Views of King Lear
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
There has been many different views on the plays of William Shakespeare and definitions of what kind of play they were. The two most popular would be the comedy and the tragedy. King Lear to some people may be a comedy because they believe that the play has been over exaggerated. Others would say King Lear was a tragedy because there is so much suffering and chaos.
What makes a Shakespearean play a comedy or a tragedy? King Lear would be a tragedy because it meets all the requirements of a tragedy as defined by Andrew Cecil Bradley. Bradley states that a Shakespearean tragedy must have to be the story of the hero and that there is exceptional suffering and calamity slowly being worn in as well as it being contrasted to happier times. The play also depicts the troubled parts in his life and eventually his death that is instantaneous caused by the suffering and calamity. There is the feeling of fear in the play as well, that makes men see how blind they are not knowing when fortune or something else would be on them. The hero must be of a high status on the chain and the hero also possesses a tragic flaw that initiates the tragedy. The fall of the hero is not felt by him alone but creates a chain reaction which affects everything below him. There must also be the element of chance or accident that influences some point in the play.
King Lear meets all of these requirements that has been laid out by Bradley which is the most logical for a definition of a tragedy as compared to the definition of a comedy by G. Wilson Knight.
The main character of the play would be King Lear who in terms of Bradley would be the hero and hold the highest position is the social chain. Lear out of Pride and anger has banished Cordelia and split the kingdom in half to the two older sisters, Goneril and Regan. This is Lear's tragic flaw which prevents him to see the true faces of people because his pride and anger overrides his judgement. As we see in the first act, Lear does not listen to Kent's plea to see closer to the true faces of his daughters. Kent has hurt Lear's pride by disobeying his order to stay out of his and Cordelia's way when Lear...