Free English Literature Dissertations - Body And Soul Desire Their Union To Remain Unbroken And Together To Enjoy The
Body and soul desire their union to remain unbroken and together to enjoy the sweets of life20.
In the case of King Lear, the character does not realise this concept; thus, his mental death results in his destruction. Developing such a tragic end, Shakespeare, on the one hand, conforms to the demands of the Renaissance era that was obsessed with death, and, on the other hand, destroys the existing Christian notions of evil and death. Such a contradictory vision demonstrates that Lear’s death is both a victory and a loss; despite the fact that Christian religion condemns such persons as King Lear and predicts suffering after death for their sins, Shakespeare shows that King Lear’s death eliminates the Christian idea of revelation, proving that death is the real end of person’s existence. Thus, Shakespeare implicitly challenges the concept of afterlife, proving that God is not able to provide comfort to a person as he/she ponders over death. According to Thomas More, comfort is based on faith21, but Shakespeare’s King Lear has no faith, especially after the death of his beloved daughter Cordelia. Lear achieves a momentary harmony when he reconciles with Cordelia, but no one can save Lear when Cordelia dies. Lear is destroyed by Cordelia’s death and expresses so much suffering and loss that he simultaneously rejects any hope for afterlife and salvation. In fact, death levels both good and bad characters of Shakespeare’s play, but, contrary to such protagonists as Goneril, Regan, Edmund, the victims of the play Gloucester, Cordelia and Lear manage to achieve new understanding before death. Neither good, nor evil wins in Shakespeare’s play; instead deaths of Cordelia, Lear, Gloucester, Goneril, Regan and other characters reveal the necessary balance between two extremes.
William Shakespeare does not discuss Cordelia’s and Lear’s suffering at death; he is more interested in the very fact of their deaths. Shakespeare, similar to Francis Bacon, considers that the Christian concepts of death are overwhelmed with superstition. Bacon even thinks that such Stoic philosophers as Montaigne bestowed too much cost upon death, and by their great preparations made it appear more fearful22. Making an attempt to shatter the illusion of death, Montaigne and other Stoic philosophers intensify the contradictions inspired by their interpretation of death issues. However, as Bacon points out, it is as natural to die, as to be born, and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other23. Lear is afraid of death, and he makes everything to preserve his life, despite the fact that he lives in his own illusionary world that is full of despair, suffering and selfish desires. At the end of the play Kent claims in regard to Lear that the wonder is he hath endured so long24.
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