Chaos In William Shakespeares King Lear :: essays research papers

A device which Shakespeare often utilized to convey the confusion and nut house within the plot of his plays, is the reflection of that confusion and chaos in the natural environment of the setting, along with supernatural anomalies and animal imageries. In King Lear, these devices are used to communicate the plot, which is summarized by Gloucester as&8230This villain of mine comes under the prediction there&8217s sonagainst father. The King falls from bias of naturethere&8217s father against child. (Act 1, Sc.1, 115 - 118)The &8220bias of nature is outlined as the natural inclination of the world. Throughout the play King Lear, the unnatural inclination of nature, supernatural properties and animal imageries are used by Shakespeare to illustrate the pell-mell state of England, which was caused by the treacheries of the evil characters.Gloucester is a character in the play who firmly believed that man&8217s fate has supernatural properties that are controlled or reflected by the h eaven and starsThese late eclipses in the sun and moonPortend us to no good. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, nonetheless nature findsitself scourged by the sequent events. (Act 1, Sc. 2, 109 - 113)This is proclaimed by Gloucester as he is told by Edmund of Edgar&8217s supposedly treacherous plot to remove him from power. Gloucester&8217s depose in Edgar faltered as a forget of Lear&8217s irrational banishment of Cordelia and Kent, coupled with recent anomalies in the heavens. Gloucester believed that Lear&8217s actions also came as a result of the star&8217s unusual behaviour. Edmund, the treacherous and bastard son of Gloucester, exploits Gloucester&8217s blind believe in the stars in his plot to oust Edgar out of the heritage and ultimately to gain all of Gloucester&8217s wealth and landThis is the excellent foppery of the world, thatwhen we are sick in fortune (often the surfeits ofthe sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villainson necessity fools by heavenly compulsion knaves,thieves, and treacherous by spherical predominancedrunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforcedobedience of planetary influence and all that weare evil in, by a divine thrusting on.(Act 1. Sc. 2, 125 - 133)As a result of the irrational acts of trust by Lear and Gloucester, the state of England crumbled due to corruptness and treachery of Regan, Goneril and Edmund. At the point of ultimate chaos, Lear is disdained by his two evil daughters and has none of the power and honour of his kingship, and the state of nature reflects this chaos in the form of a degenerate storm