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How Does King Lear's Play Relate To Shakespeare

Decent Essays

Fatima Mossolem

In Samuel Johnson’s essay Preface to Shakespeare he asserts that Shakespeare’s writing is a “mirror of manners and of life,” which in laymans terms means that Shakespeare writes the truth about life, even when it is seen as unpleasant. This proves to be true even today, over a hundred years since King Lear was written. One of the meanings of the work as a whole in King Lear is that loyalty doesn 't always have to be born of blood. We see this mostly with Kent, Lear’s faithful servant, who stayed by Lear’s side no matter the situation. Nature is also another meaning of the work as a whole. When related to Kent the question of nature is whether or not he is loyal to his king, and without compare he is. In my life now I have found that the best of friends will be more loyal and kind to you then the closest of families, proving that the stories and characters Shakespeare created can be paralleled in the modern world. Although one could claim that the events that occur in Shakespeare 's plays are nothing more than fiction, it is obvious from both the characters and the plot that Shakespeare’s work The first words Kent spoke in this play were “Good my liege-” (pg 15). The first time Kent is seen in the play he is trying to convince Lear to rethink his decision about banishing Cordelia. Lear takes this as a challenge and of course banishes Kent as well. Kent then chooses to come back and work for Lear in disguise. This was the first glimpse of Kent’s character,

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