King Lears Transition in Shakespeares Play, King Lear Essay -- King

baron Lears Transition in Shakespeares Play, King LearIn the athletics King Lear, by William Shakespeare, the main character, Lear, takes the audience through his journey toward his enlightenment. At the beginning of the play Lear appears to be an arrogant man who is too much of the flesh. He associates money and power with love and respect. Thus, when Lear has given all this material possessions to his daughters, Goneril and Regan, he begins his long journey of self discovery. Through an analysis of two passages, one keep suppose the transition of Lear from a man blinded by the flesh to a caring and compassionate madman that sees the right. The first passage comes from act I, prospect iv. Lears arrogance is illustrated in this passage as he commands nature to make Goneril infertile Dry up in her organs of increase, / And from her derogate body never spring / A babe to honour her... (I.iv.245-258). As Lear speaks angrily to an external subject, nature, he is really speaking an grily inwardly to his subconscious. As seen in Oedipus Rex, the actualisation of a truth is very painful process and often brings out strong emotions such as anger. Usually the truth is presented to a character in small increments so as not to overwhelm the character. Thus, the anger displayed by Lear is a reflection of the pain he feels from his daughters betrayal. The contrary of this is found in the secondly passage. In this scene the audience is shown humble Lear. When he says Let copulation thrive for Gloucesters bastard son / Was kinder to his father than my daughters / Got tween the lawful sheets. / Tot luxury, pell-mell for I pretermit soldiers. (IV.vi.110-114). This supports that Lear is much humbler. As seen in the first excerpt, Lear command... ...ence to better understand the nature of Lear That is, what is going on inside him. Through these two passages, one can see the changes in Lears language and the imagery he conveys about nature. These changes are a representa tion of Lears transformation from a sane man, blinded of the truth, to a madman, closer to the truth than any sane man. This study supports that Lears character has made a significant advance in his journey towards the truth. Works Cited Clemen, Wolfgang. The Development of Shakespeares Imagery. New York, NY, USAMethuen & Co. 1977.Shakespeare. King Lear. Elements of Literature. Ed. Robert Scholes, Nancy Comley, Carl H. Klaus, and David Staines. Toronto Oxford University Press, 1990. Young, David. Shakespeares Tragedies - A Collection of Critical Essays.Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1993.