Shakespeare's "King Lear"

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that King Lear is driven by a desire to validate himself independently from his noble status and that his natural combativeness brings about his own downfall. The author asks why, in the first place, does King Lear give up the throne and answers that he is beginning to realize his office is a separate entity from himself and that he is having a sort of belated mid-life crisis. The paper relates that Lear changes because, throughout the play, he finds the validation for which he has been searching and can now accept the love that Cordelia offers freely, the same love that he attempts to extort from her at the beginning of the play.

From the Paper:

"As early as the first scene, Lear can be seen struggling with his roles as king and father, and how his failings as one overlap with the other. As the play opens, Lear is secure, if not necessarily successful, in his position as king, but he has decided to abdicate the throne to his daughters and their husbands. He does so by staging a "love test", wherein he asks his daughters which one of them loves him most and awards them a portion of the kingdom in relation to their answers. Cordelia's refusal to flatter him causes him to explode, banishing her and his trusted advisor Kent, and setting the play in motion. This scene introduces many important ideas that will recur throughout the play, and is the most important for understanding Lear's character."

More papers on Shakespeare's "King Lear":

• Analytical Essay # 31382 : "Madness in "King Lear" and "Twelfth Night"
• Analytical Essay # 49467 : "Deception in "King Lear"
• Term Paper # 92861 : "Inversion as a Literary Device in 'King Lear'"
• Analytical Essay # 119804 : "The Destruction of the Body Politic in "King Lear"

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