Essays on Plays

1768

King Lear: Construction and Deconstruction of Humanity

5 pages / 2302 words

William Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear, is not merely a story of the ill effects of aging, but an illustration of a man plagued by pride and arrogance. Initially, Lear deems himself a man worthy of worship by his family and friends, an ill for which...

King Lear

1769

Analysis of How Cordelia is Different from a 'Cinderella Figure' in King Lear

4 pages / 2144 words

Cordelia differs from the traditional ‘Cinderella figure’ primarily because she does not in any way experience a sense of justice. Unlike in the Cinderella folk-tale, where good is rewarded and evil is punished, King Lear is devoid of all notions of ‘fairness’ at the hands...

King Lear

1770

Analysis of Kent's Loyalty in King Lear

5 pages / 2521 words

King Lear, as both head of state and paterfamilias, has multiple claims to power, and to obedience. His spectacle of dividing the kingdom between his daughters confuses their obligations to him as subjects with their filial obligations, duties which are not necessarily equivalent. Cordelia cannot...

King Lear

1771

Gloucester’s Character Dynamics in King Lear

2 pages / 1250 words

King Lear is one of the most tragic parables ever brought forth in literature, dealing with betrayal, familial deception, madness and violence. In presenting such tragic themes and ideas in his work Shakespeare uses a subplot to mirror the main action which therefore increases the...

King Lear

1772

The Role of Settings in King Lear and Macbeth

3 pages / 1427 words

Shakespeare’s two plays King Lear and Macbeth take place in two contrasting settings that, from the first scenes, influence the characters’ paths and shape the course of the plays’ events. The action of both plays alternate between the settings of the harsh barren heath and...

King Lear

1773

Existential Questions in King Lear

4 pages / 1941 words

The characters in Shakespeare’s play King Lear endure immense physical, psychological, and emotional torment before meeting their demises. Shakespeare’s exploration of their pain underlines two existential quandaries. First, the play’s violence begs the question of whether we, as readers, are consoled by our abilities to...

King Lear

1774

Analysis of King Lear's Three Deaths in The Play

8 pages / 3950 words

If Shakespeare penned two King Lears, he created three King Lears. There is the Quarto’s hero, the Folio’s hero, and the hero who exists somewhere in the interplay. The last of these is not the same Lear who emerges variously in various conflated editions. That...

King Lear

1775

Female Characters in King Lear, Crime and Punishment and to The Lighthouse

4 pages / 1813 words

A heroine can be defined in two different ways: the first, as the principal female character in a novel; or in the second way, as a woman noted for a courageous action or significant accomplishment. The heroines of King Lear, Crime and Punishment and To...

Crime and Punishment King Lear To the Lighthouse

1776

Analysis of King Lear Through Pragmatic Perspective

4 pages / 2101 words

A pragmatic approach to literary criticism enhances the 21st-century reader’s understanding of Shakespeare’s King Lear in a multitude of ways. The pragmatic approach was the popular canon at the time of Shakespeare’s composition, and continued to dominate the perspectives of critics and authors alike through...

King Lear

1777

The Significance of Edgar's Character in King Lear

4 pages / 2018 words

The Subtlety of Edgar’s Importance in King Lear Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my essay Any great work of literature stems from the cohesion of many elements to...

King Lear

1778

Observant Heroism of Albany in King Lear

4 pages / 2058 words

The concept of creating heroes is as inherently human or at least historically prevalent as creating gods. The latter is motivated by a need to clarify the world, the former by a craving to establish a sort of unattainable glory or ideal to emulate. Either...

Heroism King Lear

1779

The Themes of Economics, Power, and Gender in King Lear

6 pages / 2627 words

A common practice that William Shakespeare employs in many of his works is the experimentation with gender politics. Shakespeare often shows how notions of gender become unstable as a result of social forces. To discuss Shakespeare’s treatment of gender in his plays, it is helpful...

King Lear

1780

The Journey and Return: The Theme of Wandering in King Lear

3 pages / 1405 words

In his study Shakespeare: Time and Conscience, Grigori Kozintsev expresses how the plot of King Lear sets in motion “an unstoppable avalanche of the fragments of structures, attitudes, ties, all intermingled in frenzied movement”. Indeed, Shakespeare’s “great” tragedy is a play of extremes, with its...

King Lear

1781

Madness and Human Nature in King Lear

2 pages / 893 words

Right or wrong, black or white, good or evil. Some aspect within the human psyche commands that specific and rigid classifications exist. There is a yearning to categorize every aspect, object, and experience ever encountered-once categorized, it is hard to adapt. Likewise, philosophers have long...

King Lear

1782

Born Villain Or Made Villain: Bastardy Theme in Shakespeare's Plays

7 pages / 3221 words

In four of Shakespeare’s plays, he introduces a character who is illegitimate. Philip Faulconbridge, Don John, Thersites, and Edmund are all children who were born out of wedlock. Also, all four characters were antagonists, if not the main antagonists, of the plays. In Much Ado...

King Lear Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare

1783

Tragic Injustice in William Shakespeare’s King Lear

3 pages / 1516 words

In Leviathan from 1651, philosopher Thomas Hobbes reflects on “the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal… the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (“Hobbes”). Even though Shakespeare’s King...

King Lear

1784

Comedy Discourse in Shakespeare's King Lear

5 pages / 2468 words

William Shakespeare is no stranger to the bending and breaking of conventions. Hailed as an inventor of words from “elbow” to “sneak”, and a master playwright who created some of the most enduring plot structures, like that of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s legacy comes as...

King Lear

1785

Connection Between Chaos and Order in King Lear

4 pages / 1851 words

A recurring theme throughout William Shakespeare’s King Lear is the perpetual struggle between order and chaos, played out in the arena of human existence. While such characters as Lear, Cordelia, Albany and Edgar try to impose their sense of divine and moral order on the...

King Lear

1786

The Role of Montaigne's Essays in King Lear

2 pages / 969 words

John Florio’s English translation of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays was published in 1603. William Shakespeare’s King Lear was written between 1604 and 1605, after he wrote Othello and before he wrote Macbeth. The extremely close time relationship between Essays and King Lear has led many...

King Lear