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

King Lear: Lear The Tragic Hero The definition of tragedy in the Oxford dictionary is, "drama of elevated theme and diction and with unhappy ending; sad event, serious accident, calamity." However, the application of this terminology in Shakespearean Tragedy is more expressive. Tragedy does not only mean death or calamity, but in fact, it refers to a series of steps which leads to the downfall of the tragic hero and eventually to his tragic death. Lear, the main character in King Lear was affirmed as the tragic hero because the play meets all the requirements of a tragedy. In order for a character to be qualified as a tragic hero, he must be in a high status on the social chain and the hero also possesses a tragic flaw which initiates the tragedy. The fall of the hero is not felt by him alone but creates a chain reaction which affects everyone around him. Besides, the hero must experience suffering and calamity slowly which would contrast his happier times. The suffering and calamity instantaneously caused chaos in his life and eventually leads to his death. Finally, the sense of fear and pity to the tragic hero must appear in the play as well. This makes men scared of blindness to truths which prevents them from knowing when fortune or something else would happen on them. Lear, the king of England would be the tragic hero because he held the highest position in the social chain at the very beginning of the play. His social 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 his Kingdom in halves to Goneril and Regan. Lear's hamartia which is his obstinate pride and anger overrides his judgment, thus, prevents him to see the true faces of people. As in Act One, although Cordelia said "nothing", she really means everything she loves to his father. However, Lear only believed in the beautiful words said by Regan and Goneril. Although Kent, his loyal advisor begged Lear to see closer to the true faces of his daughters, he ignored him and became even more angry because Kent hurt Lear's pride by disobeying his order to stay out of his and Cordelia's way Lear had already warned him, "The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft." ( I, I, 145). Kent still disob... ...our horrible please..." ( Lear, III, ii, 15-20) Here, the feeling of fear appears as well because in a short period of time, Lear fell from the position of King to a normal peasant. His weak, unconfident and mad mind overrules his strong, prideful and sane character. However, in looking deep down, the real fear implied here is, no matter how great things appear now; men do not hold them long and you can sink to the very bottom just as fast as Lear fell from the top of the chain to the lowest. In Shakespeare's tragic play King Lear, Lear the main character demonstrated all the necessary requirements of being a tragic hero. His high social status nourishes his hamartia which is hubris, and the tragedy is initiated by the banishment of Kent and Cordelia. Lear's pride not only altered his live alone, instead, it affected everyone around him down to the bottom of the social chain. Moreover, the realization of his true quality, pains and sufferings eventually leads to his tragic death which the most obvious element in a tragedy. Because Lear fulfills the "formula" of Shakespearean Tragedy, he could be firmly proven as tragic hero in the play.