Analysis of Shakespeare's Play King Lear_1
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Analysis of Shakespeare's Play King Lear
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Shakespeare's tragic play King Lear
The plot of Shakespeare's tragic play King Lear is adapted for a modern-day film in this adaptation. The old King of England decides to bequeath his realm to his three daughters so they can govern together without fear of future conflict. But first, he has a test for his girls, and he wants them to tell him how much they love him. Cordelia, his youngest and favorite daughter, feels powerless to respond because she does not wish to appear hypocritical. His older children, Regan and Goneril, both respond well. The King loses his fury and disowns his daughter. The story proceeds with the King's inevitable descent into insanity as he realizes how much his actions have destroyed his relationships with his daughters. The paper indulges in the deep analysis of several actors' performances, the choices those actors made - both physical and verbal- and the logic that came with these actors' options.
To begin with, the actor Anthony Hopkins plays King Lear. Hopkins places excessive faith in his abilities, and his world crashes around him. He believes that he can control the outcomes of events, determine who loves him, and continue to reign even after surrendering his kingdom. At the beginning of the play, he exudes pride and is at the height of his authority, but as
the play progresses, he falls into doubt and, eventually, lunacy (Shakespeare's King Lear, 2021). The entirety of the space follows Hopkins as he abdicates his throne and goes into exile. Once there, he endures a storm, falls deeper into sadness, and develops paranoia. The second character is Emma Thompson, who played the character of Goneril. She is a typical example of a villain. She exemplifies this by telling her father a lie about the amount of affection she has for him and by taking actions that undermine Anthony Hopkins's position and authority. Her relationship with
her husband, the Duke of Albany, deteriorates to the point where the two openly despise one another as she plots her rebellion against her father and pursues power, even though she is married to him (Shakespeare's King Lear, 2021). She has an affair with Edmund, to begin with.
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She then commits suicide by stabbing herself and poisoning her sister Regan after he has been slain.
As the play progresses, the audience eventually meets Florence Pugh, the actress who portrays the role of Cordelia onstage. She does not want to play the part given to her during the scene in Act 1 Scene 1 where Anthony Hopkins is dividing his domain, and he insists that she tell
him how much she loves him. Instead, she refuses to perform the part. Consequently, he refuses to give her any of her dowries (Shakespeare's King Lear, 2021). The only person prepared to marry her without a dowry was the King of France, which significantly influenced the course of her life and Britain's history. She is absent for the duration of the play's first three acts, but she does eventually make her way back to Britain, bringing the French forces that are active at the time with her (Shakespeare's King Lear, 2021). During the critical stage of the conflict, the rebel forces successfully captured her. Edmund is the one who is responsible for carrying out the necessary preparations for her execution, and Act 5 sees her being hung from a rope. Throughout
the entirety of King Lear, she is portrayed as an angelic figure due to her eternal love for her father.
In the above analysis, we have established that the three characters undertook different choices in different circumstances. It's imperative to make a realization of whether these choices were logical or not. To start, actor Anthony Hopkins's choices in the play King Lear were unsettling or illogical because he is overconfident; he believes he can control the course of events, identify the people who adore him, and maintain his rule even after giving up the throne. At the beginning of the play, he is assertive and self-assured, but he soon gives way to doubt and eventually goes insane. Such an aspect showcases that King Lear's choices became unsettling since the results were utter chaos. Emma Thompson played the character of Goneril. Emma
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Thompson appears as an individual who makes some cunning choices since she is described as the Villain in the story. Emma Thompson chooses to lie too much. She embodies, and this decision of lying becomes to be unsettling since her relationship with her husband, the Duke of Albany, starts to deteriorate to the point where the two of them openly despise one another as she
plots her rebellion against her father and pursues power, even though she is married to him. Such
a decision makes her even start an affair with another individual. Lastly, there is Florence Pugh, the actress who portrays the role of Cordelia onstage. Her choice in play emerged to be very logical because she chose to be loyal to her father and what she stood for, and this issue eventually got her hanged because she attempted to uphold the virtue of loyalty.
Altogether, in the tragedy play, William Shakespeare wrote King Lear about a king who had three daughters and handed his kingdom to the two eldest, Goneril and Regan, as a result of their flattery. He does, however, decide to remove Cordelia, his youngest daughter, because she chose to reveal the truth rather than flatter her father. As a result of this conversation, it is evident
that the play is both nihilistic and affirmative of the value of human existence. Acts depicting nihilism are prominent throughout the space, while those displaying human compassion and love
for life are fewer and limited to more minor instances. At the end of the play, we witness characters admit their mistakes and make an effort to make amends.
Reference
Shakespeare's King Lear. James Earl Jones, NYC Shakespeare Festival, 1974
. Youtube.com. (2021). Retrieved 20 July 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=EXDz6QSTrKM
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