King Lear: Lear The Tragic Hero Essay -- essays research papers

fairy Lear Lear The Tragic Hero     The definition of tragedy in the Oxford dictionary is, "drama ofelevated theme and diction and with unhappy determination sad event, serious accident,calamity." However, the application of this terminology in Shakespearean calamity is much expressive. Tragedy does not yet mean death or calamity, butin fact, it refers to a series of steps which leads to the downfall of the sad hero and in conclusion to his tragic death. Lear, the important character inKing Lear was affirmed as the tragic hero because the play meets all therequirements of a tragedy. In order for a character to be qualified as a tragichero, he must be in a high status on the social chain and the hero besidespossesses a tragic flaw which initiates the tragedy. The fall of the hero isnot tangle by him alone but creates a chain reaction which affects everyone nearly him. Besides, the hero must experience suffering and calamity slowlywhich would job h is happier times. The suffering and calamityinstantaneously caused chaos in his life and in the end leads to his death.Finally, the sense of fear and pity to the tragic hero must bulge expose in the playas well. This makes men scared of blindness to truths which prevents them fromwell-educated when fortune or something else would happen on them.     Lear, the king of England would be the tragic hero because he held thehighest position in the social chain at the very beginning of the play. Hissocial position gave him pride as he remarked himself as "Jupiter" and "Apollo".Lear out of pride and anger has banished Cordelia and Kent and divided hisKingdom in halves to Goneril and Regan. Lears hamartia which is hisobstinate pride and anger overrides his judgment, thus, prevents him to see thetrue faces of people. As in Act One, although Cordelia said "nothing", she real numberly means everything she loves to his father. However, Lear only bel ievedin the beautiful words said by Regan and Goneril. Although Kent, his loyal adviser begged Lear to see closer to the true faces of his daughters, he ignoredhim and became even more angry because Kent hurt Lears pride by disobeying hisorder to stay out of his and Cordelias way Lear had already warned him, "Thebow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft." ( I, I, 145). Kent stilldisob... ...our flagitious please..." ( Lear, III, ii, 15-20)Here, the feeling of fear appears aswell because in a unretentive period of time, Lear swing from the position of King toa normal peasant. His weak, unconfident and worked up mind overrules his strong,prideful and sane character. However, in looking deep down, the real fearimplied here is, no matter how great things appear this instant men do not hold themlong and you can throw away to the very bottom just as fast as Lear fell from the topof the chain to the lowest.     In Shakespeares tragic play King Lear, Lear the main characterdemonstrated all the necessary requirements of being a tragic hero. His highsocial status nourishes his hamartia which is hubris, and the tragedy isinitiated by the banishment of Kent and Cordelia. Lears pride not onlyaltered his live alone, instead, it affected everyone some him down to thebottom of the social chain. Moreover, the realization of his true quality,pains and sufferings eventually leads to his tragic death which the most obviouselement in a tragedy. Because Lear fulfills the "formula" of ShakespeareanTragedy, he could be firmly proven as tragic hero in the play.