It was very important for us to see the beginnig of the play in order to experience Lear as a happy man, surrounded by good fortune. By seeing this image, we can feel pity about Lear at the end of the play.
Lear and Perfection
Aristotle contests that the tragic hero has to be a man "who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty." He is not making the hero entirely good in which he can do no wrong but rather has the hero committing an injury or a great wrong leading to his misfortune. Aristotle is not contradicting himself saying that the hero has to be virtuous and yet not eminently good. Being eminently good is a moral specification to the fact that he is virtuous. He still has to be to some degree good. Aristotle adds another qualification to that of being virtuous but not entirely good when he says, “He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous.” He goes on to give examples such as Oedipus and Thyestes.”(4)
King lear, as we can see, is not a perfect person. He is affected by the sweet words of his two eldest daughters. He also deprived, Cordelia, his youngest daughter from her right as a heir just because she was not as smooth-tongued as her sisters. Here, the imperfection of Lear is obvious, he is just a normal person who is touched by soft words.
Knowing the tragic flaw of Lear, we ask ourselves: Why cannot he be a perfect person? Aristotle gives two reasons why the tragic hero cannot be perfect. First, because the misfortunes of a perfect hero would appear odious and offend our sense of justice; and secondely it would not allow action at all. According to Aristotle, misfortune is brought upon the tragic hero not by vice or depravity but by some error of judgement (hamartia) and the cause of it must lie in some error in his part.(5)
Hence, it is important for lear to be imperfect person. If he was a perfect person, it would be hard for us to justify the misfortunes that he counters. Moreover, if he was a completely evil person, we would not be afraid that we may experience a fate as his. Lear inspires fear in us because he is like us with his good qualities and evil ones.
The Idea of Insight Through Suffering
The tragic hero is a person who suffers tremendously, whose suffering goes beyond him. The tragic hero also takes the action that produces the suffering and calamity which leads to death.The tragic hero is a person who is of high degree, and his welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of the state. The hero is an exceptional being, of high degree, whose actions and sufferings are of an unusual kind, who possesses and exceptional nature. His nature is exceptional in the sense that it is very much like our nature, except that it is intensified.(6)
In king Lear, Lear suffers throughout the play because of his ill judgement. He is confronted with the inhumanity of his daighter as a result of trusting them and depriving his youngest daughter of his fortune. At the end of the play Lear discovers his fault and became nearer to the reality that he was mistaken to Cordelia. This insight did not come to Lear, until he went through the bitter taste of suffering.
Aristotle defines discovery as "a change from ignorance to knoledge" it may imply the identity of a person or the discovery whether someones has done or not done something. Discovery, therefore includes the revealing of the whole state of affairs, about which there was previous ignorance or mistake. Thus hamartia, peripety and discovery all go together to bring about the tragedy. Hamartia, therefore, implies the "error of ignorance".(7)
Lear does not realize he has commited an error until he has suffered. This suffering is so hard for Lear that it drives him crazy. He finally realizes his mistake in giving the kingdom to his two savage daughters and disowning the one daughter who loves him.
Works Cited
1/ Websters New Collegiate Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tragedy. Retrieved 19 March 2012
2/ S.H. Butcher, The Poetics of Aristotle, (1902), p. 45-47
3/ K. S. Mirsha, The Tragic Hero through Ages, New Delhy, Northern Book Centre, 1992, p.109
4/ Charles H. Reeves, The Aristotelian Concept of The Tragic Hero, Vol. 73, No. 2, The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable,1952, p. 172-188
5/ K. S. Mirsha, The Tragic Hero through Ages, New Delhy, Northern Book Centre, 1992, p.80
6/ http://www.123helpme.com/assets/4111.html. Retrieved 19 March 2012
7/ K. S. Mirsha, The Tragic Hero through Ages, New Delhy, Northern Book Centre, 1992, p.81
