A death of a man occupying a high position or status. A tragedy by Shakespeare is concerned principally with one man, and is a tale of suffering and misfortune leading to his death and to the deaths of a few other persons also.
The hero, or the principal sufferer, must be aman holding a lofty position and cmmanding respect; and the suffering or misfortune must be of an exceptional or extraordinary kind so as to produce strong tragic feelings, specially the feelings of pity, awe, and fear.
King Lear is primarily and chiefly the tragedy of Lear. Lear is the King of Britain, and therefore he occupies a high position, the highest , in fact, in his country. His suffers physically on account of the storm to which he, an old man, is exposed; and he suffers a mental agony because of the un-filial treatment of his daughters. The sufferings of Lear are, indeed, of an exceptional kind but it is not only Lear’s suffering which are depicted in the play.
The sufferings of Gloucester are also a part of the tragedy in this play. Eventually, Gloucester dies, then Cordelia dies, and Lear dies also. The tragedy of Lear is mainly and largely due to a defect in his own character. But his love of flattery is not the only defect in his character.
He is vain, rash, impulsive, and lacking in judgement of human character. It is this impetous conduct on the part of Lear that largely leads to his sufferings and his tragic end. In case of this play, there is a marked development in the character of Lear. In the begining of the play, Lear is foolish; at the end, he is a man who has learned wisdom. He has learned this wisdom through his intense sufferings.
In his tragic plays, Shakespeare shows that the hero is himself, to a great extent, responsible for his misfortunes.The sufferings may be out of all proportion to the guilt. In other words the guilt may be small, and the sufferings may be immense. This is exactly the case in King Lear.
Here the sufferings and the misfortunes of the hero are immense, but the defect in his character is not such. Similarly, Gloucester suffers much more than his folly deserved. As for Cordelia, her fault is the least serious, but her fate is the most cruel.
The female characters in the play are very important, even though our attention is mainly focused upon the hero who is Lear. The play is the tragedy of the King Lear and we are mainly interested in his sufferings, his regeneration, and his end, but the three female characters in this play are also very important because two of them are the authors of Lear’s misfortunes, while the third, Cordelia, is very important as bringing the much- needed comfort and solace to Lear.
Finally, a tragedy by Shakespeare effectively brings about the catharsis of pity, fear, and generous emotions. The storm scenes creates a terror in our minds. Then the blinding of Gloucester also arouses a feeling of terror in us.
Our pity is aroused when we see Lear exposed to the violence of the storm and when he goes mad. The scene of the re-union of Lear and Cordelia is also most poignant, but the climax of pathos is reached with the death of Cordelia which is followed soon afterwards by the death of Lear himself.