King Lear & Hamlet
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Philosophers argue few questions are more difficult to ponder than those in the realm of philosophy. However, great drama often encompasses a realm more complex than philosophy because it often represents a microcosm of existence. Certainly, despite critics who deem either King Lear or Hamlet the finer play in terms of structure, theme and/or as art, there can be few more difficult tasks than rising one in import above the other. As T. S. Eliot (1) wrote “Hamlet is the Mona Lisa of literature.” While Harold Bloom (496-497), noted Shakespeare authority, argues “King Lear is arguably the most powerful and inescapable of literary works.” Both dramas are great tragedies, both are bloody tragedies, and both equate love with pain. In an analysis of plot and characterization, we shall come to a conclusion as to which is the superior of the two.Both Hamlet and King Lear are of royal blood. The tragedies of both are set in motion by filial bonds. In King Lear, Lear’s descent, which is one of the harshest strippings of vanity and illusion in drama, begins over his bond with his daughters. He cannot bear Cordelia’s unwillingness to shower him with protestations of love and devotion. She loves him “according to my bond, nor more nor less” (Shakespeare I.i.974). His wounded pride from misinterpreting her honest devotion causes him to split his kingdom between his other two daughters, to whose false protestations of love Cordelia warns “Time
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as been unwise. He has not, in the words of Polonius, “known himself” and it has caused him to become estranged from his once royal personage:
Lear. Does any here know me? This is not Lear: Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, his discernings are lethargied-Ha! waking? ‘tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am?
Fool. Lear’s shadow.
(Shakespeare I.iv.981)
Even Polonius, who gives the advice of “know thyself” does not know himself as the meddling, old fool that he is and it causes his death.
Hamlet, on the other hand, knows the futility of words and trying to know the “self.” Knowing the self is impossible as the “self” is ever changing, ever being and becoming while becoming and being. We are more moved by destiny and fate than we are self-determination. As Hamlet tells Horatio “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, / Rough-hew them as we will” (Shakespeare V.ii.1108). Lear thought as King he could shape his own end, but thinking this has caused him to become prophetically mad like William Blake, while he curses the gods alone on the heath during a storm.
This is why we see Hamlet scorn words as lacking in ability when it comes to communicating absolute
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Approximate Word count = 2476
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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