Humanitys Fate in King Lear :: English Literature Essays

Humanitys Fate in King Lear some(prenominal) tragedies have been written throughout history. The purpose of these tragedies were to illustrate some cause of moral lesson. The sad situation involves mans misreckoning of reality and the fatal results of those miscalculations. Our tragic hero must endure a great deal of suffering. It ends in his ruin or destruction. We must similarly understand that tragedy non only destroys the guilty, but also the innocent. The tragic hero represents what could happen to humankind. He is responsible for his society. He is a representation of our own fate. The fate of mankind will be discussed in King Lear, by William Shakespeare. In this miserable play, our tragic hero was King Lear. Our tragic hero must also have a tragic flaw. Lears tragic flaw was his vanity. Lear is so full of himself that he doesnt realize the truth. First of all, Lear wants to divide his kingdom up into tether parts for his three daughters. Each daughters portion depend ed on how much they would animate their love for him. Lear rates, Give me the map there. Know that we have divided in three our kingdom, and tis our fast intent to shake all cares and business from our age, conferring them on younger strengths while we unburdened crawl to death.(Act I, i, l. 38-41) Lear should not have give up his powers in the early place. He expects to be treated like a king when he no longer will have the power of a king. Secondly, he says, Great rivals in our youngest daughters love, long in our tap have made their amorous sojourn, and here are to be answered. name me, my daughters ( Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state), which of you should we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend where character doth with merit challenge.(Act I, i, l. 47-53) Within these few lines, we see Lears first sign of vanity. For sensation daughter to receive more land than another, one must exclaim their love t o be more than the other. He is measuring their love with land. Naturally, his first two daughters, Goneril and Regan, will lie to him, but his vanity blinds him from the truth. Lears first miscalculation was dividing his land between the daughters. The second is allowing his vanity to get the best of him.