King Lear

About the Play

King Lear is about a vain king who values appearances over reality. King Lear promises to give his kingdom to one of his three daughters who pledge to love him the most. His two evil daughters, Goneril and Regan, pledge that they love him the most with the use of flattery. However, his favorite and most virtuous daughter, Cordelia, refuses to flatter her father because she claims that she cannot simply tell her father how much she loves him because she already feels it in her heart. Furious, King Lear banishes her from the kingdom and leaves the kingdom to Goneril and Regan. Meanwhile, King Lear’s good friend, the Earl of Gloucester, has a similar family conflict. His son Edmund is tired of being ridiculed for being a bastard child, and tricks Gloucester into thinking that his legitimate son Edgar is trying to kill him. This forces Edgar to flee the kingdom in an effort not to be punished. While he is banished, Edgar disguises himself as a beggar named “poor Tom”, who finds Lear and leads him to the city of Dover; in Dover, Cordelia leads a French army to save her father. Disguised Edgar leads his father there as well after being blinded and banished by Goneril and Regan. Edmund’s English army defeats Cordelia’s French army, and Edmund has Cordelia executed, which causes Lear to die of grief. Goneril poisons Regan out of jealousy over Edmund, then kills herself when her evil is exposed to her husband Albany, who sympathizes with Lear. Edgar kills Edmund in a duel, and Gloucester dies of a heart attack after learning Edgar is alive. In the end, the only people left to take care of the kingdom are Albany; Edgar; and Lear’s elderly friend, the Duke of Kent.

Impact

I read this play when my professor suggested I use it to compare-and-contrast paper for how Maggie valued appearances over reality in Maggie and how Lear valued appearances over reality. I was mad at him because I never read it before, and I was not ready to try and familiarize myself with a new text. However, it turned out to be my favorite Shakespearean play. William Shakespeare will probably always be one of my favorite writers because I like his insight into human nature about how certain flaws can ruin people. The circumstances may not always lead to death like they do in Shakespearean plays, but they show people can cause their own downfall with a particular flaw. Therefore, it is important to self-monitor that flaw not to hurt oneself. I really like the complexity of this play. The play is so multi-dimensional that it shows a realistic portrayal that there is not just one event occurring, but multiple events. In other words, I like the use of the sub-plot with what happens with Gloucester and his two sons. There are multiple events taking place at one time, and I like how the play shows that. This is closer to reality because events co-occur as others are happening rather than one single event occurring at a moment in time. I feel like most stories do not show that multi-dimentionalism, and they make it look like the plot is the only event occurring in time. Therefore, I feel like sub-plots are very important to show a story that is more realistic. I feel like King Lear shows two events coinciding with each other effectively.

Values

In stories where a character has a tragic flaw, the value of the story is shown through the character’s tragic flaw. In other words, the story is trying to teach a value through a character’s tragic flaw. In the case of King Lear, Lear dies because he values appearances over reality. He thinks that just because his two daughters tell him that they love him more than Cordelia that they actually feel more love for him than Cordelia. However, Cordelia loves him more because words cannot express how much she really loves him. Thus, King Lear teaches people to be careful what they see or what they hear because looks can be deceiving. Lear values what he hears, which ultimately causes his downfall. Similarly, Gloucester believes what he hears when Edmund tells him that Edgar is trying to kill him when this is not true at all.

King Lear teaches people to be more aware and skeptical of their surroundings because not everything is what it seems. After all, it is the real person who makes an impact on others rather than who the person appears to be, and not everyone makes a positive impact. Those negative experiences with people can make an impact on others just as much as positive experiences, and Goneril; Regan; and Edmund’s true personality traits are what make an impact on the rest of the characters by hurting them. Therefore, people need to be cautious of these negative characteristics that can lead to negative experiences and impacts.

Significance to My Students

The reason King Lear’s values are so significant to my students is because it teaches them to be aware of their surroundings, that not everything is what it seems. Thus, students should be aware of any person that may be fooling them. This is not to say that my students should not be able to trust anyone, but they should be aware of any red flag that may communicate that a person or situation may be trouble. As the reader has seen in the play, flattery may be a sign of which students must be aware. People will try to say whatever they can to gain their trust, but these people only want to be their friend because they have something they want. Excessive amounts of flattery may seem absurd because I feel like real friends tell a person nice complements only when it is necessary rather than all the time. As Cordelia expresses in the play, she cannot tell her father how much she loves him because she simply feels that love in her heart. I believe this principle applies in life as well because if someone truly cares for another person, one does not have to tell another excessively because the companionship is felt. Thus, students should be aware of others who constantly say what they supposedly feel because two people should know what they feel for another person without constantly saying so. In other words, friendship comes naturally and is not forced with constant compliments.