Introduction
The tragedy “King Lear” is undoubtedly one of Shakespeare’s most profound and grandiose works. The main character’s suffering in this work surpasses all anguish depicted by Shakespeare both before and after this drama. But it is not only the power of tragic tension that distinguishes this work. It surpasses Shakespeare’s other creations in its reflection of societal problems and the universal character these problems acquire in the play. The tragedy “King Lear” reflects the heavy suffering of the masses in the modern Shakespeare era, marked by profound changes in the life of English society.
The Tragedy as a Depiction of Shakespeare’s Era
The legend of King Lear and his daughters goes back to ancient times: it probably originated in ancient Britain before the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons. Thus, in its original form, it was the saga of the British Celts. However, Shakespeare depicted the characters of the saga not as individual persons with their problems but rather as a collective image aimed to portray the problems that reigned in society at that time. Thus, in “King Lear” the problems of family relations are closely intertwined with the problems of social and political character.
First of all, in order to depict the universality of the events, to show that this is not a particular case he describes but the characteristics of his epoque, Shakespeare doubled the plot, telling, in parallel with the tragedy of Lear, about the conflict in the family of a nobleman close to him, Gloster. Similar events take place under the roof of different castles. Regan, Goneril, her butler Oswald, and the traitor Edmund are not isolated “villains”. Shakespeare created a tragedy in which he invested a lot of social content and in which, using the plot outline of an ancient legend, he exposed the true essence of his times.
The two planes of the tragedy vividly depict the confrontation of sincerity with callousness, greed and ambition, the struggle for power, righteous revenge, and, finally, the death of the main actors against the background of the discovery of the betrayal on the part of their close relatives.
The Image of King Lear
Lear, at the beginning of the tragedy, is intoxicated with the illusion of his omnipotence, blind to the needs of his people, disposing of the country as his personal estate, which he can divide and give away as he pleases. From everyone around him, including his daughters, he demands only blind obedience instead of sincerity. His dogmatic and scholastic mind asks for external, conditional signs of submission (Abbas and Khudair). This is used by the two eldest daughters, hypocritically assuring him of their love and is opposed by Cordelia, who knows only one law — the law of truth and naturalness. But Lear is deaf to the voice of truth, and for this, he suffers severe punishment.
Being expelled from his house, Lear, for the first time in his life, remembers about poor people out there. This is the moment when the king begins to understand that life outside the castle is full of suffering. The image of the king is dynamic and reflects the profound change in the perception of the king from the illusion of omnipotence to the painful knowledge of the cruel reality surrounding him (Abbas and Khudair).
This dynamic character of Lear is reflected in his speeches. Thus, at the beginning of the play he gives orders, proudly speaking of himself as “we”: “Meantime we shall express our darker purpose”, “know that we have divided in three our kingdom: and ’tis our fast intent”, “out of my sight!” (Shakespeare, p. 3). He also compares himself with an enraged dragon whom it is not wise to enrage: “come not between the dragon and his wrath” (Shakespeare, p. 4.). At the beginning of the play, Lear sees other people as inferior to him and, thus, he says: ” O, vassal! miscreant!”, “Better thou hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better” (Shakespeare, p. 5). Even after the abdication, Lear at first remains the same despot. He continues giving orders and insulting people around him. Thus, he says, “Your whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!”, “An you lie, sirrah, we’ll have you whipped” (Shakespeare, p. 11, 13).
However, Lear’s character and his speech began to change in the storm scene. Here the readers see Lear who has seen all the truth of the surrounding reality. Thus, he says, “A man may see how this world goes with no eyes” (Shakespeare, p. 36). For the first time in his life, he thinks about wretched people and sees them as human. He also suffers from the fact that all the ideas which he entertained about life are untrue, and the life he sees around him is meaningless and cruel. This renewed Lear does not put up with the injustice that reigns in the world. He, who used to be one of the perpetrators of injustice himself, now condemns it. He is obsessed with judging – and not only his daughters but everyone who is cruel to others.
One of the most heartfelt places of the tragedy is the episode of the meeting of the mad Lear and the blinded Gloucester. Lear now sees that injustice reigns everywhere, the root of which is inequality. The power that he used to be so proud of was a reinforcement of this injustice. Scenes of Lear’s madness ensue. Lear’s insanity is not a pathological state: this is the pressure of violent feelings from within that shake the old Lear. Shakespeare shows that the king loved his daughters very dearly to be so passionately indignant at them. In the suffering of Lear, the true essence of the environment is revealed, where everyone is ready to destroy the other. It is not by coincidence that images of predatory animals, as textual analysis shows, are found in the text of King Lear more often in other Shakespeare’s tragedies. By introducing them into the text, Shakespeare wanted to depict the era of lawlessness where the strongest and wealthiest got the most out of life.
The System of Characters
The main characters of “King Lear” belong to two families and hold their respective places in the socio-hierarchical structure. The decisive role, however, is given not to the family and social ties, but to the internal characteristics of the characters that are either “good” and “evil”. Only a few of the main characters retain their original social and family ties, while others change them in the course of time. For many characters, the place determined by tradition and hierarchy turns out to be ephemeral (Rozikovna and Karimova). Thus, the king, the Earl of Gloucester and his rightful heir descend in the social hierarchy while the disenfranchised bastard rises to the very top. At the beginning, people’s nature is concealed by civilized hypocrisy. Later, as characters break out of their hierarchical place, their individual personalities become more pronounced.
In the behavior of individual actors, it is possible to distinguish features that are indicative of the group of characters as a whole. Thus, the image of Oswald combines such characteristics as falsehood, hypocrisy, arrogance, self-interest and cruelty that to a certain degree define each of the characters who make up the evil camp (Rozikovna and Karimova). The opposite technique is used when Shakespeare depicts Cornwall. In this image, the playwright highlights the only leading character trait – the unbridled cruelty of the duke, who is ready to give up his opponents to the most painful execution. However, the role of Cornwall, as well as the role of Oswald, does not have a self-sufficient meaning and performs, in essence, a service function (Rozikovna and Karimova). The disgusting, sadistic cruelty of Cornwall is of interest not in itself, but only as a way for Shakespeare to show that Regan, about whom Lear speaks with tenderness, is no less cruel than her husband.
The starting point in the characterization of Regan and Goneril is the theme of the ingratitude of children towards their fathers. London life at the beginning of the 17th century was characterized by many cases of disobedience and deviation from the old ethical norms, according to which the respectful gratitude of children towards their parents was something taken for granted. Painting the moral image of Goneril and Regan whose hypocrisy and deceit cover the selfish aspirations that guide all the actions of these characters, Shakespeare depicts the gradual degradation of social norms in the society (Binyun and Zhang). In fact, the readers see the community which is patriarchal only in its outer forms. None of the actors are interested in general notions such as the unity of family or the prosperity of the state, people are becoming more self-centered. While this is clearly seen in Lear’s elder daughters Goneril and Regan, ready for any deception to get their share of royal lands and power, the absence of patriarchal virtues of submission and obedience is seen in Cordelia too. Thus, she shows her unwillingness to humiliate herself with flattery and a public confession of feelings that she considers deeply intimate. The noble Earl of Kent, for all his feudal devotion to his overlord, shows no less independence when he boldly reproaches the king for unreasonable anger against Cordelia. Thus, Kent says to Lear: “I’ll tell thee thou dost evil” (Shakespeare, p. 6).
Although all the characters in King Lear have feudal titles and titles, nevertheless, the society depicted in the tragedy is not medieval. Individualism hides behind the feudal guise. The new self-consciousness the actors of the tragedy is expressed in different ways. One group of characters consists of those in whom individualism is combined with predatory egoism. First of all, these are Goneril, Regan, Cornwall and Edmond. Of these, Edmond acts as an exponent of the philosophy of life, which guides all people of this type. The second group of actors in the tragedy are people with a clear consciousness of their personality, but alien to egoism (Binyun and Zhang). Cordelia, Edgar, Kent, King Lear’s fool are guided by concepts of loyalty and devotion, and in their behavior, they are selfless. However, it is not the instinct of submission but the free choice of the object of service that determines their behavior. They serve Lear not as subjects but as friends, preserving spiritual independence, including the Fool, the most strident of them and mercilessly direct in his opinions.
In the course of the tragedy, two polar worlds are formed. On the one hand, there is the world of wealth and power. On the other – the world of all the wretched and poor. The portrayal of these two worlds reflects the state of society in Shakespeare’s times, where those who won in the shameless pursuit of wealth are opposed to those who lost the game because they were honest and this honesty made them defenseless against the treachery of power seeing hypocrites.
Conclusion
In King Lear, one of his most profound tragedies, Shakespeare portrayed the monstrous contradictions, cruelty, and injustice of the society around him. While there is no answer in the play as to how change the life of the society to provide equal rights and opportunities for everyone, Shakespeare condemns the patriarchic order people blindly followed to gain money and power. Shakespeare shows that no wealth can make a person happy as far as he or she does not understand the true values of life, such as honesty, loyalty and the truth that should govern people in their actions and their judgment of others.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. “King Lear:[1608].” Oxford Text Archive Core Collection, 1991.
Abbas, Assist Prof Dr A’bla, and Khudair Al-Tamimi. “The illusion of superiority in the structure of Shakespearean personalities a psycho-critical study (King Lear play as a model).” Journal of Nabo vol. 30, no. 37, 2022.
Binyun, Wang., and Ruwen Zhang. “An Ethical Interpretation of King Lear.” Studies in Literature and Language vol. 20, no. 3, 2020, pp. 63-69. Web.
Rozikovna, Kurbonova Nodira, and Karimova Khadicha Jamshidovna. “Psychological Analysis of the of the Main Characters in the Tragedy” King Lear” by U. Shakespeare.” International Journal of Inclusive and Sustainable Education vol. 1, no. 4, 2022, pp. 56-59. Web.