King Lear Research Paper

Consequences of Actions in King Lear In the play King Lear by William Shakespeare, King Lear is an old foolish man who suffers several flaws in the same way, he is blind to the truth, and his inability to see the truth impacts his decisions making and his poor judgment. Throughout act one and two, King Lear decisions lead to several consequences, which alter his life and the lives of those around him. A few of King Lear’s flaws which demonstrates the great deed of one man’s consequences are, his actions due to his blindness, rash decision making and exhibits a great deed of pride and arrogance. King Lear first weakness is his act of blindness. King Lear has a high position in society as King, therefore he is supposed to be able to acknowledge
King Lear reaches a point where he turned into a mad king and easily enraged by anybody that disagrees with his decisions, except his fool. King Lear is an old man who has enjoyed his authority of kingship for a long time and he is giving up everything to his. Lear is ready to hand all of his authority, and income that comes with kingship, but Lear keeps few things in return, first being one hundred knights and the second is to keep the title as “King” by saying “With reservation of an hundred knights By you to be sustain’d, shall our abode make with you by due turn, Only shall we retain The name and all th’addition to a king.” (1.1.132-135). This is an example of Lear’s pride and arrogance because Lear still wants to be known as a king although he owns nothing, no kingdom, and no authority over anything. Lear kept one hundred knights to prove that he is still known as a king and still powerful. As time passes Lear becomes less known in society which makes him furious because he is used to be a powerful king soon afterward becomes unrecognized. Lear is upset to the fact that he is unknown and an example when he shows his frustration would be “Does anyone here know me …/ Who is that can tell me Who I am?” (1.4.215-219). This proves that Lear himself notices that he is a nobody now, and he cannot define himself since he has lost everything, including his daughter and his loyal servant Kent. Lear’s daughters Goneril and Regan got everything they wanted from their father, and now they want to take his one hundred knights to make Lear completely powerless. Lear begins his retirement with him keeping one hundred knights and his title and wants to live with one of his daughters for one month. Lear’s knights are the only thing he has left and that is his only pride other than his title. His daughters demand Lear to get rid of his knights in order to stay. Lear lost his knights and losing his knights represents taking