Essay On King Lear As A Tragic Hero

Lear, as seen in Act I, has everything a man should want - wealth, power, peace, and a state of well-being.Because a tragic character must pass from happiness to misery, he must be seen at the beginning of the play as a happy man, surrounded by good fortune.As Goneril and Regan become more conniving and vile our sympathy for Lear grows further.

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I felt that a tragic hero must not be all good or all bad, but just by misfortune he is deprived of something very valuable to him by error of judgment.

We must be able to identify ourselves with the tragic hero if he is to inspire fear, for we must feel that what happens to him could happen to us.

He begins to understand true injustice and as his madness takes over, he is beginning a learning process.

He becomes more humble and, as a result, realizes his tragic hero status.

Then, the disasters that befall him will be unexpected and will be in direct contrast to his previous state.

In King Lear the two tragic characters, a king and an earl, are not ordinary men.A Jacobean audience may have felt disturbed by his choices remembering the uncertainty surrounding Queen Elizabeth I's successor.As an audience, we soon feel sympathy for Lear despite his egotistical manner.He is foolish and arrogant, it is true, but later he is also humble and compassionate. Because of his good qualities, we experience pity for him and feel that he does not deserve the severity of his punishment.His actions are not occasioned by any corruption or depravity in him, but by an error in judgment, which, however, does arise from a defect of character. It is his egotism in the first scene that causes him to make his error in judgment - the division of his kingdom and the loss of Cordelia.Gloucester undergoes physical and mental torment because he makes the same mistake that Lear does.Like Lear, Gloucester is neither completely good nor completely bad.However, it has been argued that Lear remains self-obsessed and vengeful as he ruminates on his revenge on Regan and Goneril.He never takes responsibility for his daughter’s natures or regrets his own flawed actions.You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both!If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, And let not women's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks!