Back to category: English

Limited version - please login or register to view the entire paper.

Shakespeare contemporary society

Select one idea or issue that you feel is particularly relevant for contemporary society and discuss how Shakespeare explores this in the play.

Shakespeare’s play, ‘King Lear’, anticipates the corruption of people through their inability to control their greed, a contemporary issue rarely discussed but displayed so regularly.
Shakespeare shows this quality of greed through various forms and characters including Goneril and Regan, daughters of King Lear himself. In the first scenes King Lear announces to impart most of his land to the daughter who profess the most love for him. In this petty act to flatter, Goneril and Regan feign about their love for Lear. They display commendable examples of their ‘ever-growing’ love for their father. The expected treatment through family members is assumed as being honest to each other. However through the greed that is embodied, both daughters lie to their own father and deceive his good intentions for their own benefit. This causes p...

Posted by: Leonard Herriman

Limited version - please login or register to view the entire paper.