King Lear

Essay by tgravy April 2004

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King Lear

In a writing of Shakespeare's play "King Lear", the main

character is King Lear who starts off as a respected and powerful

king. As the story progresses the king loses his power because of his

own stupidity and blindness. The tragedy of this play is shown through

the daughters of the king, the fool, and finally when Lear's sanity is

tested. At the beginning of the play, King Lear is powerful and harsh.

He decides he doesn't want to be king anymore, and so he asks his

daughters, Reagan, Goneril, and Cordelia to tell him how much they

love him. He does this so he may give them a dowry to be married with.

First, Goneril begins to tell her father how much she adores him and

would never disrespect him, this is a lie. Next, is the daughter

Reagan, she does the same as her sister and lies to the king saying

that she loves him with all of her heart.

Finally, Cordelia tells her

father that she could not tell him how much she loves him, because she

had no words. The king was very upset with Cordelia and because of his

madness towards Cordelia thinking that she did not love him as much as

her other sisters, he divided the land in two and gave Reagan and

Goneril each half. Cordelia on the other hand received nothing as her

dowry and in turn no none would marry her except the King of France.

Giving the land to the two daughters was the first of Lear's mistakes,

for the daughters did not love him as much as Cordelia did, but they

wished to have his riches. When Goneril and Reagan are in power

they try to make Lear appear to be incompetent. They...