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Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear is a detailed  description of the consequences of one man’s decisions.   This fictitious man is Lear, King of England, who’s  decisions greatly alter his life and the lives of those  around him.  As Lear bears the status of King he is, as one  expects, a man of great power but sinfully he surrenders all of this power to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him.  This untimely abdication  of his throne results in a chain reaction of events that  send him through a journey of hell.  King Lear is a  metaphorical description of one man’s journey through hell  in order to expiate his sin.

As the play opens one can almost immediately see that  Lear begins to make mistakes that will eventually result in  his downfall.  The very first words that he speaks in the  play are :- “…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, Sc i, Ln 38-41) This gives the reader the first indication of Lear’s intent  to abdicate his throne.  He goes on further to offer pieces  of his kingdom to his daughters as a form of reward to his  test of love.    “Great rivals in our youngest daughter’s love, Long in our court have made their amorous      sojourn, And here are to be answered. Tell me, my      daughters (Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state), Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend where nature doth with merit challenge.”

(Act I, Sc i, Ln 47-53) This is the first and most significant of the many sins that  he makes in this play.  By abdicating his throne to fuel his  ego he is disrupts the great chain of being which states  that the King must not challenge the position that God has  given him.  This undermining of God’s authority results in  chaos that tears apart Lear’s world.  Leaving him, in the  end, with nothing.  Following this Lear begins to banish  those around him that genuinely care for him as at this  stage he cannot see beyond the mask that the evil wear.  He banishes Kent, a loyal servant to Lear, and his  youngest and previously most loved daughter Cordelia.  This  results in Lear surrounding himself with people who only  wish to use him which leaves him very vulnerable attack.   This is precisely what happens and it is through this that  he discovers his wrongs and amends them.

Following the committing of his sins, Lear becomes  abandoned and estranged from his kingdom which causes him to  loose insanity. While lost in his grief and self-pity the  fool is introduced to guide Lear back to the sane world and  to help find the lear that was ounce lost behind a hundred  Knights but now is out in the open and scared like a little  child.  The fact that Lear has now been pushed out from  behind his Knights is dramatically represented by him  actually being out on the lawns of his castle.  The  terrified little child that is now unsheltered is  dramatically portrayed by Lear’s sudden insanity and his  rage and anger is seen through the thunderous weather that  is being experienced.   All of this contributes to the  suffering of Lear due to the gross sins that he has  committed.

The pinnacle of this hell that is experienced be Lear  in order to repay his sins is at the end of the play when  Cordelia is killed.  Lear says this before he himself dies  as he cannot live without his daughter. “Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones. Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone      for ever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives. She’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass. If that her breath will mist or stain the      stone, Why, then she lives.”

 (Act V, Sc iii, Ln 306-312)      All of this pain that Lear suffered is traced back to  the single most important error that he made.  The choice to  give up his throne.  This one sin has proven to have massive  repercussions upon Lear and the lives of those around him  eventually killing almost all of those who were involved.   And one is left to ask one’s self if a single wrong turn can  do this to Lear then what difficult corner lies ahead that  ma cause similar alterations in one’s life.

              Reference List Shakespeare, William. King Lear.  Eric A.      McCann, ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovick      Canada Inc., Canada. 1988.      There has been many different views on the plays of  William Shakespeare and definitions of what kind of play  they were.  The two most popular would be the comedy and the  tragedy.  King Lear to some people may be a comedy because  they believe that the play has been over exaggerated.   Others would say King Lear was a tragedy because there is so  much suffering and chaos.        What makes a Shakespearean play a comedy or a tragedy?   King Lear would be a tragedy because it meets all the  requirements of a tragedy as defined by Andrew Cecil  Bradley.  Bradley states that a Shakespearean tragedy must  have to be the story of the hero and that there is  exceptional suffering and calamity slowly being worn in as well as it being contrasted to happier times.  The  play also depicts the troubled parts in his life and  eventually his death that is instantaneous caused by the  suffering and calamity.  There is the feeling of fear in the  play as well, that makes men see how blind they are not  knowing when fortune or something else would be on them.   The hero must be of a high status on the chain and the hero also possesses a tragic flaw that initiates the  tragedy.  The fall of the hero is not felt by him alone but  creates a chain reaction which affects everything below him.   There must also be the element of chance or accident that  influences some point in the play.      King Lear meets all of these requirements that has been  laid out by Bradley which is the most logical for a  definition of a tragedy as compared to the definition of a  comedy by G. Wilson Knight.      The main character of the play would be King Lear who  in terms of Bradley would be the hero and hold the highest  position is the social chain.  Lear out of Pride and anger  has banished Cordelia and split the kingdom in half to the  two older sisters, Goneril and Regan.  This is Lear’s tragic  flaw which prevents him to see the true faces of people  because his pride and anger overrides his judgement.  As we  see in the first act, Lear does not listen to Kent’s plea to  see closer to the true faces of his daughters.  Kent has  hurt Lear’s pride by disobeying his order to stay out of his and Cordelia’s way when Lear has already warned him,  “The  bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.”  Kent still  disobeys Lear and is banished.  Because of this flaw, Lear  has initiated the tragedy by disturbing the order in the  chain of being by dividing the kingdom, banishing his best  servant and daughter, and giving up his thrown.

Due to this flaw, Lear has given way to the two older daughters to conspire against him.  Lear is finally thrown  out of his daughters home and left with a fool, a servant  and a beggar.  This is when Lear realizes the mistake that  he has made and suffers the banishment of his two eldest  daughters.  Lear is caught in a storm and begins to lose his  sanity because he can not bear the treatment of his two  daughters as well as the error he has made with Cordelia and  Kent.  Lear also suffers from rest when he is moving all  over the place and the thing that breaks him is the death of  his youngest daughter Cordelia.  This suffering can be  contrasted with other happier times like when Lear was still  king and when he was not banished by his two  daughters.

The feeling of fear is when Lear is in the storm raging against the gods,  “I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.  I never gave you kingdom, called you children, you owe me no subscription.”, telling them to rage harder since he has not done anything  for them and that he didn’t deserve what he has received  from his two daughters.  The fear is how Lear in a short  period of time went from king to just a regular peasant and  from strong and prideful to weak and unconfident.  This  shows that men do not hold their own destiny and that even  though things may be great now you can be struck down just  as fast as was to Lear.

The fall of Lear is not just the suffering of one man  but the suffering of everyone down the chain.  Gloucester  loses his status and eyes, Cordelia and Kent banished, and  Albany realizing his wife’s true heart.  Everything that  happened to these characters are affected by Lear in one way  or another and that if Lear had not banished Cordelia and  Kent then the two sisters would not be able to plot against  their father.  Without the plot of the two sisters then  Gloucester would not of lost his eyes to Cornwall and his status because he was guilty of treason. There is an element  of chance in the play in which Edgar meets Oswald trying to  kill his father because he is a traitor.  Oswald is slain  asks Edgar,  “And give the letters which thou find’st about me to Edmund Earl of Gloucester.  Seek him out upon the English party.” Edgar finds a letter to Edmund from Goneril about the  conspiracy to kill Albany.  This part in the play affects  the outcome of Goneril and Edmund in which will lead to both  of their deaths.

The pain and suffering endured by Lear eventually tears  down his strength and sanity.  Lear is not as strong,  arrogant, and prideful as he was in the beginning of the  play instead he is weak, scared, and a confused old man.  At  the end of the play Lear has completely lost his sanity with  the loss of his daughter Cordelia and this is the thing that  breaks Lear and leads to his death.  Lear dies with the  knowledge that Cordelia is dead and dies as a man in pain.  “And my poor fool is hanged!  No, no, no life!  Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,  And thou no breath at all?  Thou’lt come no more, never, never, never, never, never!”

King Lear has met all the requirements that Bradley has  stated as a Shakespearean tragedy.  Lear has a tragic flaw  which is his pride that prevents him to see the true faces  of people.  He also initiates the tragedy by the banishment  of Cordelia and Kent as well as dividing the kingdom.  Lear  has also suffered and endured the pains of his error which  leads to his death and which is contrasted to that of  happier times.  There is the feeling of fear in the play  which is of a King losing his crown and becoming a peasant.   Lear has also created a chain reaction that affects everything down the chain.  The element of chance is also introduced in the play with Edgar and Oswald, Oswald  possessing the letter to Edmund.  And the final part is the  death of King Lear dying in suffering of the death of his  daughter Cordelia.