foolear The Very Foolish King in William Shakespeares King Lear :: King Lear essays

The Very Foolish King Lear  Shakespeares tragedy King Lear is a precisedescription of the consequences of one mans decisions.  This fictitiousman is Lear, King of England, whose decisions coarsely alter his life andthe lives of those around him.  As Lear bears the status of King, he is aman of great power, but blindly he surrenders all of this power to hisdaughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him.  Thisuntimely surrender of his throne sets off a chain reaction of events thatsends him through a hellish journey.  King Lear is a metaphoricaldescription of one mans journey through hell in raise to appease hismistake. As the play opens, one can almost immediately see that Lear begins to makemistakes that will eventually result in his downfall.  The very world-class wordsthat he speaks in the play are         Give me the map there.        Know that we accommodate divided&nb sp       In three our kingdom and tis our fast look        To shake all cares and business from our age,        Conferring them on younger strengths while we        Unburdened crawl toward death.(Act I, Sc i, Ln 37-41) This gives the reader the first indication of Lears intent to relinquishhis throne.  He is growing old and wants to shake all cares and businessfrom his age.  In a since he wants to retire from a job that you cannotretire from.  He has no discussion to hand his throne down to, so he must give itto his daughters. He offers his daughters pieces of his kingdom a form ofreward to his test of love.         Great rivals in our youngest daughters love,        Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,        And here are to be answered. Tell me, my daughter s        (Since now we will divest us both(prenominal) of rule,        Interest of territory, cares of state),        Which of you shall we say doth love us most?        That we our largest bounty may extend        Where nature doth with merit challenge.        (Act I, Sc i, Ln 46-53) This is the first and most significant of the some mistakes that he commitsin this play.  By relinquishing his throne to fuel his ego, he disrupts thegreat chain of being, which states that the King must not challenge theposition that the gods have given him.  This undermining the godsauthority results in chaos that tears apart Lears world, leaving him, inthe end, with nothing.  Following this, Lear begins to banish those aroundhim that genuinely care for him he cannot have the appearance _or_ semblance to realize who loves him