This is what I came up with for my final paper!
The nature of tragedy keeps people returning to movies, books, and plays. We find ourselves trying to discover echoes of our lives in the tragedy of another’s story. Whether the tragedy arises from murder, deception, or physical nature, King Lear has it all. There is no play that deals with both nature and tragedy in such depth as King Lear. The abundant appearance of nature throughout this play makes the reader recognize its importance. Northrop Frye deals with the obvious importance of nature in King Lear in his book, Northrop Frye on Shakespeare. Nature is what drives the tragedy of this Shakespearian masterpiece.
Nature appears on many levels throughout the play. “When we speak of “nature” it makes a crucial difference whether we mean the upper, human level of nature, or the environment around us that we actually live in” (Frye 106). The quote from Frye provides the reader with the idea that nature means many different things, both the Shakespeare, his characters, and his audience. Because Shakespeare lived in a Christian world, it is important to take religion into consideration, while also recognizing that the play is set in a pre-Christian society. This apparent disconnect between worlds leads the reader to understand the complexity of the role of nature.
Nature has many different roles in this play. However, there are four that are the most important to the understanding of the relationship between nature and the tragic events in King Lear. The levels of the world in a Christian world, the levels of Lear’s world, the physical nature of the world around us, and the nature of people. When these are examined together, the reader gets a new reading of the play and the characters within.
Although King Lear was set in a pre-Christian world, it is important to explore what influence Christianity may have had on this play. The Christian world is divided into four levels: Heaven, Eden, Earth, and Hell. There is an interesting separation between Earth and Eden. Because Earth is where man is born, we can assume that this is a world for sinners. This idea is based on the Christian mythology. Above Earth, there lies an in between area that reminds man of the presence of God, but can only be attained by purity. This level is the cosmos. “The stars, made, as was then believed, out of a purer substance than this world” (Frye 105). Because of the beauty that the stars inspire we are constantly reminded of the potential for a higher power and his existence above Earth. Most of the characters in this play dwelled on Earth because they were separated from Eden’s perfection by sin. In spite of this, there are some characters in King Lear who could have dwelt in that separation between Earth and Eden because of their pure hearts. Not only does the nature of the world influence this tragedy, but it is also the nature of the characters within the play.
The pre-Christian world that Shakespeare built was also divided into four levels: the world of nonexistent gods, human world, physical nature, and a hell world that exists in times of madness. These levels are all visited at one point or another in this play. Lear vacillates from the social world to the physical and back, only to end his tragic journey in madness and horror. By examining these two worlds, the reader understands that they are not mutually exclusive because the characters dwell in both worlds. To fully grasp the nature of the characters, we must combine the worlds and look at them through a new lens. Through their experiences and the world they live in we can understand what leads to their tragic demise.
The physical storm that occurs in this play sets the events in motion. “It is during and after the storm, that the characters of the play begin to show their real nature” and the audience becomes aware of the horrors Goneril and Regan are capable of, as well as the deception Edmund pulls on his father (Frye). The storm also serves as a physical representation of the turmoil Lear is dealing with. He has banished the daughter who loved him, and must live with the daughters who want him gone. Lear is so upset by his problems with his daughters that he cannot recognize the power this storm has. “The tempest in my mind/ Doth from my senses take all feeling else/ Save what beats there” (III.iv.14). The physical storm that is a presence in the play, illustrates the tragedy of nature itself by showing the awesome power that nature has over the world. “Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art” (III.iv.107). The storm makes Lear realize that he is no more than a man. Although he is king, he is a mortal, and will die as the rest of them. The only difference between Lear and the other characters is how they live.
The nature of people is the strongest force in the tragedy of King Lear. Lear’s demise begins in the first scene of the first act when he measures love in quantity rather than quality. Shakespeare illustrates Lear’s nature throughout the first acts by showing that he is obsessed with what he has, and how much he can get. Lear asks his daughters to tell him how much they love him, in order to receive their portions of the kingdom, “which of you shall we say doth love us most,/ That we our largest bounty may extend/Where nature doth with merit challenge”(I.i.51). Lear already has an idea of who will win his heart with her words, but when Cordelia replies with, “nothing” he cannot understand her pure intentions. Lear is blinded by his desire for things and therefore “he must… sink below [Earth] into sin, a level the animals can’t reach” (Frye 105). It takes Lear until the end to realize what is important in life, but by this time, his world has collapsed around him. Lear cannot reach a level of the human world above madness because his personal nature holds him back. To dwell in the social world, it is essential to be enlightened to the basic human interactions, such as love. By the time Lear understands what love is, he is too far into the world of madness. Lear could not “see better” and recognize who really loved him, and therefore he lost everything.
In contrast to Lear, Cordelia and Kent are the essence of love and can dwell in the pre-Christian world on the social level, or in the Christian world in the space between Earth and Eden. As stated earlier, Frye said that stars are made of a purer substance than this world. Cordelia and Kent are made of this substance. Kent’s loyalty to Lear never falters and Cordelia’s love never fails. Although we do not see Cordelia through much of the action, she is always a light shining in the distance. Because her love is so strong, the audience cannot forget about it. When we meet her at the end, she has no blame for her father, and still loves him wholeheartedly. Her love is on the same level as Kent’s loyalty, which allows them to dwell on a different level than the others. Throughout this play, Kent is helping Lear get through this tragic time. Even after Lear banishes him, Kent returns to his master disguised as someone else. His unwavering loyalty is what puts him at the level of the stars. One of the most powerful lines in King Lear is after Lear has died and Kent is going to join his master, “I have a journey, sir, shortly to go./ My master calls me; I must not say no” (V.iii.327). This mimics many Christian beliefs as well. When God calls, you must go fulfill your duties to him. However, there are not many people in this world with such loyalty as Kent or with such love as Cordelia. Their personal nature is what rises them from Earth to the Heavens.
King Lear is a tragedy like no other. It encompasses more death and deception than many other stories in this world. Nature is often what drives the tragic elements because it is so prominent throughout the play. By looking at the different roles that nature plays we can see that Shakespeare wanted his audience to think about the decisions they make and how those decisions impact where they dwell in this world. We must take this tragic story and find the echoes in our lives to discover what we can learn from these characters. We must find out what we need.
