King Lear, throughout most of the play, is overcome by a sense of futility and

defeat and he loses all hope of regaining his dignity. When Lear is standing in the raging

storm he strips off his clothes and yells to the heavens in the nude. At this point Lear has

“Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you From Seasons such as these O, I ave ta’en Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, that thou may’st shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just.” (163)

Not only has Lear made the wrong decisions about his daughters and lost everything he had

Edgar, is a character, who’s fate takes a most unexpected turn at the very end of the play, when all hope for everyone is lost. After falling into his own brothers sneaky, greedy plot, Edgar is forced to live a life in hiding. Time and again his fortune takes a turn for the worst until finally he feels that things can only get better. “To be worst, The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune, Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear. The lamentable change is from the best: The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then, Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace! The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst Owes nothing to thy blasts.”(207) As soon as Edgar finishes his speech, his newly blinded father walks in, guided by an old man. Edgar realises that he has not seen the worst. Gloucester than asks his disguised son to be his guide to take him to a cliff so he can kill himself. Edgar, although overcome with woe, is able to save his devastated fathers life and give it new meaning. “I do remember now. Henceforth I’ll bear Affliction till it do cry out itself, “Enough, Enough,” and die.”(251) Edgar has shown a strength of mind that has allowed him to endure his pain and change his fathers fate.

realization that he failed his people when he was king. This gives Lear an extreme feeling of woe

Some topics in this essay:
Crack Nature’s, King Lear, Cordelia Lear, Welcome Thou, Henceforth I’ll, Rage Blow, King Edgar’s, Edgar’s Edmund, Cordelia’s Providence, Lear Edmund, king lear, despair providence fortitude, idea cordelia, edgar shown, nakedness woe, plot edgar, fathers mistakes, providence fortitude, raging storm, despair providence,