Assignment: King Lear

Tragedy is one of the main genres of drama, which is mainly composed of the
irreconcible conflit between the protagonist and reality and its tragic ending. Most of its
protagonist are representatives of people’s ideals and aspirations. Tragedy reveals the evil in life
with a tragic ending, so as to arouse the grief, indignation and respect of the audience, so as to
achieve the purpose of improving their thoughts and sentiments. Tragedy begun in ancient
Greece and envolved from the Dionysus ode in the Dionysus festival. In the tragedy the
protagonist necessarily suffers misfortunes, hardships, and even loses his life, but his reasonable
will, ideal, motivation, and excitement herald the coming of achievement and acomplishment.
The soul-shaking power of tragedy comes from the expand of the charm of the tragic protagonist.

Tragedy assign to the desire for survival, the superlative display of self-protection ability
and the final burst of exuberunt vitality when the protagonist encounters annihilation and misery.
Its also means the resolute will to act and marvelous struggle consciousness. Tragedy theory
holds that tragedy attribute to the humor of people’s combat misery, death and external pressure.
The tragic character has maintenance of independent personality and a strong desire for self-
preservation. The tragedy main characters generally appearance a strong unstoppable
transcendental motivation because os their anxiety with the state of affairs, and can act
according to their own will. When fate made them fall into a position of difficulty, they dared to
fight to the death and showing the tragic spirit of dying without regret.

The Greek philosopher and polymath, Aristotle, also defined his views on tragedy.
Aristotle believes that the artistic form of tragedy at that time has been perfect. Aristotle mention
that tragedy is not necessarily a work with a very tragic plot, but a serious play that simulate
conclude, deliberate and grand behavior. Through his Poetics, Aristotle defined tragedy as an
clone of a complete, serious, long action; its medium is language, with a variety of pleasant
sounds, which are used in all parts of the play. The way of simulate is to express through the
evolution of the characters rather than description, and to purify this emotion by instigate pity
and fear. Aristotle indicate that tragedy has six components: plot, character, thought, speech,
image and song. Aristotle consider that the plot is the basis of tragedy, there is a soul like tragedy
and character occupies the second place. Aristotle regards plot arrangement as the core of tragic
creation, which is of decisive significance. Aristotle said: “If there is no action in a tragedy, it
will not be a tragedy, but without character, it will still be tragedy.” Aristotle advocated that
drama should be plot-centered, not character-centered.

William Shakespeare is a famous tragic playwright in the world. There have several
elements of Shakespearean tragedy. First of the elements of Shakespearean tragedy is the tragic
hero. The character tragic hero in Shakespearean tragedy can be male or female and they must
experience because of some flaw of character, because of necessary fate or both. The tragic hero
in Shakespearean tragedy holds a high position such as king, military generals or prince. The
tragic hero in Shakespearean tragedy always struggle between good and bad. This struggle can
take place as part of the plot or exist within the main character. Besides, there are two conflicts in
Shakespearean tragedy it is external conflict and internal conflict. External conflict is the hero
faces conflict from his antagonists while internal conflict is the hero faces conflict in their mind.
Fourth of the elements of Shakespearean tragedy is tragic waste. Tragic waste is the good being
destroyed along with the bad at the resolution of the play. Shakespearean tragedy always played
out with the unnecessary loss of life especially of “good guy” characters. Shakespearean tragedy
are lack of poetic justice and end with poorly for everyone including the good guy characters.
Fate is the final elements of Shakespearean tragedy.

Sixth of the elements of Shakespearean tragedy is hamartia. Hamartia is Greek term that
describes the tragic flow of the protagonist in a literary tragedy and leaves protagonist vulnerable
and eventually leads to a disastrous end. The protagonist mistake has an elemental part in the
plot of tragedy. The affliction of the protagonist is determined by nature of the protagonist
particular kind of hamartia. Unlike hamartia, hubris is the excessive pride or arrogance shown by
a character which ultimately brings about his downfall. Hubris is generally a flaw in the
character’s personality who excessively high estimate his power and crosses all lines of human
codes. Furthermore, supernatural elements also one of the elements in Shakespearean tragedy.
For example, magic, ghosts, witchcraft and more. There have the fairies, king and queen of the
fairies in A mid summer nights dream. Eighth of the elements is catharsis in Shakespearean
tragedy. Catharsis is the audience’s emotions that release through empathy with the characters
and mix the feelings for the hero and their antagonists. Shakespearean tragedy are lack of poetic
justice and end with poorly for everyone including the good guy characters. Fate is the final
elements of Shakespearean tragedy. Fate is the central component in Shakespearean tragedy. The
significant role of fate is recognized when, despite a character’s heroic acts and good intentions,
they faced death simply because they re doomed to died.

Aristotle mainly expounded his view of tragedy and put forward a series of pioneering
and enlightening theories of tragedy but it have some different between Shakespearean tragedy.
The main differences between Aristotle tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy is plot. Aristotle
tragedy has a single central plot while Shakespearean tragedy has several subplots. Besides, the
end od Aristotle tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy are different. In Aristotle tragedy, the
protagonist faced death or reversal of fortune. But in Shakespearean tragedy, protagonists often
faced a tragic death. The chorus and recognition of Aristotle tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy
also different. Aristotle tragedy have a chorus but Shakespearean tragedy replaced the chorus
with a comic scene. Futhermore, the protagonist in Aristotle tragedy learns the truth of the
situation or comes to a realization about himself whereas the protagonist in Shakespearean
tradedy does not gain a self-knowledge.

Shakespearean is very good at shaping the characters in his literary creation and his
deeply portrays the characters in King Lear. It leaving a deep impression on the readers. If look
at Lear from a realistic point of view and regard him as an actor in life, a person with
psycological reality, then his performance is absurb. His demand are strange, paranoid and
unreasonable. Lear’s own language has lost his authority to some extent at the beginning of the
play. From this point of view, this language competition launched by Lear’s whim idea related to
the meaning of the whole play is not absurb and meaningless. It is worth noting that it is not
Cordelia's actual disrespectful behavior that offends Lear, but the huge difference between the
language rules she follows and the language rules that Lear implements that infuriates her father
and is exiled by her father. The cause of tragedy is very small, but it is actually the contact
between two semantic rules, norms of conduct and values.

Lear's tragedy began when he was already blinded by the flattery brought to him by the
supreme power. Lear doesn't realize that language is paradoxical: it can be pious or completely
false. The dialogue between Lear and his daughter Cordelia touches on the contrast between
falsehood and truth, expression and soul, which is reflected by the duality of characters and
language, which makes us see clearly the actual situation of the characters. Lear's court can be
regarded as a world that has lost the truth; the most prominent manifestation of this phenomenon
is that Lear, the leader of the country and the supreme monarch, falls into the ossification of
language and the cage of false. take the empty language as the truth of the soul. Because people
can use language not only to express their true feelings, but also to achieve a purpose when they
deviate from the spirit, Goneril and Regan can deceive Lear. It is in this sense that Lear loses his
authority because he follows a language that has been obscured and is about to be subverted-the
order of power. In this environment, he can't tell what is true and which is false.

Cordelia, Gloucester, and Edmund are three characters in King Lear by Shakespeare.
They have some similarities and differences between them. In contrast to King Lear, Cordelia
was his favorite daughter. Cordelia's sincere virtues kept her from falling into the trap of flattery.
When asked by her father how much she loved her father, she honestly expressed her thoughts;
when she learned that her father had been abandoned by her sister, she resolutely sought justice
for her father. It was she who crusaded against two unfilial sisters during her father's exile, but
the tragedy was always like this, destroying beautiful things to people, the youngest daughter
finally failed and hanged herself, and Lao Wang died in sorrow. Her honesty can be said to be a
wake-up call to vanity, a wake-up call, in fact, she is the daughter who loves her father most, but
because her father misunderstands her meaning because of her clumsiness in expression. Just
because of this, it led to the final tragic result. But Cordelia was happy. She married a French
king who knew her goodness, and avoided these trend-followers. If only from this point of view,
she is the happiest. Unlike Coredelia, Edmund is a heinous traitor. He designed to make his
father and brother Edgar suffer, seducing Gonalil and Reagan to make them jealous and
suspicious of each other and kill each other. This is indeed his evil nature. Edmond's identity
gave him this kind of vengeance. It is an illegitimate child, this unjust status, so that he received
different treatment, on the surface may be the same as his brother Edgar, but he will certainly be
pointed at behind. Society creates character, and Edmund, who grows up in such an environment,
is likely to grow up to be an avenger. Therefore, he is not happy as Cordelia and he is live in
hatred.

Gloucester are different with Edmund and Cordelia. Gloucester are father of Edmund but
he listened to the slander of the illegitimate son and mistakenly thought that his eldest son was
spying on his title and property, thus forcing the eldest son into exile. Gloucester's illegitimate
son was so scheming that he eventually tortured him blind. however, the eldest son secretly
protected him and accompanied him through the last days of his life. The different between
Cordelia, Gloucester and Edmund is Cordelia is happy in King Lear and she has a bad ending.
Cordelia’s ending is reggrettable and sad. Edmund is a negative character in King Lear and
everything he’s been through is his own fault. Gloucester have a little bit similar with King Lear
because they came to a bad end because of listening to slanderers. The characters of Cordelia and
Gloucester are similar because both of them are the positive characters in King Lear. Besides,
Edmund and Cordelia also have similar ending and both of them have the bad ending.

The story of King Lear is simple and has two lines. First, the tragedy of King Lear;
second, the tragedy of Gloucester. King Lear was accustomed to sweet talk, liked words of
praise, and expressed his honest love for his youngest daughter. He was so angry that he
deprived the youngest daughter of her inheritance and gave all his power and land to the eldest
daughter and the second daughter. His tragedy began when he made this decision. Before long,
the eldest daughter began to dislike her father, and the second daughter, like the eldest daughter,
left her father in the wilderness and had nowhere to live in the storm. The youngest daughter won
the love of the king of France because of her honesty. She married the king of France, but in the
end, she was killed by Edmund, who sold her father and sought honor in order to get justice for
her father. The eldest daughter and the second daughter calculated against each other, poisoned
each other, both died, and King Lear finally died. Gloucester chased and killed his eldest son
Edgar because he listened to the slanderers of his second son Edmund. Edgar could only pretend
to be crazy and become a beggar. Gloucester was blinded by his eldest daughter because of his
loyalty to King Lear. Edgar came to his father because of his love for his father and led his father
to King Lear. Finally, Gloucester, who knew the truth, was unable to bear the truth and died.
Edgar killed his brother Edmund in order to avenge himself and his father. Shakespeare said that
madmen lead the way for the blind, which is the morbid condition of this era. What is morbid is
not the times, but the people who make up the times. King Lear, Edmund, Gloucester, Hamlet,
Othello, Romeo, Juliet. The tragic endings of all Shakespeare's tragic characters are caused by
their own character defects, while others only play a role in adding fuel to the flames. The
relationship between people is a symbiosis of interests, do not think too highly of others, do not
whitewash yourself, see through this, the troubles, conflicts and injuries in interpersonal relations
will be much less.
References

1. https://pediaa.com/difference-between-aristotle-and-shakespearean-tragedy/amp/
2. http://jurnal.ugj.ac.id/index.php/Perspective/article/view/3378/0#:~:text=Fate%20is
%20regarded%20as%20a,tragic%20denouement%20of%20each%20play
3. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Shakespearean-Tragedy-Definition-and-
Characteristics-of-Shakespearean-Tragedy
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy
5. https://www.academia.edu/37614647/Hamartia_and_Hubris_in_Oedipus_Rex
6. https://www.britannica.com/art/tragedy-literature/Theory-of-tragedy