938 shakespeare, William
Because Julius Caesar is a tragedy modeled on
the principles of classical drama, the theme of pride
is built into the central action of the play. What is
innovative in Shakespeare’s use of hubris is that he
builds intrigue by allowing Caesar a moment in
which he can and almost does reverse the events
that lead to his death. He then adds depth to the
character by allowing him to be swayed again by
Decius’s taunts. This humanizes Caesar and makes
him a more sympathetic figure. By allowing him to
suffer a moment of indecision and then to capitulate
to his own pride, Shakespeare renders him a tragic
hero for the Renaissance audience. While in classical
drama a character’s hubris is largely a matter of fate,
in Julius Caesar it is a matter of conscious decision
in the face of fate. Although there are portents as to
what may come should he choose to leave the house,
Caesar still has a choice as to how things will play
out, and it is his pride that causes him to die. Eliza-
bethan audiences reared in the humanist traditions
of the Renaissance and subject to the repercussions
of decisions based in pride on the part of England’s
recent rulers would have found Shakespeare’s Caesar
a realistic figure and his death by means of his own
pride a cautionary tale.
Melissa Ridley-Elmes
SHakESPEarE, wiLLiam King
Lear (1608)
First performed in 1606 and printed in 1608, King
Lear begins like a fairy tale: An aging king decides to
divide his kingdom among his three daughters, their
portions to be allotted according to their responses
to the question, “Which of you shall we say doth
love us most?” When Cordelia, the youngest and
most favored, refuses to flatter Lear as her sisters
have done, she is banished. Goneril and Regan, rec-
ognizing the rashness of their father’s decision and
fearing that he will eventually reclaim the kingdom,
plot to destroy him, and by the end of the first scene,
it becomes clear that Lear’s last acts as king will all,
ultimately, work against him, leading to a conclusion
that is far from a fairy tale’s “happily ever after.”
In King Lear, William Shakespeare explores
many themes, including responsibility, suffer-
ing, identity, cruelty, guilt, and family. He
enhances his focus on family dynamics by including
a parallel subplot involving the earl of Gloucester
and his two sons: Edgar, his son and heir; and his
illegitimate son, Edmund, who schemes to snatch
his father’s property and title. Additionally, through
the characters of Cordelia and Lear’s servant Kent,
Shakespeare defines the true meanings of love and
duty.
King Lear is the most relentlessly heartrending
of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, probing the very
depths of human nature. As the characters choose
between selfishness and charity, vengeance and
forgiveness, cruelty and kindness, the play chal-
lenges readers and audiences to question whether
we are creatures more inclined to good or to evil,
and whether the events that shape our world are
determined by some external force—God, fate, or
nature—or by our own will.
Deborah MontouriIdentIty in King Lear
At the end of the chaotic opening scene of King
Lear, Regan remarks to her sister Goneril, “He hath
ever but slenderly known himself ” (1.1.293–294).
Indeed, Lear’s problems stem mainly from the fact
that he cannot distinguish between his public, polit-
ical role and his identity as a private man. Lear steps
over the boundaries between the two by arranging a
public ceremony in which each of his three daugh-
ters must declare her love for him to compete for
a portion of the kingdom. The very act of dividing
the kingdom as if it is his personal property further
suggests how little Lear understands, after decades
of being loved, feared, and obeyed without question,
that the power of the monarch resides in the role,
not the man. While Goneril and Regan offer up the
excessive flattery he demands, Lear disinherits and
exiles his youngest daughter, Cordelia, because she
says only that she loves him as a daughter should
love her father, “no more nor less” (1.1.93). In their
private conversation at the end of the scene, Goneril
and Regan acknowledge their father’s poor judg-
ment in casting off his favorite. Fearing that such
impulsive changes of heart and mind might move
Lear to regret his decision and attempt to take back
the crown, they determine to keep him in check.