King Lear King Lear A Tragic Hero Essays - Literature, King Lear

King Lear: King Lear a Tragic Hero King Lear had been discussed by many critics of the play of this name, with some taking the position that he was a tragic hero. However, there are a few who believe that he was not, and that in effect, he might even be a comic figure. This paper attempts to discuss whether King Lear is a tragic hero or not, looking at the works of two critics, each taking opposite sides. On the one hand, there is A.C. Bradley, who takes the position that King Lear is a tragic hero because he demonstrates all the characteristics of a tragic hero as Bradley saw it. On the other hand, G. Wilson Knight believes that the play King Lear is really a comedy of the grotesque, and that King Lear is really a comic figure. The position that I am taking is this paper is that King Lear is a tragic hero, because he fits all the characteristics that Bradley identifies as belonging to a tragic hero, and more than that although there might appear to be comic elements in the play King Lear that the tragic elemen seem to outweigh the comic. Therefore, the position taken by Knight is not accurate in describing King Lear. The tragic hero, according to Bradley, is a person who suffers tremendously, whose suffering goes beyond him. The tragic hero also takes the action that produces the suffering and calamity which leads to death. Other characteristics of a tragic hero are as follows. The tragic hero is a person who is of high degree, and his welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of the state. The hero is an exceptional being, of high degree, whose actions and sufferings are of an unusual kind, who possesses and exceptional nature. His nature is exceptional in the sense that it is very much like our nature, except that it is intensified. The tragic hero is also involved in conflict, which could be either conflict with someone else, or conflict within himself. The tragic hero is also described as inspiring pity on the part of the viewer because of the intensity of the suffering that the tragic hero is undergoing. Furthermore, the tragic hero is seen as wretched, nevertheless, the audience does not see him as contemptible. Instead, the audience sees the tragic hero as suffering and the order in the world as destroyed. The only way that order would be restored is through the death of the tragic hero. (Bradley) Knight, on the other hand, takes a different perspective of the play King Lear. This author points out that tragedy and comedy are very close to each other. "Humor is an evanescent thing, even more difficult of analysis and intellectual location than tragedy. To the coarse mind lacking sympathy an incident may seem comic which to the richer understanding is pitiful and tragic." (Knight 1949, 34) In other words, tragedy and comedy seem to involve the process of invoking tension, and the relief of that tension could be either through the pain of tragedy or the humor of comedy. This is why there are situations where a person may cry or laugh at a similar set of circumstances. It just depends on how the idea is developed. "The comic and the tragic rest both on the idea of incompatibilities, and are also, themselves, mutually exclusive; therefore to mingle them is to add to the meaning of each; for the result is then but a new sublime incongruity." (Knight 1949, 34) The reason that people laugh at situations is that there is a juxtaposition of things that are incongruous. At the same time, the tragic does involve incompatible things taking place, and thus leading to a resolution of the pressure that is created through pain or crying. Knight does not see tragedy and comedy as being very different in the sense that they both view incongruity. In the case of King Lear, Knight believes that while the character of King Lear is tragic in the sense that he suffers that there is something comic in the situation because King Lear brings it upon himself because of the incongruity of King Lear's behavior. King Lear is mad, and his behavior from the very beginning of the play, where he tries to see which one of his daughters loves him more is incongruous. Knight sees this situation as comic, where King Lear has " . . . staged an interlude, with himself as chief action. . . . It