Posted: December 3rd, 2013
JUSTICE IN KING LEAR
Question to Address in Paper Three:
Is there justice in the play King Lear?You have put on trial a number of the major characters in the play as if they were real human beings who survived the play. After all, as students of the play, we want both to do them justice and to see justice done to them. However, do they receive justice in the play?
As I noted in your Food for Thought handout, this is a very dark play. Nature, in this play, has several meanings. Nature is defined as the order or the pattern of a rational universe; on the level of human nature it the pattern of a moral and just society where familial obligation, dedication to the best interests of the nation and its people, and respect for law allow us to live in harmony. On the other hand, Nature is the tooth and claw battle for supremacy (survival of the strongest), ruled by passion, betrayal, brutality, and the will to power.
Lear’s and Gloucester’s errors in judgment as the play opens have serious consequences. They allow injustice to reign. Even natural law and order (first definition of Nature) are upended. Political folly, familial folly, and the inability to distinguish appearance from reality give supremacy to the tooth and claw Nature, embodied by bestial daughters on the human level and by the tempest on the heath in Act III. The result is Lear’s mental chaos (madness), Gloucester’s being blinded, and complete loss of human control on the part of those who actually believe in law and order. Those who believe in nothing but the self are in charge.However, these characters do lose out in the end. Act V restores order, though much innocence has been lost.
Is Shakespearesaying justice andthe social, legal, and familial behaviors and bonds that we regard as essential to human well-being are so fragile that the slightest mistake imperils them? Is justice actually done in the play? Answer the question with respect to most of thecharacters in the following groupings (all of whom can be found to have flaws or make bad decisions in the context of the play), but organizing them in a way that seems natural and fruitful to you. Use evidence from the text and from the mock trials we conducted in class to do so:
Cordelia, the Fool, France, and Albany; Kent, Osward, and Edgar; Goneril, Regan, and Edmund; Gloucester and Lear
Guidelines:
3-5 pages double spaced, an 11 or 12 point type font, and appropriate margins.
Paper title, your name, the date, and English 333 centered at the top of page 1.
Number the pages.
Works Consulted listed at the end. Include the text and any other sources you consult, alphabetized:
Shakespeare, William. King Lear,Norton Shakespeare, 2nd Edition: Essential Plays, ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al.
W.W. Norton: New York, 2009.
Staple the pages. You do not need to use the red folder. Save it for organizing materials for the course.
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