Hamlet Vs. King Lear

Overanalyzing is also a key fatal flaw that is explored throughout the character of King Lear as well; however, in this circumstance, we see that after over thinking a situation, it is mainly his great pride that results in his downfall. King Lear ultimately wants to divide his kingdom up between his three daughters; however, in order to receive the greatest amount of land, King Lear decided that it would be just for each of his daughters to proclaim their love for their father.  King Lear, being blinded by his own arrogance, did not see that his two oldest daughters directly lied to his face when proclaiming their devotion towards him.  It was only his youngest daughter, Cordelia, who spoke to her father with complete honesty, even though it led to her banishment from the kingdom.  

The fundamental part of Lear’s error in judgment was that he only wanted to hear positive attributes about himself being exclaimed, and once he heard something remotely negative, he exploded with fury. He ends up giving away his land to his two eldest daughters, and later realizes that their intentions with it were completely selfish.  We can see that King Lear, similar to Hamlet, did not see that people’s true intention could be so negative and demeaning.  Especially from his own daughters he expected nothing but the purest of actions.  His great pride overtook his whole mind and body, and as a result, Lear ended up within his own realm of madness, alone and fearful.  

Both of Shakespeare’s characters, King Lear and Hamlet, act in certain ways as a result of the world in which they find themselves placed in.  This is mainly seen through King Lear, who starts off within the play as a character who requires constant attention and love, and later realizes that his blindness to the true intentions of his daughters is what led him to complete insanity and the loss of all feelings of pride. As a result of this, we notice that the age difference, and difference in generations in which King Lear and his daughters were raised in is what ultimately led to his blindness and the loss of all his possessions, for his daughters, Goneril and Regan, are directly opposed to any ideas of loyalty, authority, respect or order.

With Hamlet, however, we see that the death of his father is one of the contributory factors that lead to the tragedies that followed along.  Hamlet’s inherent tendency to overanalyze all situations that he is presented with is the biggest cause of his isolation and his removal from all reality by the end of the play.   As a result of this, we see that Hamlet’s fatal flaw begins as something internal and carries out all throughout the play remaining untouched.

 Both characters, Hamlet and King Lear, possess characteristics and personality traits that lead them to their isolation and fear.  Shakespeare brilliantly showed us that even a single fatal flaw within a character has the potential to ultimately lead them to extreme failure, and we see this characteristic especially within these two protagonists. Both of them started off inherently good, however, as a result of their failure to notice people’s ungrateful and selfish characteristics, they ended up with nothing.