Discuss the notion of appearance and reality in the play King Lear.

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Aloysius Bianchi                                                                                      6th Form (A) English

Discuss the notion of appearance and reality in the play.

                                       King Lear is based on appearance and reality. Both fathers in the main plot and the subplot deal with children who deceive by appearances. Lear is taken by false words and appearances just as Gloucester is. Add to this several characters in the play appear to be someone but they turn out to be others such as Edgar disguised as a beggar and Kent disguised as a servant. What concerns the fool, he appears to be foolish but in reality he is wise.

                                        Goneril and Regan are the personification of hypocrisy. Goneril exaggerates, by trying to deceive her father and say that her love is inadequate compared to his. The phrase ‘A love that makes breath poor and speech unable’ prove it. She tries to make her love seem priceless. On the other hand, Regan is no less. Regan tells her father that her own pleasure lies solely in the enjoyment of his love. The sister’s love is a means to an end.(Goneril and Regan deceive their father because they cannot love him absolutely if they are married). Reality lies behind appearance when Goneril and Regan remark about their father at the end of the scene on ‘the infirmity of age’. They complain about Lear’s rash judgement and unexplainable behaviour and they are apprehensive that they will receive the same treatment of Codelia and so they resolve that they, ‘must do something, and I’th’ heat.’

                                      Appearance and reality have an effect on King Lear. Goneril is sick and tired of her father as she accuses him that due to his character the knights are behaving in an intolerable way, and suggests that disciplinary measures have to be taken. Lear is shocked as he answers her, ‘Are you our daughter?’. Lear puts on an act, as a  means of expressing his horror and astonishment and these are signs of madness. The phrases, ‘Does any here know me? This is not Lear/ Does Lear walk this? Speak this Where are his eyes?’ shows a King Lear who is getting weak in his senses. He curses Goneril and says that he still has one ‘kind and comfortable’ daughter left to go to (Regan), yet she turns out to be made of the same stuff. She tells him to reduce the knights but for Lear, they are a symbol of status. The king attacks and curses his daughter to give birth to a thankless child that will torment her as his own bastard identity as a king. The man is used to flattery and her ingratitude is hurting him.

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                                        For Lear Kent in the stocks is an insult. When Kent tells Lear that ‘Your son and daughter’ in reference to the ones that put him there, Lear refuses to believe that Cornwall and Regan are responsible for his servant’s ‘shame’. Lear refuses to see reality. Lear is most concerned with his own mental state as he fears he is becoming hysterical with sorrow. He is affected physically as if his daughters are attacking him for the inside.  Lear ...

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