Gloucester is no less a tragic figure than his king
‘Gloucester is no less a tragic figure than his king’.
By considering the role and dramatic presentation of Gloucester in ‘King Lear’, evaluate this view.
(30 Marks)
King Lear and Gloucester are similar to an extent of being tragic heroes, because they both experience the traditional features of a classic tragedy. Both characters go through the features of hubris, hamartia and culminates with anagnorisis. Shakespeare employs the double plot in ‘King Lear’, the only Shakespearean tragedy to employ two similar plots which function in a parallel manner. In doing so, Shakespeare is able to demonstrate the tragic consequences that result when the natural law is subverted. Despite both being tragic figures, the causes of their downfall are different and thus the culmination of the way both characters are considered to be tragic varies as well.
Lear and Gloucester both commit blunders in the opening of the play, calling attention to their own tragic flaw, however the both the cause and impact varies. There is an indication of a power struggle as Renaissance society was patriarchal and gerontocratic, meaning men did not consider retirement nor did they pass on their power when they reached old age. Lear deciding to give away his power to his daughters, under the intention of ‘conferring them on younger strengths, while we unburthen’d crawl towards death’, would have challenged the thinking of an Elizabethan audience who acknowledged the social construct of the ‘Great Chain of Being’, the existence of a natural social of all beings and animals having their own ordained position. Both figures reject a child who truly loved them- this is their tragic flaw. Lear’s decision to ‘disclaim all parental care’ from Cordelia, is perhaps the most impactful decision, because Lear had disacknowledged the one daughter who truly loved him. As a result, Lear’s subversion of power ‘to shake all cares and business from our age’ is perhaps more fata as a mistake in comparison to
By considering the role and dramatic presentation of Gloucester in ‘King Lear’, evaluate this view.
(30 Marks)
King Lear and Gloucester are similar to an extent of being tragic heroes, because they both experience the traditional features of a classic tragedy. Both characters go through the features of hubris, hamartia and culminates with anagnorisis. Shakespeare employs the double plot in ‘King Lear’, the only Shakespearean tragedy to employ two similar plots which function in a parallel manner. In doing so, Shakespeare is able to demonstrate the tragic consequences that result when the natural law is subverted. Despite both being tragic figures, the causes of their downfall are different and thus the culmination of the way both characters are considered to be tragic varies as well.
Lear and Gloucester both commit blunders in the opening of the play, calling attention to their own tragic flaw, however the both the cause and impact varies. There is an indication of a power struggle as Renaissance society was patriarchal and gerontocratic, meaning men did not consider retirement nor did they pass on their power when they reached old age. Lear deciding to give away his power to his daughters, under the intention of ‘conferring them on younger strengths, while we unburthen’d crawl towards death’, would have challenged the thinking of an Elizabethan audience who acknowledged the social construct of the ‘Great Chain of Being’, the existence of a natural social of all beings and animals having their own ordained position. Both figures reject a child who truly loved them- this is their tragic flaw. Lear’s decision to ‘disclaim all parental care’ from Cordelia, is perhaps the most impactful decision, because Lear had disacknowledged the one daughter who truly loved him. As a result, Lear’s subversion of power ‘to shake all cares and business from our age’ is perhaps more fata as a mistake in comparison to