This is an essay I wrote for english about the Shakespeare play King Lear.
 

Shakespeare was a stunning writer and playwright for his time. Arguably one of the best of all time and like all the greats of literature Shakespeare is a master at analyzing life; he brings forth issues that a person would not normally think about and turns them into the driving force behind his characters. Actions that reflect the best and the worst of mankind through, the sometimes subtle contrasts between the two, actions that can be observed most clearly in one of his later plays, King Lear.  Shakespeare uses his play King Lear to display the, at times, seemingly ridiculous contradictions that mankind possesses.

One of the ways Shakespeare does this is through the ironic wisdom of the Fool, who while a polar opposite to the king is one of the few characters that openly mock the King. For example after Lear fires Kent and banishes Cordelia; Lear hires back Kent while he is in disguise the Fool says “Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.” Kent replies “Why, fool?” and the Fool says back “Why, for taking one’s part that’s out of favour: nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou’lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb…” (1.4.96) Here the Fool is saying that Kent should take the hat of a fool because by coming back he is a fool himself and the way things stand he will be found out. This is ironic because the King is present the whole time making no comment and showing no recognition of the Fool’s riddle. It also shows that the Fool is far wiser than the King to see though this deception, though the King remains ignorant to it. Another example of how wise the Fool is, is when the King is talking to the Fool shortly after the King gives all his Kingly possessions away. He says the “Fools had ne’er less wit in a year; For wise men are grown foppish, They know not how their wits to wear, Their manners are so apish. (1.4.148) Here the Fool if talking about how the wise men have concerned themselves with things less important and how their manners are not very good, this turns out to be more foreshadowing on the part of Shakespeare. For Lear will soon lose his mind and become what the Fool is talking about here. From these points a point could be made that the Fool acts not as a fool at all but as a wise man.

The betrayed Edgar also shows this very well through his betrayal and the way he gets back to his position, requires admiration and pride for him. After Edgar leads his son to Dover disguised as a bedlam beggar leads him to the Cliffs of Dover though he really leads him to the middle of a field. Edgar says “Give me your hand: you are now within a foot Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon Would I not leap upright.”(4.5.25) Ironic considering they are I the middle of a field and the son he declared a traitor lead Gloucester there. Edgar then says (aside)“Why I do trifle thus with his despair Is done to cure it.”(4.5.33) He is asking himself why he worries with the woes of his father and how this despair on his part is done to cure the despair. How ironic that the father who would have his son killed would be lead to his place of death by that very thing, and even though the hated from his father his son would endeavor to save him.

The all-knowing, wise King the one who should have the most wisdom, yet showing the qualities of a man who has lost the ability to be wise. The King, we jump into the story sometime after his point of most power and we can see straight from the beginning that he has lost something of himself. After a speech by two of his three daughters his youngest says very eloquently, that she would not lie to her father about her love for him that “ [She] love[s] your majesty According to.. [her] ..bond; nor more nor less. That she would not lie to her father about how much she loves him even if it means to lose her take on the land her father is offering. Lear says” Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me” (1.1.93) He dissolves his parental care of Cordelia and then banishes her immediately from his kingdom. Even though he says at another point that he loved her most and even though Cordelia was right in her actions to follow in the steps of her sisters would have been to show no love at all. In act 4, scene 7 Cordelia finds the king and tends to him lovingly even though the king has gone mad and has shown that he wants nothing to do with her. She tends to him and is happy for him though his madness to be with him again. At this point an Insane King finally understands she was trying to say before and says” I know you do not love me; for your sisters Have, as I do remember, done me wrong: You have some cause, they have not.”(4.7.105) This is how he shows his remorse the king going back on his word to apologize to his dearest daughter, for he realizes he has done her wrong.

In King Lear Shakespeare displays the, at times, seemingly ridiculous contradictions that mankind possesses. From these points a fair case has been made that Shakespeare had far more in mind than just entertainment when he wrote his stories. The subtle influence of real life experiences must be what drove him to write the way he did and the way Shakespeare mirror opposites to contrast the change in the characters over the course of the play. The tiny hints he leave throughout the play on how the story will turn out can clue you in far before the point to which the clue refers. In this way the story leads itself to it’s own end in definite finality.