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Deception In King Lear

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Lies and deceptions are the reason that King Lear is considered a tragedy story. Both families are destroyed by the family members themselves. Both King Lear’s family and the family of Earl of Gloucester are destroyed in very similar events. The main-plot of the play has King Lear and his three daughters Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia. The sub-plot however, has Gloucester and his two sons Edger and Edmund. Lear the dumb king, wanting to feel some affection, gives his daughters a love-test to measure how much his daughters love him the most. “Which of you shall we say doth love us most...” (First Scene, First Act). The oldest daughters Regan and Goneril deceives the king by speaking highly of him, full of nice words which gets them rewarded …show more content…

Cordelia goes on a quest to release her father. Edger with his disguise of Poor Tom is already trying to protect his father from further problems. At this point we find out that the sisters are in both in love with Edmund and have become rivals. To make use of this because he is ambitious, he thinks; “Which of them shall I take? Both? One? Or Neither?” (First Scene, Fifth Act) These trio were the most responsible for the events for that initiated the downfall of Lear and Gloucester. Egoism, Rivalry and ill-natured ends were their reasons. These events that made up the Main story are reflected in the sub-story. Both Lear and Gloucester fell because of their evil children who were driven by their ego. The most honest and good characters were both ironically the characters that had it worst. The story of King Lear and Gloucester were in perfect coordination of each other in that the sub-story had benefited the main story in Shakespeare’s play King

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