How Does King Lear Change
Life is a storm. One day a kingdom will bow at your feet, be stripped down the next, but what displays true character is what one does when the storm comes. Shakespeare’s King Lear sincerely bears out the statement. This tragedy utilizes the metaphor nothing as a vehicle to further emphasize the story through king Lear’s character development and his changing attitude.
The metaphor nothing is defined as no interest, value, or consequence (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d). One can conclude, this is what Lear had in mind when his most loving daughter Cordelia, failed to woe him in the same manner his sisters had. By way of nature, Lear’s hamartia was dividing his divine right before time. If one were to follow the wheel of nature, disturbing …show more content…
Although tormented by the fact that even when he was important and had value he held nothing, he was also confronted with the physical issues his selfishness had caused other people, like his Fool who followed him into the storm, and Kent his loyal servant who had been exiled, or even his entire kingdom whom he hadn’t taken care of properly. After this realization, Lear’s perspective of the word “nothing” changed. While Lear had to lose everything to really understand what it meant to have nothing, Kent and Cordelia demonstrated that the true value of their loyalty remained in their actions not their words. What makes this a tragedy aside from death and Lear’s hamartia, is the Kings’ inevitable full turn of the wheel. Once he realized where he had gone wrong, there was no way to stop what came next. However, in the end it did not mattered for Lear learned the true meaning of love and what it meant to have something. He might have had it all and lost it, but when Cordelia forgave him and saw her once again, he wished for nothing more, because he had realized her love did not belong to her tongue but her heart, one that despite his ignorance, forgave him, brought him peace and wisdom.
The lesson one can take from King Lear’s tragedy is that words are not necessarily tied to any real irreplaceable value like those of actions. However, judgement is still as important. Wisdom is present to those who perceive the rights and wrongs, to
The metaphor nothing is defined as no interest, value, or consequence (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d). One can conclude, this is what Lear had in mind when his most loving daughter Cordelia, failed to woe him in the same manner his sisters had. By way of nature, Lear’s hamartia was dividing his divine right before time. If one were to follow the wheel of nature, disturbing …show more content…
Although tormented by the fact that even when he was important and had value he held nothing, he was also confronted with the physical issues his selfishness had caused other people, like his Fool who followed him into the storm, and Kent his loyal servant who had been exiled, or even his entire kingdom whom he hadn’t taken care of properly. After this realization, Lear’s perspective of the word “nothing” changed. While Lear had to lose everything to really understand what it meant to have nothing, Kent and Cordelia demonstrated that the true value of their loyalty remained in their actions not their words. What makes this a tragedy aside from death and Lear’s hamartia, is the Kings’ inevitable full turn of the wheel. Once he realized where he had gone wrong, there was no way to stop what came next. However, in the end it did not mattered for Lear learned the true meaning of love and what it meant to have something. He might have had it all and lost it, but when Cordelia forgave him and saw her once again, he wished for nothing more, because he had realized her love did not belong to her tongue but her heart, one that despite his ignorance, forgave him, brought him peace and wisdom.
The lesson one can take from King Lear’s tragedy is that words are not necessarily tied to any real irreplaceable value like those of actions. However, judgement is still as important. Wisdom is present to those who perceive the rights and wrongs, to