Tuesday, October 20, 2009

King Lear

How does the perception of truth affect love? 
This tragedy is interesting in that King Lear acts, struggles, and lives throughout most of the play under false perceptions of love and it isn't until the end of the play that his sufferings finally seems to bring him to the truth. 
As a more creative response to my question for King Lear I drew a picture. Unable to add it to my blog, I will simply describe it. It is a sketch of Cordelia lying on her deathbed, raised up with her arm hanging loosely by her side. Her distraught father, King Lear is kneeled with his arm stretched out to hers and his head thrown back in anguish. Cordelia's two corrupt sisters are also below her, simultaneously pulling and hanging on both her feet and Lear's arm with grotesque faces filled with torment and empty, sightless eyes. This symbolizes how Reagan and Goneril were the primary agents of chaos who influenced and created Lear's false perception of truth in order to deceptively gain his love. They effectively controlled Lear throughout the play sucking his power dry and leaving him as a weak and broken man. Kneeling before his dead, beloved daughter, Lear is finally at a place where he clearly understands the truth of the characters and yet is in agony as he can now only love Cordelia through his sorrow.
In the play, King Lear perceives Goneril and Reagan to be his loyal daughters who out of their love for him would house, respect, and provide for him. This perception leads him to blindly give them his kingdom. He is betrayed, his perception shattered and he is abandoned to suffer and come to an understanding of truth in the wilderness. Kent, the Fool, and Edgar help to bring him to a repentant and mournful state as he realizes Cordelia, his youngest was the daughter who truly loved him. He perceived her as ungrateful and unloving and thus responded by exiling her. When the two are finally united and reconciled at the conclusion of the play, love is only shared fugaciously.   

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