Character Analysis: King Lear - ThoughtCo.
Lear, the main character in King Lear was affirmed as the tragic hero because the play meets all the requirements of a tragedy. In order for a character to be qualified as a tragic ero, he must be in a high status on the social chain and the hero also possesses a tragic flaw which initiates the tragedy.
Lear is a tragic hero because he has those three qualities. His flaws are his arrogance, his ignorance, and his misjudgments, each contributing to the other. The first flaw in King Lear is his arrogance, which results in the loss of Cordelia and Kent. It is his arrogance in the first scene of the play that causes him to make bad decisions.
The most important theme is that of madness, which is portrayed, during the course of this play, by the tragic hero, King Lear. Though Lear shows great egotism at the beginning of the play, he actually begins to show signs of madness in Acts 3 and 4. In these acts, King Lear is shown spiraling into madness and then eventually regaining his sanity.
The statement “Knowledge of the Aristotelian tragic hero reveals much about Shakespeare’s intentions in the tragedy King Lear” is truthful due to King Lear’s journey through all 5 characteristics a tragic hero will experience according to Aristotle. The understanding of Lear as a tragic hero reveals Shakespeare’s intentions to ultimately reach a stage of catharsis, the process of.
The main character in the play King Lear is Lear himself, the King of Britain, who is displayed as a tragic hero because he displays the qualities that pertain to a tragedy. However, the tragic hero, according to A.C. Bradley, probably the most experienced man in the study of Shakespearean tragedy, is someone who goes through tremendous suffering.
In King Lear, Shakespeare abides by this principal, which states that the plot should have a beginning, middle and end, it should be the appropriate length for the believable unfolding of events, and the main character (since referred to as the tragic hero) should follow a specific dramatic process.
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