Why Is King Lear Still Relevant Today
From a King that had everything, he could have imagined, to living in the woods with a homeless a person. A few decisions based on rage and anger led to this demise for King Lear in Shakespeare’s play King Lear. Shakespeare’s writings are known globally and remarked as some of the most influential literature ever written. It is no surprise to see why Shakespeare has been studied for hundreds of years since it was written. While many people believe Shakespeare still needs to be taught, there are some people that wonder why Shakespeare is still taught in schools. While his writing style may be hard to understand at times, Shakespeare is still relevant to today's society. His plays offer unique takes on life that are still important to this day. King Lear, in particular, shows that making decisions solely based off of emotion will lead to terrible things. Shakespeare shows this in the first scene of King Lear when
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While the daughters say they love their father they actually are conspiring against him to take everything he has from him. Even Goneril knows that Lear made a mistake by disowning Cordelia when she says to Regan, “He always loved our sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly” (I.i,292-3). Later in this scene, Goneril says, “We must do something, and i’the heat” (I.i,309). These two quotes show that Goneril and Regan realize their father's poor judgment and must act now on it so as to not lose the fortune they are going to inherit. This leads to Lear staying with his daughters and ultimately leaving him because they won’t let him keep all of his guards. Lear makes another decision based off of emotion and goes to live by himself in the woods. If Lear hadn’t been so quick to disown Cordelia he would have another place to stay, but instead, he is living with Poor Tom in the
While the daughters say they love their father they actually are conspiring against him to take everything he has from him. Even Goneril knows that Lear made a mistake by disowning Cordelia when she says to Regan, “He always loved our sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly” (I.i,292-3). Later in this scene, Goneril says, “We must do something, and i’the heat” (I.i,309). These two quotes show that Goneril and Regan realize their father's poor judgment and must act now on it so as to not lose the fortune they are going to inherit. This leads to Lear staying with his daughters and ultimately leaving him because they won’t let him keep all of his guards. Lear makes another decision based off of emotion and goes to live by himself in the woods. If Lear hadn’t been so quick to disown Cordelia he would have another place to stay, but instead, he is living with Poor Tom in the