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 ofelevated theme and diction and with unhappy goal sad event, serious accident, catastrophe." However, the application of this terminology in ShakespeareanTragedy is more expressive. Tragedy does not only mean death or calamity, solelyin fact, it refers to a series of steps which leads to the down illuminate of the tragical hero and eventually to his tragic death. Lear, the main 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 moldiness be in a racy status on the social chain and the hero alsopossesses a tragic flaw which initiates the tragedy. The fall of the hero isnot felt by him alone but creates a chain reaction which affects everyonearound him. Besides, the hero must experience suffering and calamity slowlywhich would contrast his happier times. The suffering and calamityinstantaneously caused chaos in his life and eventually leads to his death.Finally, the sense of fear and pity to the tragic hero must take care in the playas well. This makes men scared of blindness to truths which prevents them fromknowing 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 the aline faces of people. As in serve One, although Cordelia said "nothing", shereally means everything she loves to his father. However, Lear only believedin the beaut iful words said by Regan and Goneril. Although Kent, his loyaladvisor 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-grass and drawn, make from the shaft." ( I, I, 145). Kent stilldisob... ...our horrible please..." ( Lear, III, ii, 15-20)Here, the feeling of fear appears aswell because in a short period of time, Lear wild from the position of King toa normal peasant. His weak, unconfident and mad mind overrules his strong,prideful and sane character. However, in looking deep down, the real fearimplied here is, no matter how great things appear now men do not hold themlong and you can sink to the very ass 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 nece ssary 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 around 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.