Humanity's Fate in King Lear
.... When she addressed her love in this manner, he was outraged saying, " Let it be so, thy truth, then, be thy dower! For, by the sacred radiance of the sun, the mysteries of Hecate, and the night; By all the operation of the orbs from whom we do exist, and cease to be; Here I disclaim all my paternal care, propinquity and property of blood, and as a stranger to my heart and me hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian, or he that makes his generation messes to gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom be as well neighbour'd, piti'd, and reliev'd, as though my sometime daughter."( Act I, i, l. 110-22) In this previous passage, he was more than outraged. He went to the point that he disowned his daughter, the only true one. Kent tries to dissuade Lear from his unjust actions, but Lear strikes out at him saying, " the bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft."( Act I, i, l. 145) Lear's vanity leads to anger. The next phase is his unbridled anger leading to his unbearable suffering. Lear now banishes Kent and Cordelia. He is now left with his two ungrateful daughters, Goneril and Regan. He soon realizes that neither daughter cares for him and this leads to more vanity and anger, proclaiming he would rather " kneel before France like some petty squire"(Act II, iv, l. 207-9) before he returns to Goneril. He said he would rather " wage against the enmity o' th' air"(Act II, iv, l. 204) or " be slave and sumpter to this detested groom,"(Act II, iv, l. 211-12) referring to Oswald. Lear tells Goneril that he never wants to see her again, but in lines 217-221, he realizes that even though she is heartless, she is still his own flesh and blood. By Goneril being described as a disease in his flesh, Lear could be recognizing that her evil stems from his very own. Lear is realizing that his vanity is now extending to his daughter and through his very own daughter he will be destroyed. Lear again tries to measure love, just as in the first Act. He wants to stay with Regan, but she'll only house twenty-five of his knights. He then says that her love is half of Goneril's because she will house fifty. He measures their love by his hundred knights. These misjudgments by Lear show how humans are constantly making miscalculations concerning reality, but never seem to learn from it. It seems that it is in man's nature to make mistakes, but not truly learn from it. In addition to the suffering he has felt already from his daughters, they now continue to show how they have no gratitude. Lear replies, " I gave you all."(Act II, iv, l. 245) Regan responds with, " And in good time you gave it."(Act II, iv, l. 246) Regan asks her father why he even needs one knight. Lear replies, " O, reason not the need; our basest beggars are in the poorest thing superfluous: Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life's as cheap as beast's."(Act II, iv, l. 259-62) What this means is that if you strip a man of everything he has but the bare necessities, he's no different from an animal. Lear is a king and the hundred knights are a representation of what makes him different from other men. What Lear is also trying to say is that it is more a matter of principle than need. He makes reference to that when he asks his daughter whether she needs her decorated dress or not. Goneril and Regan's reduction of the king's knights also represent how they are slowly stripping their father of all power he has remaining. It seems as though Lear is starting to realize that he is not much in this universe. You can rule the world, but it will only last for a season. In the end, we are no different from any other man in any society. Lear's suffering is not over yet. He is turned out into the storm by his daughters. In Act III, scene ii, lines 14-24, he describes the storm as being more of a tempest. While being exposed to the elements, he realizes more that his daughters were ungrateful because he says to the tempest that it owes him nothing for he did not give it a kingdom or called it children. One must also understand that there is a great relationship between Lear and the elements. The storm during Lear's encounter with his daughters represent the unnatural violence and unrest between them. The storm is unusually violent just as the violence between family is unusual. This storm also represents the torment that Lear encounters within for the decisions he made concerning Cordelia. The storm is a representation of his madness and insanity. This is very typical of our tragic hero. After a great deal of suffering, he becomes numb to reality. As in all tragedies and in our own reality, the tragic hero has an opportunity to redeem himself from his sins. Just as we commit sins and then seek forgiveness, Lear also does the same. After the civil war breaks out between France and the two sisters, Lear is reunited with Cordelia. This is where Lear is redeemed for his sins. Lear's sense of reality seems to return and he seems so sorry for what he has done. Cordelia forgives him and says she does not hate him. Unfor...