King Lear
In the play King Lear, by William Shakespeare, the idea of imprisonment is a fundamental to the plot and central ideas. All characters are imprisoned, whether it is physically, socially or psychologically. Through their society and its', as well as their own faults each character suffers 'imprisonment' in some form. King Lear is one of the more caged characters of the play, he suffers both social and psychological incarceration and this is one the chief reasons for his descent into mental hell and inevitable downfall. Lear is imprisoned by the role he must play in society and by his own internal shackles. The abdication of the throne initiates the action in the play, through the consequent chain of events. However this indicates that Lear is imprisoned by his responsibility to society, he is bound by a social harness. He renounces the throne to lead the rest of his life in pleasure and in doing so he disrupts the Great Chain of Being, he challenges the position that he has been given and thus his family and indeed the entire nation, descend into disorder and chaos. The storm is symbolic of this occurrence, the weather imitates the state of men. "One minded like the weather," the gentle man recognises the disquiet and unrest of
This breaks his gender role as a domineering male and truly serves to show how freed his mind has become, as he is lead away to prison. He also I able to perceive the hierarchy for what it is, he gains more knowledge and carrying for others through his mental freedom, and consequent physical imprisonment. The gender and role that they were intended to play in society made this inevitable. Paradoxically, he captured immediately and physically imprisoned. If men are nothing but men, then he is as entitled to inheritance as his legitimate brother Edgar. "Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart/That's sorry yet for thee," in this line Lear acknowledges his fool and faithful servant, while these people are not as high on The Great Chain of Being, he understands that it does not matter. "What need one?" Regan asks Lear, prior to her husband's inheritance of land and the abdication of the throne by Lear, she would not dare have said something like this to her father, or indeed, any man. She always plays the dutiful daughter; she is honest and loyal to her father. He can already see, what Lear finds out later on, stripped down, men are men, no more, no less. He is not only responsible for the harmony of a nation, as the father figure it is also his duty to maintain harmony in his house. /We two alone will sing like birds i'th'cage," in previous scenes Lear would have acted outraged should he have been imprisoned but through his emotional journey and his release from his psychological and social manacles, he accepts this and is compliant. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law/ my services are bound," Edmond recognises that he, by law, is entitled to nothing and that he is only a product of nature, not of the law of man. He is demoralized by his being a bastard and as a result rebels against the ideology.
Common topics in this essay:
King Lear,
Lear Cordelia,
Regan Lear,
Goneril Regan,
Thou Nature,
Cordelia Mend,
Goneril Regan's,
William Shakespeare,
Ironically Lear,
Edgar Edmond,
gender roles,
king lear,
free imprisonment,
goneril regan,
play society,
free gender roles,
father figure,
gender role,
lear imprisoned,
society mind,
free gender,
break free gender,
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Acceptance Essays
