King Lear Essay: The Effectiveness of the Sub-Plot

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A lot of students often struggle with writing college papers on King Lear topics. Some of them need help from someone who are real experts in writing. That’s why WriteMyPaperHub, a professional essay writing service, offers the following sample to assist students write a high-quality paper on related topics.

King Lear is a play by William Shakespeare that has two main plots. The purpose of the plots is to lay emphasis on the theme of tragedy, which has been showcased throughout the play. In the first plot, in attempt to avoid a possibility of future conflicts, Lear, who is the king of Britain, divides his territory among his three daughters, Regan, Gonerill, and Cordelia. All he requests in return is a show of love, which Cordelia does not agree with since she does not want to be hypocritical. In response, she is banished and leaves the kingdom. Kent, who attempts to advise King Lear regarding the consequences of his action, is also banished. In the second plot, Edmund, who is Gloucester’s bastard son, plans on disinheriting Edgar, his brother. Afterwards, Edmund turns his father against Edgar and persuades him to flee. From these illustrations, the Gloucester subplot mirrors all the details of the main plot of the play.

Shakespeare has succeeded in developing two plots within a single play. The technique has been effective in bringing out the key themes of the play. For instance, in the main plot, Lear is brought out as the tragic hero. However, by error of his judgement, he is unfortunately deprived of something that is highly valuable to him. This situation is illustrated in the first scene of Act 1, where he is brought out by Shakespeare to be going through a quick changeover of hating his daughter, Cordelia. Cordelia is disowned after she refuses to give King Lear what he demanded from her since she feels it would not be genuine. The instance where King Lear disowns her daughter is where he says: “Will you, with those infirmities she owes, unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dower’d with our curse, and stranger’d with our oath, Take her, or leave her? (Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 1). This is an illustration that he hates the daughter that he once genuinely loved.

Likewise, in the sub-plot, Gloucester is deceived by his illegitimate son, Edmund, into suddenly being against his legitimate son. Similarly, he ends up being betrayed by the son whom he thought was more trustworthy. This situation is presented in the second scene of Act 1 where Edmund says: “Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund As to the legitimate: fine word,–legitimate! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper: Now, gods, stand up for bastards!” (Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene II). This sub-plot has fulfilled various functions. For instance, it has illustrated how the young betray their elders and how much those with power and authority end up trusting the wrong people. In both plots, Edmund, Goneril and Regan have a belief that they deserve more power than their counterparts, and the means that they choose to obtain it is justified. In the main plot, King Lear is deceived by her two elder daughters through their dishonest love. In the same way, Gloucester is tricked by his illegitimate son to turn against his legitimate one. As much as both men in the two plots were wise in their independent worlds, they still find themselves cast out into harsh circumstances by people who are closest to them but hungry for power.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

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