Monday 13th November
King Lear by William Shakespeare - 2001 Essay
“Scenes of great suffering and of great tenderness help to make King Lear a
very memorable play.”
The tragedy play ‘King Lear’ by William Shakespere is perhaps one of the most tragic
pieces of literature that I have come across. The play is filled with scenes of both great
suffering and great tenderness that have a huge impact on me both positively and
negatively. These scenes greatly touched me and I feel they were very memorable due to
these scenes of great suffering and tenderness. The scenes most memorable to me in the
play were, the scene of suffering that is Edmunds plan to deceive both his father,
Gloucester, and his brother, Edgar, for his own personal gain. The scene is followed by
another two scenes of suffering cause by Edmunds selfishness, Edgar’s need to flee and
become a fugitive and Edmunds betray of his father to Cornwall and Regan leads to
Gloucester’s eyes being plucked and his immediate blindness. These scenes of suffering
are soon followed by a touching scene of tenderness where Gloucester and Edgar are
reunited and the love between the two is clearly seen. However, more scenes of suffering
that are memorable to me is the scenes of King Lear’s division of his kingdom where we see
Lear disown and banishes Cordelia as well as his loyal servant Kent. This leads to more
scenes of suffering for Lear and we see him lose his sanity when he is continually betrayed
by his daughters, Goneril and Regan. A scene of tenderness for Lear is when Cordelia
comes to his aid and forgives him, this to me is an important scene with an important
message. The last scene that I find extremely memorable is the scene where Cordelia dies
and soon Lear follows due to a broken heart, in my opinion this is a scene of both suffering
and tenderness. These scenes of suffering and tenderness make the play interesting and
memorable.
An important scene of great suffering for me, is the scene in which Edmund states his plans
to deceive both his father, Gloucester and his brother, Edgar, in order to gain great power
and wealth. “Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed and my invention thrive, Edmund the base shall
top th' legitimate. I grow, I prosper”. Edmund tricks his father into believing that Edgar plans to
kill him, all the while Edmund convinces Edgar that their father is furious with him and that
he should flee to save himself from their fathers wrath. Edgar tears his family apart for his
own personal gain. To me this scene is one of suffering as it shows how power and money
can effect people and how it can make them greedy and selfish. We see Edmund destroy
his family and his own brothers life in order to inherit everything from his father. We see how
society and it’s rules can really effect people in regards to Edmund. It is known that in the
past, Bastards were severely frowned upon and we see the effects of this in Edmund and
we see him try to defy this image. I think that Edmund being a bast...
