King Lear

The main character of the play would be King Lear who in terms of Bradley would be the hero and hold the highest position is the social chain. Lear, out of pride and anger, has banished Cordelia and split the kingdom in half between the two older sisters, Goneril and Regan. This is Lear's tragic flaw that prevents him from seeing the true faces of people because his pride and anger overrides his judgement. As we see in the first act, Lear does not listen to Kent's plea to see closer to the true faces of his daughters. Kent has hurt Lear's pride by disobeying his order to stay out of his and Cordelia's way when Lear has already warned him, "the bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft" (I.i.152). Kent still disobeys Lear and is banished. Because of this flaw, Lear has initiated the tragedy by disturbing the order in the chain of being by dividing the kingdom, banishing his best servant and daughter, and giving up his thrown.

Due to this flaw, Lear has given way to the two older daughters to conspire against him. Lear is finally thrown out of his daughters' homes and left with a fool, a servant and a beggar. This is when Lear realizes the mistake that he has made and suffers the banishment of his two eldest daughters. Lear is caught in a storm and begins to lose his sanity because he can not bear the treatment of his two daughters as well as the error he has made with Cordelia and Kent. Lear also suffers from lack of rest when he is moving all over the place and the thing that breaks him is the death of his youngest daughter, Cordelia. This suffering can be contrasted with other happier times like when Lear was still king and when he was not banished by his two daughters.

The feeling of fear is when Lear is in the storm raging against the gods, "I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. I never gave you kingdom, called you children, you owe me no subscription" (III.ii.16-18), telling them to rage harder since he has not done anything for them and that he didn't deserve what he has received from his two daughters. The fear is how Lear in a short period of time went from king to just a regular peasant and from strong and prideful to weak and unconfident. This shows that men do not hold their own destiny and that even though things may be great now you can be struck down just as fast as was to Lear.

The fall of Lear is not just the suffering of one man but the suffering of everyone down the chain. Gloucester loses his status and eyes, Cordelia and Kent are banished, and Albany realizes his wife's true heart. Everything that happened to these characters are affected by Lear in one way or another and if Lear had not banished Cordelia and Kent then the two sisters would have been able to plot against their father. Without the plot of the two sisters then Gloucester would not have lost his eyes and his status to Cornwall because he was guilty of