King Lear Double Characters Essay Example
King Lear Double Characters Essay Example

King Lear Double Characters Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (581 words)
  • Published: January 25, 2022
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William Shakespeare was one of the best writers and his writings have got usage over the years. King Lear is one such writings from him. The story of King Lear depicts different personality and characters in the way they behave. In double characters, the two of the eldest sisters seem to share the same traits. The story portrays them as having self-interest. This is one of the themes that the writer passes across. They start by giving good answers to their father when they were told to tell him how much they love him. Regan and Goneril find the best answers that would show the king how much they loved him. These characteristics make the king happy and even he decides not to give blessings to the younger sister. This did not take long before the two elder sisters start to undermine the authority

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of their father was the king (Lopez, pg.15).

In explanation of double characters, the two elder sisters had common ground in regards to betraying their father. Their action helps in demonstrating several themes which include hypocrisy and self-interest. These two daughters show a certain level of hypocrisy. This is a theme that manifests itself well in the story. The daughters pretend to show how much they love their father and in the event they receive his blessings, they turn against him. This means that their target was to get the material possession that their father had. This is the reason why they displayed themselves as double characters with parallel personalities. Even the king of France after realizing that the daughters of King Lear have turned against him, he decided to help the

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King of Britain. This shows that the two kings have the same personality and they are driven by the same purpose (Lopez, pg.16).

Another example of double characters is shown by Reagan and her husband. Gloucester after discovering that the daughters of King Lear turned against him, he decided to help the King. This shows that these two men were standing on the same ground. In the same note, Gloucester had been tricked by Edmund, his son that Edgar was trying to kill him. This is the reason why Gloucester set up a manhunt to find and kill Edgar. This shows that King Lear and Gloucester had the same agony of being betrayed by their own children. This clearly explains on the theme of father and children. The two scenarios are a show of thirst of power from the children. This is the reason why the children found avenues to overthrow their fathers from power (Lopez, pg.18).

King Lear did not like it when his young daughter had nothing good to say about him. This is the time when the king told his daughters to show by words how much they loved him. The youngest daughter, Cordelia had nothing to say. However, this was the King’s favorite daughter. While this youngest daughter was away, she demonstrated a very important theme of loyalty. She set up an invasion to save her father. This is another form of double characters. This is depicted by the Gloucester and King Lear’s daughter. They both saw it right to help the King of France. This also shows same personality between the King’s daughter and Gloucester. These examples have set up important themes

for the story (Lopez, pg.19).

Work Cited

  1. Lopez, Alan. "Trespass And Forgiveness In William Shakespeare’S King Lear." Anq 27.3
    (2014): 121-124. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.
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