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History, Tragedy, And Comedy In Shakespeare's King Lear

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Shakespeare wrote his plays between three major genres which are History, Tragedy, and Comedy. When it comes to Tragedy and tragic plays, the plot always has to have a protagonist who desires something. Be it love, power, wealth, revenge, righteousness, justice or injustice, and obstacles get in the way of his path to reach his desire. After going through so many challenges, eventually the protagonist fails to overcome the obstacles that face him, which destroys him and lead to his downfall. King Lear is the king of Britain, one day he decides to step down from his throne and divide his Kingdom among his three daughters equally. Goneril, Regan and Cordelia are put through a test, to prove their love for their father. Cordelia says that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father, and that she loves him as much as daughter should love her father. Other two daughters exaggerate their answers, making their father think that Cordelia does not love him as much as they do. This scene basically leads to every other event in the play, leading to King Lear 's tragic downfall. In the scene where King Lear asks his three daughters how much they love him, is when Lear made one of the biggest mistakes that any father could ever do. He choose to favor Goneril and Regan over Cordelia, just because they exaggerated as they described their love for him. Lear did not even ask them to prove what they said, or see in action that actually prove their words. He

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