Download To what extent is the concept of power central to King Lear as a

To what extent is the concept of power central to King Lear as a whole?
Shakespeare’s King Lear centres around a complex exchange of power between
characters. Each active character in the play is motivated by their desire for power. The
centrality of the concept of power stems from the significant role in the natural order, which
essentially defines the amount of power any person should have. This natural order is
upset when characters who should have power, such as Lear, give up this authority to
characters such as Goneril and Regan who should not have power. The natural order is
restored in the final two acts of the play when power is rightfully restored, reflecting the
cyclical nature of the play. Power is therefore a central concept in King Lear.
Power is the motivation for many important characters in King Lear, including the villains
Goneril, Regan, and Edmund, and the king himself. Edmund actively seeks power, this
being the main purpose of his plot to discredit his brother. He is successful in this, as he is
eventually given his father’s title as Earl of Gloucester. Edmund also gains power over
Goneril and Regan by forcing them to compete for him, and is pleased to hear that they
have killed themselves over him, as it proved that he was “loved.” Goneril and Regan
themselves are not so active in their quest for power, however it is their desire for power
that motivates the hyperbole and dishonesty in their speeches in the love test; “I love you
more than word can wield matter.” The sisters are handed power by their father with little
effort on their part. The sisters exercise their newfound power by bullying their father, for
example refusing to allow him his entourage. Lear’s abdication is motivated by his desire
to “shake all cares and business from our age,” to give up his power in order to escape the
stresses that accompany it. However, when Lear realises how completely powerless he is
under his daughter’s rule, he tries to take back some of this power again. Having lost
earthly power, he tries to claim power over the supernatural by cursing Goneril, begging
nature to make her infertile or “give her a child of spleen.” In the storm, at the height of his
madness, Lear once again tries to reclaim power over his daughters by staging a mock
trial of them. He later takes on the role of “King of nature,” covering himself in flowers and
a crown of nettles. All these actions are motivated by Lear’s need to feel powerful. These
four characters are central to the play, and are driven by their desire for power, indicating
that power is a central concept in the play.
The Elizabethan ‘great chain of being’ is the basis of the natural order which is disrupted
and then restored in King Lear, and defines the amount of power held by any person.
When Lear gives up his power and passes it on to his evil daughters, this order is upset.
The king in the great chain of being was second only to God, so Lear’s abdication
represents a significant fall from power. The storm Lear faces in act three is a physical
manifestation of the turmoil caused by the breakdown of order, nature’s rebellion against
Lear’s loss of power. The storm also renders Lear even more powerless, as he is battered
by the elements as well as abused by his daughters. Goneril, Regan, and Edmund all
disrupt the natural order by claiming power that is not theirs by right. Gloucester,
paralleling Lear, is also robbed of his rightful power when Regan and Cornwall take over
his house and then blind him. Like Lear, Gloucester’s own child takes his power for
himself. The disruption of the natural order in first three acts of King Lear can therefore be
seen in terms of the central concept of power.
The natural order returns when power is restored, reflecting the cyclical nature of the plot.
Rescued from his madness by Cordelia, she has him carried in a chair by servants,
representing the restoration of his power. As he nears death, Albany fully returns Lear to
power by naming him king once more, so that Lear dies with the same amount of power as
he had at the beginning of the play. Likewise, Goneril, Regan, and Edmund have lost their
ill-gained power. The restoration of the natural order through the return of power to those
who have a right to it reflects the influence of another key popular belief in Elizabethan
To what extent is the concept of power central to King Lear as a whole?
England, the wheel of fortune. The dying Edmund says that, “the wheel has come full
circle,” and with respect to power this is true of the above characters. These characters
have lost or gained complete power, but are returned to their original state by the end of
the play. The role of power in the outcome of the play is further evidence of its centrality.
Power is indubitably a central concept in King Lear. Power defines the actions of
individuals who seek it in the play, but is also central to a more universal force, the natural
order which is destroyed and restored in the course of the play. The transfer of power
between characters throughout the play is the centre of the play’s plot and individuals’
attitudes towards power define their character.