Charectarisation of King Lear in Comparison with the Aristotlean idea of Tragic Hero
Aristotle's Poetics is considered as a visionary work and one of the oldest surviving work of literary criticism.
Poetics is the ideaal text to begin the dramatic theory, the tragedy in particular. Aristotle employed
systematic methods and scientific reason to study all the available Greek tragedies of his era. He examined
these tragedies with great precision and later formulated certain general propositions about tragedies.
Because of the authenticity of the methods he utilised, Aristotle's theory about Tragedies holds good for
discussion and debates to this day.
For several centuries after Aristotle, his theory on Tragedy and the Greek Trgedy was considered as the
ideal form of tragedy. But in England, William Shakespeare tried to reinvent an original version of tragedy
that deviate from the effigy of Greek tragedy. Shakespeare shaped fashioned his dramas from the historical
dramas and puppet plays. Shakesperean tragedies deviated from the ideals of Aristotelean tragedies but
was innovative and original. In this paper, my efforts are to study the charecterisation of the title character
King Lear in Shakesperean tragedy King Lear in comparison with the Aristotlean idea of a tragic hero.
(Johann Gottfried Herder Shakespeare book)
"No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear." This is how George Bernard Shaw summed up one of
Shakespeare's finest tragedies; King Lear. King Lear has a central plot and a well developed subplot. The
central plot narrates the story of King Lear and his three daughters. The subplot explores the story of
Gloucester and his sons. King Lear is a tragedy and Lear is considered as the ultimte Shakeserean tragic hero
as the play ends with an extremely pessimistic dark tone. The play ends with hero who has no chances for
redemption.(WH Auden)
The play opens with King Lear dividing his kingdom like a birthday cake for his daughters. This is the first
of the many losses that will accumulate on his character throughout the five acts of the play. He losses
authority over his kingdom. Of his three daughters, he divided his kingdom to the eldest of the three for
their exaggerated and over-the-top expressal of love which he falls for. His youngest daughter gains nothing
though she truthfully claims that she loves Lear as a daughter, a standard which Lear judges not enough to
win his heart.But his eldest daughters despise him after he loses his authority finally ousts him from his own
palace. This breaks the man completely leading to his realisation about the honesty in the love of his
youngest daughter, Cordelia. Though Ordelia and King Lear sorts matters between them positively this sets
the stage for the ultimate tragedy of King Lear. The fifth and final act portrays the battle and the final death
of King Lear. (UK essay)
Aristotle defines tragedy in the sixth chapter of his book Poetics as 'the imitation of an action that is serious
and also as having multiple magnitude, complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each
kind brought in seperately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents
arousing pity amd fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions." Aristotle means that the
writer of a tragedy should write towards ccreating characters and situations that would create in the
spectator the catharsis of pity and fear. But for the spectator to experience this catharsis and feel pity and
fear, the character created should be, in simple terms, likeable. Aristotle putforth that the tragic hero
should be conditioned in moral terms to evoke catharsis in the spectator which is the ultimate objective of a
tragedy. Aristotle already presupposes that spectators are moral beings and to evoke feelings in them, it is
necessary for the tragic hero and the course of the plot to be adjusted to the moral nature of the
spectator and the moral origin of tragic emotions. (Charles H Reeves)
In Aristotle's own analyses, some narratives does not produce in us such a feeling of catharsis. A good man
going from properity to misery and a bad man moving from misery to prosperity are narratives that disgust
the spectator. Aristotle is calling to find a mean between the various narratives he proposes unsuitable for
tragedies. Aristotle is proposing for the creation of a hero, the tragic hero,who falls from prosperity to
misery not becaue of vice or deprivity but by the event of an error in his decision. (On the Art of Poetry,
Arsitotrle). In short, the Aristotlean tragic hero is a someone who commits a fatal error may be a wrong
decision for which the character and the plot are equally responsible. Aristotle's perspective gave less
regards to the character and focused more on the plot settings. Hence, the fatal error is more of an external
entity that does not come from within the tragic hero. ((Graham Holderness)
A reading of the Aristotlean idea of tragic hero along with the character of King Lear immediately gives away
an important difference between the Shakesperean hero and the Aristotlean hero. For King Lear, his
decision to divide the kingdom, blindly believing his decieving daughters was a fatal error from the
Aristotlean point of view. But Shakespeare fleshes out a character that is highly insecure and egoistic. A man
shallow enough to fall for the flattery of his daughters and to get blinded by it to understand authentic
emotions of his youngest daughter. King Lear, in the Shakesperean understanding, is a man who is flawed
from within. This is what leads him to take such a decision about his kingdom. (Graham Holderness)
Shakespeare wrote King Lear at a point when he was trying to explore certain human states through his
characters. His characters were not people whom the spectator could identify amongst them, but were
possibilities of certain mental states. But Aristotle bothered less about the character all through Poetics. His
focus was always on the plot and how the plot shapes the decision and arc of the character. (Graham
Holderness)
In the Aristotelean sense, the tragic hero should be from belong to a high economic and social order. The
hero must not fall into the categories of good or bad but should be one with a 'tragic flaw'. Towards the end
of the play and the unanticipated death of the hero, the hero realises this flaw. Aristotle wrote at a time
when plays were still at a very primitive stage. He theorised by studying the Greek tragedies at his
dispopsal and produced during his lifetime. These plays closely replicated the life and cultural beliefs of the
Greek society. For instance, Aristotle stressed for unity within the play one of which was unity of place. This
was apt for Greek tragedies because the action often took place in a single location like the market.
But Shakespeare twisted the idea of the Aristotelean tragedy by remaining loyal to the ideas of Aristotle.
William Shakespeare's ingenious mind went for the formulation of tragedies that were much more relevant
and grounded to the realities of his own homeland. In the larger context this was Aristotle's attempt as
well. Shakespeare's King Lear is the most powerful man in the country. From this he falls to utter misery.
The loss of his kingdom and the pathetic way his daughters treated him drive King Lear insane. This fall is
the Aristotelean idea of hamartia. Though Shakespeare disguises the spectator into believing that King Lear
will lead a peaceful life after a certain point thereby breaking away from Aristotle's idea of tragedy, he
strikes back with a much greater ferocity to induce the feelings of pity and fear in the spectators in greater
proportions. (to what extent king lear is a tragic hero)
To be more precise, King Lear fits well into the Aristotelean idea of a tragic hero. But Shakespeare's nuanced
and strict character detailing gives much more insights into the inner psychology of the character unlike in
the Greek tragedies of Aristotle's era. The opening of the play shows King Lear at the zenith of his life as a
father and a king. But soon he falls to misery as he commits a fatal flow out of a pure lack of judgement. This
follows him through out the course of the play driving him into the plains of reality and ultimately a death
without any redemption. The opening of the play may evoke in the spectator a feeling of disgust towads
him. But his complete lack of insight and inability to properly judge his daughters sets off a chain of events
that pushes him to the harsh plains of reality. The spectators are given a chance to feel pity for the king
after he returns to his youngest daughter after losing everything and going insane. But this later adds on to
the dark and depressing ending of King Lear. (King Lear- An Aristotelean tragic hero)
In conclusion, Shakespeare creates a tragic hero of grander dimension by sticking to the foundation of
tragedies laid down by Aristotle. This grander aspect is what differentiates him from the Aristotlean tragic
heroes who commits the errors out of external influences. The grander character dimensions provide much
more into the inner dynamics of Shakespeare's hero thus shedding more light into character flaws that
later adds upto be the tragic flaw of the character. (Ruth Nevo) Shakespeare elaborated Aristotle's ideas
of tragedy and utilised it to present plots and character that could leave lasting impressions and captured
the reality of his own times.