Kig Lear Final
King Lear is known by some as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies ever written. King Lear deals with how children and parents treat each other and the question of whether human nature is selfish or generous. Nature played a huge role within this play. You can find many ideas about the relationship between human beings and the natural world in the text such as when King Lear tells his daughter that neither human nature nor royal dignity can tolerate the way she has insulted him. Another way nature is included in the text is when Lear tells the King of France that nature is ashamed to have produced a child like Cordelia. I feel that this play is based hugely on nature.
Nature affected how people on each side thought about what was going on. For example King Lear and “good characters” talk about nature as making us care about one another, especially our own families. Edmund, far from being a good character, talks about nature as making us care only about ourselves, and Goneril thinks of nature in terms of “survival of the fittest“.
Each character in King Lear was affected by nature in different ways. I expected Cordelia would show a lot of bitterness towards her father or find comfort in his downfall, but she still shows unconditional love towards him, and feels no resentment towards him or his actions. Cordelia was depicted as a character whose nature is beautiful, true, and pleasant throughout the whole play, and this was epitomized by her forgiveness of her father for his treatment of her. But no matter how patient Cordelia’s nature was, the nature of her sisters was always the opposite.
Two characters who I felt were the most affected by nature were Gloucester and Edmund. Gloucester, to me, was blinded by the deceitful nature of Edmund before he was ever physically incapable of sight. He was unwilling to see that Edgar was good and Edmund merely wanted the power that was denied him due to his mother. Gloucester was unable to see any of the treachery that was going around him. His blindness began when Edmund convinced him that Edgar was planning to kill him, which resulted in Gloucester trusting Edmund with his deepest secrets. Edmund then betrayed him by telling Cornwall of his fathers attempt to help King Lear, hence Gloucester got his eyes taken from him....