"King Lear" can be regarded as one of Shakespeare's greatest works, which fully demonstrates the unavoidable ugliness, unparalleled cruelty and inescapable sorrow in human nature; at the same time, the play It also fully embodies the deep-rooted kindness in human nature, dedication without asking for anything in return, unyielding sincerity and touching sacrifice. The whole play is full of torture and reflection on royal power, society, justice, humanity, nature, and even God. This article takes the past Lear as the core, and uses the five major scenes related to Lear in the play as the classification criteria to carefully examine Lear's transformation throughout the play and the education he received.
As king, Lear is a tyrannical dictator, which is mainly reflected in his choice of husband for his youngest daughter Cordelia. Before Cordelia offended King Lear, she was very loved. Lear wanted to give her "land richer than your two sisters", and the eldest daughter Goneril and the second daughter Regan also I can feel this preference, "He has always loved our sister the most." But when Cordelia did not express his love for her according to Lear's intention, Lear not only deprived Cordelia of her land, but also tried his best to belittle Cordelia to her two suitors. He directly advised the Duke of Burgundy to "give him up" and the King of France to "leave this bitch who is not tolerated by heaven and earth and find another good wife." Even after the King of France insisted on choosing Cordelia, Lear still cursed them, "Don't think of getting my blessing," causing the King of France to "go away in anger." King Lear is arbitrary and capricious in his daughter's marriage; he instantly calls his beloved daughter a bitch, which shows his extreme arbitrariness.
King Lear is not only tyrannical, but also ignorant and easily deceived. When faced with the flattery of Goneril and Regan, he seemed to be extremely useful, thinking that what they said was their true inner thoughts, and had no tendency to doubt at all. However, when faced with Cordelia's speechlessness, he seemed to be very helpful. He made a decision without even considering whether what Cordelia said was true. When faced with Kent's remonstrance to plead for Cordelia, Lear did not think at all. He just relied on the authority of the monarch to make Kent submit, "shut your mouth", and finally deprived him of his love. official positions and deported them.
It can be seen from this that King Lear is a domineering, ignorant, and easily fooled court king. He lives in a self-world constructed by royal power. The royal power completely closes him and makes his behavior... He can do whatever he wants with words, etc. He cannot see the real world, the truth of society and true humanity. Ironically, his tragedy originated from his arbitrary actions based on royal power, because this caused him to lose the foundation of his world - royal power (the division of the land incident), which forced his self-world to collapse and also forced him to begin to recognize the real world. The world, and it is in the gradual progress of tragedy that he gradually receives education and gets rid of the tyranny, ignorance and even the royal nature of the palace that runs deep into his blood.