Lear’s want to retire from rule and setting up his kingdom between his three daughters. Shakespeare presents the many characters of the play to show the complexity of the self. In this tragedy few characters change their intentions but many are deceitful in the path to achieve that goal. The characters who remain true to themselves are the characters with the best intentions and are also characters who are lied against. Shakespeare presents the self as one doing what is best for the individual regardless of the consequences to others. Therefore throughout the play many characters make decisions that surely affect the outcome of the play. Lear and Gloucester are two manipulated characters in the play

His two oldest daughters, Goneril and Reagan, claim to love him “no less than life” and in “dear Highness’ love” (1.1 64, 84). His youngest daughter, Cordelia, refuses to lie and suck up to the king; she tells Lear that she loves him no more or less than a daughter should love her father and will not lie to him, like her sisters, just because he wants her to (1.1 100-102). Lines 120-133 and135-155 in Act 1 scene 1, is where Shakespeare shows Lear’s first mistake. In Cordelia’s refusal to flatter her father, he makes the decision to disown her and divide her division of land among her two sisters (1.1 144). Lear lets the empty words of Goneril and Reagan affect his judgement, and in a rash sense of betrayal Lear decides to disown he daughter he loves most because of her honesty. As a result of Lear’s hasty decision he is repeatedly betrayed by Goneril and

In Act 4 scene 7 Lear pleads to Cordelia to forgive him for his ignorance and blindness against the evils of Goneril and Reagan (4.7 98-99). Lear has grown mad over his course of betrayal by Goneril and Reagan and he believes Cordelia is an angel in heaven. In one particular section we see a change in Lear’s self; in Act 4 scene 7 lines 68-79 and 81-85, Lear cannot believe he is alive and it is Cordelia who has saves him (4.7 77-79). Lear says to Cordelia “I know you do not love me, for your sisters/ Have, as I do remember, done me wrong. / You have some cause; they have not.” In this moment Shakespeare does not present Lear as the powerful king as in Act 1, Shakespeare presents him as a vulnerable old man who is at the mercy of his youngest