King Lear: What It Means To Be Human

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King Lear: What it Means to be Human Humans face various struggles everyday. One continuous struggle we all face as a whole is that of families. In King Lear, the plot centers around forgiveness and the dynamics of family. In the opening scene the audience encounters a king who wants his daughters to announce their devotion to him before he separates the kingdom into their hands. However one of his daughters by the name of Cordelia rejects his desire and states, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave // My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty // According to my bond; no more nor less.” (King Lear, Act I, Scene I) While her other two sisters tell her father exactly what he wants to hear Cordelia refuses and this sets the tone of tragedy for the rest of the play. While King Lear sees this as…show more content…
When King Lear becomes upset at his Cornelia's rejection he divides his kingdom between his other two daughters, whom after receiving the inheritance reveal their true colors, like when Regan tells her sister Goneril, “This house is little. The old man and his people // Cannot be well bestowed.” (King Lear, Act II, Scene IV) She along with her sister desire to get their father out of their way. In the scenes with Regan and Edmund want to get rid of their father because they hunger for power. This is something that every human faces in life. No matter the circumstances humans hunger for power and sometimes are willing to do anything for it. This is also something that Edmund tries to do in the subplot to his father. "The younger rises when the old doth fall." (King Lear, Act III, Scene III) Edmund wants his father out of the way in order to receive his land and at the same point he wants his brother to be considered the evil one because he wants no one to be standing in the way when he claims his fathers

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