King Lear - Imprisonment
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 ...
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the gentle man recognises the disquiet and unrest of the storm, as a manifestation of the turbulence in Society at the time. 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. This he does with little success when "bribes" his daughters to fuel his own ego. "Which of you shall we say doth love us most,/That we our largest bounty extend," Lear is requesting his daughters to compete in a "game" of words, he does not really wish to know who loves him the most, he simply wishes to be flattered, through this he is rashly abandoning his responsibility as a parent and as the father figure. He is imprisoned by societies values, as a man and the King he has control, this he abuses, to his own demise.
Lear suffers psychological imprisonment, both through his societies ideals and his own blindness to the truth. He is psychologically imprisoned by his society, in that his mind ...
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been imprisoned but through his emotional journey and his release from his psychological and social manacles, he accepts this and is compliant. 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. "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 ...
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King Lear - Imprisonment. (2006, September 10). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/King-Lear-Imprisonment/52179
"King Lear - Imprisonment." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 10 Sep. 2006. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/King-Lear-Imprisonment/52179>
"King Lear - Imprisonment." Essayworld.com. September 10, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/King-Lear-Imprisonment/52179.
"King Lear - Imprisonment." Essayworld.com. September 10, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/King-Lear-Imprisonment/52179.
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