The Earth Centered Theme of Shakespeare’s King LearKing Lear is a complicated, apocalyptic play with parallel plots, moral ambiguity, and a messy ending. The play’s events were politically charged and historically informed when they were performed in seventeenth century England, as they continue to be to today. Whatever his intentions, Shakespeare has given us several universal truths to consider. One I like to consider is how beneath all the sinister and bold machinations of man lies the gentle earth, from which we, and all life, spring. Some critics note that Shakespeare was skeptical about God and the role of religion in one’s life. I believe King Lear is the product of a writer with a solid cosmology, but one centered in earth and humanity. I hesitate to label Shakespeare a pagan, or anything other than brilliant. Yet there is evidence enough in the text for me to argue an earth-centric thesis. A close reading reveals those who employ common wording or down-to-earth speech as embodiments of goodness, whereas characters that insist on the perfectly controlled, artificial utterances of the feudal court are corrupt at best, if not evil. The gods above are shown to be fickle and uncaring, if not bloodthirsty. Shakespeare also weaves in certain utopian visions into the fabric of King Lear, earth-based ideals, not only pre-Christian like the play’s setting, but pre-historic; thus supporting the argument for an earthen cosmology and humanistic political consciousness, freely exhibited and often applied in the work.
Unnatural Edmund
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Edmund rejects the very idea of baseness, or what we might think of as earthiness. He is skillfully used in the play to oppose to all that is common and good. His famous soliloquy in Act 1, Sc…
… manifest values of personal humility, caring, and wise stewardship of the land.
Works Cited
Elliot, Michael. King Lear by William Shakespeare. Princeton: Films for the Humanities. 1988. Starring: Laurence Olivier and John Hurt.
Oates, Joyce Carol. ” ‘Is This the Promised End?’: The Tragedy of King Lear.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. (Fall 1974) URL: http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/southerr/lear.html.
Schneider, Ben Ross, Jr. “King Lear in Its Own Time: The Difference that Death Makes.” Early Modern Literary Studies 1.1 (1995): 3.1-49 URL: http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/emls/01-1/schnlear.html.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Edited by David Bevington. New York: Bantam. 1980.
Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres. New York: Fawcett Columbine. 1991.
Toole, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. 1980.
