You can't say that there's no poetic justice at all in Shakespeare's King Lear. True, he wasn't a firm believer in happy endings, yet it wasn't like Martin Scorsese's film The Departed where literally everyone dies at the end. However, Shakespeare did deal out some poetic justice. Goneril and Regan, for example, who manipulated their father and his disintegrating state of mind and body for their own gain, both died in the end. Isn't that poetic justice? They got what they deserved, didn't they?
And then there's Lear himself. He chose Goneril and Regan, who lied and showered him with false flattery, over Cordelia, who was honest and true. Then, ironically, the two daughters betrayed their father and banished him from his own kingdom. (Well, Lear, that's what you get.) But this betrayal by two of his daughters led to the reconciliation with his other daughter. For a while, we all thought there might be a happy ending -- but that, of course wasn't the case. And thats what KD meant about no poetic justice.
And then there's Edmund. He set out to be evil because he believed it was his destiny, and he did his best to fulfill his destiny. He pitted his father against his own brother, Goneril against her own sister Regan, and was the reason Cordelia and Lear didn't have their happy ending. But in true poetic justic fashion, in the end, Edmund dies too.
Shakespeare wasn't a fairy tale writer -- at least not in King Lear. There's no happily ever after, but there is poetic justice. It might not be as relevant as all the unfairness and cruelty that goes on, but it is still there.
~mr
Out of Sheer Curiosity...
16 years ago
4 comments:
You really think they deserve to die? Lear makes a terrible choice but somehow we forgive. The girls make a terrible choice (banishment) out of which much horror follows...why do i have a bit of sympathy for them?
And: beyond the "deserve" argument--doesn't Cordelia make a serious blunder too? That is, she easily could have lied to dad, sat around and watched over her sisters, etc. Isn't her stubbornness part of this sad play?
I don't think they deserved to die, but I think it was Shakespeare's way of implying poetic justice.
Cordelia didn't deserve to die, but that was Shakespeare's "uncompromising view of reality" that the question talked about. If she did lie, then it would make her the same as Regan and Goneril.
I agree with the above. The fact that she doesn't lie puts her above her sisters. Starting the play off with that doesn't really create any different sort of relationship between her and her father as opposed to her sisters and father.
and i really liked your reference to The Departed because it was THE topic of conversation of how good it was so I was all excited to see it when it came out and EVERYONE died. I usually cry when people die.. and I did for the first two characters.. and then after that I was just more pissed then my tears could handle. At the end I threw the remote across the room. Endings like that frusterate me and they aren't even necessary. Last time I ever took movie advice from a group of guys.
-rae
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