The Tragic Redemption of King Lear
Shakespeare's ultimate Tragedy, King Lear, is indeed a dark and soul-harrowing play. The tragic madness of King Lear, and of the subsequent turmoil that follows from it, is all the more terrible for the king's inability to cope with the loss of his mind, his family, and his pride. This descent into horror culminates at the tragic conclusion, where both the innocent and the guilty die for other's mistakes and lack of judgment.
And yet, as bleak and grim as the final scene is, all is not lost is misery. Many have died, and those that remain - the new generation - believe that "The oldest hath borne most; we that are young/Shall never see so much, nor live so long." (V.iii.326), understanding that a great age has passed, and that they must now pick up the pieces and try to continue on. However, among the death and despair, their have been powerful instances of change and transformation. Though the ending of King Lear is, indeed, grim and terrible, and King Lear himself dies miserable and in agony, their nevertheless remains a message of hope; among all the death, there are clear signs of redemption[1].
This redemption is integral to the story of King Lear, though Lear is not the only one to undergo this process. Indeed, many of the main characters, from Edmund to Gloucester to Cordelia are transformed in the end; it is the tragedy of the play that they do not survive their redemption. However, to understand their change, it is important to know from whence they came, and what caused them, what forced them, to submit to this painful and bitter process. The impetus is, of course, the gradually escalating madness of the king.
One can not clearly state that King...
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...ty. Still firmly in the grips of madness, grasping at the faint hopes that Cordelia still lives, he must still feel the death and torment that surrounds him. He may die a better man, a redeemed man, but he dies an unhappy one.
Works Cited
Aggeler, Geoffrey. "'Good Pity' in King Lear: the Progress of Edgar." Neophilologus 77 (1993): 321-331.
Kermode, Frank. "King Lear." The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G.B.Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. 1249-54.
Muir, Kenneth, ed. King Lear. London: Methuen & Co, 1972
Partee, Morriss Henry. "Edgar and the Ending of King Lear." Studia Neophilologica 63 (1991): 175-180.
Notes: 1. It was Bradley who suggested that the play be called "The Redemption of King Lear. (Muir, 1iii)
[1]It was Bradley who suggested that the play be called "The Redemption of King Lear. (Muir, 1iii)
Shakespeare, William. "King Lear: A Conflated Text." The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York:
... condemned to short lives - 'nor live so long'. Edgar's closing words are disturbingly equivocal. They allude to the antithesis constantly at work in the play a mixture of hope and despair. Perhaps the couplet is ultimately nihilistic, and the play as a whole equally so. Redemption remains unattained. However, while I would agree that Kent's words that 'All's cheerless, dark and deadly' may be the overriding message of the tragedy, I do not believe that King Lear can be simply summed up in such a comment. To do such a thing would be to see the drama two-dimensionally to ignore the world of polarities, of good as well as evil, which Shakespeare creates in which to hold his play.
King Lear is at once the most highly praised and intensely criticized of all Shakespeare's works. Samuel Johnson said it is "deservedly celebrated among the dramas of Shakespeare" yet at the same time he supported the changes made in the text by Tate in which Cordelia is allowed to retire with victory and felicity. "Shakespeare has suffered the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and, what is yet more strange, to the faith of chronicles."1 A.C. Bradley's judgement is that King Lear is "Shakespare's greatest work, but it is not...the best of his plays."2 He would wish that "the deaths of Edmund, Goneril, Regan and Gloucester should be followed by the escape of Lear and Cordelia from death," and even goes so far as to say: "I believe Shakespeare would have ended his play thus had he taken the subject in hand a few years later...."3
King Lear as a Tragedy Caused by Arrogance, Rash Decisions and Poor Judgement of Character
The Protestant Reformation: What it was, why it happened and why it was necessary. The Protestant Reformation has been called "the most momentous upheaval in the history of Christianity." It was a parting of the ways for two large groups of Christians who differed in their approach to the worship of Christ. At the time, the Protestant reformers saw the church- the Catholic church, or the "universal church- " as lacking in its ways. The church was corrupt then, all the way up to the pope, and had lost touch with the people of Europe. The leaders of the Reformation sought to reform the church and its teachings according to the Scriptures and the writings of the Apostles. They sought to simplify the church by returning to its roots, roots long lost by the Catholic church at the time, or so the reformers believed. After the fall of the Roman Empire, life in Europe declined rapidly into the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were a time of misery and darkness. There were only two socioeconomic classes: the very rich nobility or the very poor peasants. Small kingdoms popped up everywhere, and were constantly at war with one another. Whole libraries were destroyed, and the only people who remained literate were the clergy of the Christian church. Life became such a struggle to survive that, for a period of five hundred years, very little artwork or literature was produced by the whole of Europe. Eventually, around the year 1000, the conditions in Europe began to get better. This marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Crusades began as an effort to revitalize the spirits of the people. However, things still weren't very good. Plagues ravaged the land, carried by rodents and destroying whole villages. With th...
...ferent movements in terms of who lead the church. During the middle ages we find that there was a episcopal church structure, in which leaders in powerful positions chose those who served in smaller ranks. As I mentioned the people often did not understand what was taking place, and did not seem to be very well taught, so to some degree we find the different orders of monks sort of helping people to live for God. In the Reformation those with the strongest beliefs and best preaching skills were able to gather crowds, so it is almost like the times of the New Testament in which people would seem to spring up out of no where I begin to herald the Word. The population also had more influence in choosing who would lead them and what they believed, for example John Calvin's wishes to see the Lord's supper celebrated weekly was not adopted. (Shields & Butzu, 2007, p. 256).
Bradley, A.C. "King Lear." 20Lh Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersev; Prentice-Hall, 1978.
King Lear is the protagonist within the play, he wears the label of a successful
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
...e mock trial for his unfaithful daughters. He only regains a modicum of sanity when he is rescued by Cordelia, who treats him as he deserves, giving him fresh garments and restorative medicine. When Lear wakes in her presence, he is not entirely lucid, not knowing his whereabouts and surroundings, but the doctor declares that “The great rage you see is killed in him” (IV. vii. 90-91). Once Lear is restored to his former majesty, his madness is quelled. The imbalance of nature is rectified, and consequently, the mind of nature’s king is healed.
Muir, Kenneth. "Great Tragedies I: King Lear." Shakespeare's Sources. London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1957.
In acceptance of helplessness, the characters ironically experience growth, joy, and hope. If the world of Lear is chaotic, painful, and alien, it also stimulates growth. The king with no kingdom discovers the superficial authority that was his kingship, and understood “They flatter’d me like a dog...they told me I was everything. ‘Tis a lie” (Shakespeare IV. vi. 96-105). When Lear had finally accepted his inability to change a situation, he looks upon his life with a new-found wisdom. Lear’s progress to acceptance is also marked by the shift of dependence from evil children to good, from Regan and Goneril to Cordelia. The schematic character groupings of good and evil invites us to see the children on a metaphorically level of shifting stages. When Lear is reunited with Cordelia, though he is faced with impending death, he blissfully proclaims “Come, let’s away to prison...so we’ll live / And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh / At gilded butterflies” (Shakespeare V. iii. 8-19). Lear is, for the first time in the play, truly happy. The King beautifully expresses an idea of acceptance against uncontrollable forces. The prison that Lear speaks of is not a literal one, but rather his response to the approaching end of his life, as it should be for all of us, to pray, to sing, to tell tales, to laugh, to be above the battle of life. Similarity, Gloucester,
The protestant reformation movement enabled the Counter Reformation for the Roman Catholic’s and greatly influenced many changes, but most importantly the spread of “nearly 21,000 independent churches denominations, falling under 156 main groups”. (Fisher 335) during the reformation area Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglicans, Protestant and Roman Catholics were the major reforms of the Protestant and Roman Catholic Reformations. The main idea of the reformations was to break away to form their own
Bengtsson, Frederick. “King Lear by William Shakespeare.” Columbia College. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
Works Cited Bradley, A.C. Twentieth Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Janet Adelman. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978. Goddard, Harold C. King, Lear.