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King Lear by Shakespeare

Introduction

The book King Lear by Shakespeare is one of the historic books that this great writer has

been able to come up with since he started his works. The making of this story has been of great

significance and thus so many people have developed serious interests in trying to have some

critical analysis of what it all entails. For one to fully understand what it is all about, it would be

important if you consider some stiff analysis of it as a whole. This means that the making of this

poem must be fully regarded. One must also have a look at how the language has been used and

to which context has everything laid. With these issues, one will surely get the full meaning of

what the book entails. The setting of this works is something that is too important to ignore.

Shakespeare tries his level best to ensure that this play flows well from the beginning to

the end. He uses scenes to give a very deep indication of flow of events down the line. The play

starts with scene one that gives almost everything about this book. In this scene we are given

much information about those who are involved in the play as the main primary characters

(Carroll et al., 89). This chapter also comes with introducing the main plot in which the whole

story develops. Within these are also some of the subplots that have been incorporated. Another
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crucial point to take from this chapter is the introduction of Kent and most of his characters to all

the audiences of this play. This is given before this character is able to banish and later reappear

in the fourth scene in this series. It is therefore a very important thing to ensure that the whole

issue has been fully presented. One can therefore know who he/she is going to meet while this

story will be unfolding.

Context of the play

By the moment this particular play was being constructed by Shakespeare, there are

things that were happening. These are some of the issues that make this play not to be easily

forgotten. They are the issues that make this story to be worthy of any criticality. During this

time, the English people had gone through a series of civil wars that they were able to survive

through. They were also faced with both religious and political forms of upheavals. There was

also some turmoil that had followed these people. One of such was the death of Henry VIII who

was greatly respected during this tenure. Another thing that happened was the chaos that was

experienced religiously and in a civilized way. These mainly happened during the period when

Mary 1 was still the head of England. She was the oldest daughter of Prince Henry. The main

religious war that was going through at this time was that between the Church of England and

the Catholicism. This rivalry led to so many deaths and blood was shed from almost all the

regions which had been engaged in this war. This was one of the worst moments that these

people had been through in their lives. Most of them feared that their lives were in danger

afterwards.

The people of England had been in constant wars with each other and they therefore

needed some peace of mind. The only thing that has granted them some instances of quietness is
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the fact that Elizabeth 1 found the chance to take over the city and sit on its throne as the King of

that nation. After this had happened, there were so many issues that went on to happen. Most of

these issues were mainly positive. The country was able to enjoy a period of extended exclusive

peace in the country. Despite of this peace, most of the civilians in this country had not fully

settled.

Elizabeth had ruled them well but had a huge problem since she was unmarried even at

this age. So many people who were around her tried to give her some advice but she refused to

take. She refused the suggestion that she had to do some selection of the person who would

possibly inherit the palace (Raghavan et al., 20). People never wanted the same fate that had

happened to them some years back. During those times, the transfer of power from one person to

another had been something deep and very disappointing. In 1603, just some years after

Elizabeth had taken over the leadership, she chose James 1V who came from Scotland. He would

later become the possible heir to this lady. He eventually made it as the new King of English

people. The people of England had also suffered some humiliation from Spain who was trying to

invade them. However the powerful leadership of Elizabeth was enough to save these people.

Use of language

Shakespeare and some of his students have been able to fully understand how some of the

language and figures of languages are usually used and applied in most of the plays of their

famous teacher Shakespeare. There is the use of certain language that has been evident here and

has helped the playwright in the process of constructing the strategies in this book King Lear. In

this works, most of the elements have been contained in the presented tragedy. One of such is the

evidence of comic relief that has mainly been designed to provide some instances of catharsis.
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This is where the audience is given some chances and times to relax a little bit before they

continue. However, the case is different in as far as the play is concerned.

No tension is fully relived due to the fact that Lear tries to play the whole drama when the

decisions that he had made were all set to be in that state of motion. There are also some

characters whose tragedies have some instances of comic relief. A very good example in our case

is the character the Fool. However, this character has been eliminated from the comedy even

though his main reason for existence is to ensure that Lear is meant to laugh at almost every

time. The use of these language techniques are therefore important in as far as any particular play

is concerned.

Works cited
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Carroll, Joseph. "Evolutionary Literary Study." The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology,

Volume 2: Integrations 2 (2015): 1103.

Raghavan, D. Vijaya, AG Tejus Murthy, and O. Somasundaram. "Treatment of the mentally ill in

the Chola Empire in 11th-12th centuries AD: A study of epigraphs." Indian journal of

psychiatry 56.2 (2014): 202.