Is King Lear
pessimistic? Give reasons in support of your answer.
Or,
Discuss Shakespeare's
treatment of evil and suffering in King Lear.
or,
Is the view of life
in King Lear ultimately pessimistic? Justify your answer.
The
world of King Lear is one in which gross evil is not only rife but also potent,
and goodness is rather outwardly defeated. Yet this impression of the play's
pessimism reduces considerably when we realize that the victory of evil is
temporary. All the characters come to a speedy and miserable end.
The
world which generates evil also generates good. There is in the world of King
Lear the same abundance of extreme good and extreme evil. The evil represented
by Edmund, Goneril and Regan is juxtaposed with the good in Edgar, Kent and the
Fool. The Universe which causes the death of "Divine Cordelia" also
gives her birth. So it would be wrong to say that the world of King Lear is one
in which gross evil is rife, while goodness is rare.
In
King Lear evil, of course, has been shown in greater abundance than in any of
the previous tragedies. Moreover, it is more hideous than any other tragedy.
The evil characters such as Goneril, Regan, Cornwall, Edmund, Oswald are
peculiarly disgusting for their hard savagery. There is no trace of good in
their evil design. The crimes, they commit are extremely horrible. Helpless old
men like Lear and Gloucester suffer terribly at the hands of their own
children, and heavenly people like Cordelia come to a miserable end. The
catastrophe is painful in the extreme and comes like a bolt from the blue.
Most
of the critics have been shocked by the death of King Lear and Cordelia at the
end of the play. They have been equally horrified at seeing so many dead bodies
lying on the stage when the final
denouement arrives. There is no doubt that no other play of Shakespeare
has such an abundance of death. Yet no serious reader of Shakespeare would want
the ending altered.
We
are to remember that both Lear and Gloucester unleashed horrors of treachery,
madness, murder, suicide and war due to their anogance and adultery. There is a
saying that it is the children who have to pay the price for their parents'
crimes. Thus Cordelia pays for Lear’s crimes. But Shakespeare makes us believe
that Cordelia's death is just, although it could have easily been averted, had
Edmund spoken a few minutes earlier. Again Lear's sufferings may seem excessive
but actually he acquires wisdom and his soul regenerates through sufferings and
madness. Similarly Gloucester who was spiritually blind before he lost his
eyes, failed to understand the difference between appearance and reality,
between a good and a bad son. So his suffering is also justified.
Thus
King Lear cannot be called a pessimistic play, nor is there any cheap optimism.
It is a realistic play in which Shakespeare recognizes the presence of evil in
the world. As in life, so in the Present tragedy, there is no poetic justice.
The good suffer along with the evil both in life and in the play.
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