OVERALL ANALYSES

Knowledge

Home Page

OVERALL ANALYSES

THEMES OF THE PLAY

Good vs. evil:

The major theme of the play is the fight of good vs. evil. Although
evil, the characters of Edmund, Goneril, and Regan, have the upper
2hand for most of the plot and cause the deaths of Cordelia, Lear,
and Gloucester. At the end of the play though, there is hope that
good will prevail. The evil characters have been removed and the
worthy Edgar has been made the new ruler of the kingdom. As a
result, there is hope that a new order will replace the chaos that has
been fully explored in the play.

Filial ingratitude:

The traditional values that make the parent-child relationship
natural and wholesome are distorted and destroyed in this play.
The order and harmony that usually characterize a stable family are
disrupted by the evil designs of the greedy Edmund, Goneril, and
Regan. Lear and Gloucester are both trusting fathers. They
foolishly believe the words of their evil children and banish the
offspring that truly love them. As a result of their lack of
judgement, both fathers are made destitute by their unappreciative
children. The filial greed and ingratitude shown by Edmund,
Regan, and Goneril bring immense suffering to all.

Unfortunately, Lear is the cause of his own problems. He has
decided to abdicate the throne and divide the kingdom between his
three daughters based on a "love-test." The test takes into account
the words used to profess love but not the deeds themselves. As a
result, the flattery used by his elder daughters, Goneril and Regan,
pleases the King's vanity and massages his ego. In contrast, his ire
is roused by the brief but truthful words of his youngest daughter,
Cordelia. Lear proves that he is too vain and self-centered to
understand his own children and he pays dearly for the mistake,
eventually losing his self-respect, his power, and his sanity. In the
subplot, Gloucester is guilty of the same misjudgment, blessing
Edmund and banishing Edgar.

Goneril and Regan, filled with greed and jealousy, take pleasure in
plotting the demise of Lear. They enjoy deliberately humiliating
the King without a trace of pity or sympathy. Devoid of love for
him, the two sisters show that they are ungrateful, insulting, and
threatening to the father who gave them both land and power. They
then become jealous of the power of each other and plot the other's
death. In a similar manner, Edmund, the treasonous son of
Gloucester, denounces his father and paves the way for his
blinding by Cornwall. Their filial ingratitude of the three
characters leads to total chaos and destruction in the play. At the
end, however, nature takes its revenge when Lear's daughters and
Edmund receive the retribution due to them for their filial
ingratitude.

back