"Loyalty is a noble quality, provided it is not blind and does not exclude the highest loyalty to truth and decency." Putting your faith in something that isn't real is worse than putting your faith in nothing. Cloudy thinking and unreasonable thoughts lead to such a thing. This is shown throughout Shakespeare's King Lear. The characters question the offspring's loyalty without evidence. The characters are also unreasonable in their thoughts surrounding those who are loyal to them within the kingdom. Additionally, the characters have an incorrect view of what love is, leading them to unreasonably question loyalty. In Shakespeare's King Lear, when one is illogical in determining where loyalties lie, it leads to betrayal and suffering, until one recognizes the mistake. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The devotion of one's children is misjudged. In parenting, it is difficult to always do right and wrong, bad decisions will always be made. In Gloucester's case, he chooses to favor his legitimate son, Edgar, over his illegitimate son, Edmund. This is not because of Edmund's birthright. This injustice causes flaws in Edmund's character. After years of feeling inadequate, evil, or simply misunderstanding, begins to manifest within him. He feels the need to get revenge on his father and brother for the easy life they led. This made him devise a stratagem to convince Gloucester that Edgar was planning to kill Gloucester and claim his inheritance: seeing how I resisted with repugnance/his unnatural purpose, in a diabolical movement/my unprovided body, he threw his mental arm; /and when he saw my better spirits alarmed,/ Bold in the right of quarrel, excited at the meeting,/ Or if gassed by the noise I made,/ Suddenly he fled./ Let him fly far away./ He will not remain in this land uncaptured (II, I, 57-63) The fact that Gloucester is so willing to accept his faithful son as a traitor is disturbing. Edgar is not only a faithful son, but also the one he has favored throughout his life. This causes the favor to change from Edgar to Edmund, through deception. Although it was obtained dishonestly, it satisfies the balance of the universe, where no one person can have all the luck. Gloucester's decision to trust Edmund is wrong. Not only is Edmund a cheat and a liar, but he also intends to do just what he says Edgar is planning; kill Gloucester and claim the inheritance. Based on his bad judgment, Edgar's ploy comes ever closer to fruition. He repeatedly betrays his father. Edmund uses people against Lear to his advantage. They do not look favorably on those who support Lear, and are thus opposed to Gloucester. Gloucester tells Edmund about a secret letter from Cordelia that has come into his possession. He also tells of his plot to sneak out of his castle, under the occupation of Regan and Cornwall, to assist Lear. He says both of these things in confidence. The problem is that we are not talking about a faithful son, but a backstabber. This causes Edmund to flee to Cornwall and Regan with the news: "This courtesy, forbid you, the duke/Immediately will hear of, and of that letter too./It seems very worthy, and must attract me/What my father misses none other than everyone./ The younger rises when the older falls." (III, iii, 21-25) Gloucester breaks even more at the prospect that his dear Edgar has turned against him and is in hiding, plotting to take his own life for simple money and land.Meanwhile, Edmund was ceremoniously awarded the title of Earl of Gloucester, by Regan, Cornwall and Goneril, in his father's absence. Edmund, who is evil, gains more and more fortune at this time, as Gloucester and Edgar both suffer. Edgar himself hides like a poor man, freezing to death in nothing but a loincloth, acting like a mental patient. This shows how the impact a bad decision can have on one's life or that of someone close to us can have a big impact. Slowly, through enlightenment, Gloucester admits that he was wrong. As time passes, Gloucester finds out more and more about the situation and notices that something doesn't seem right. When Regan and Cornwall reward his hospitality by gouging out his eyes, Gloucester learns the truth about Edmund's betrayal. He then wholeheartedly regrets the way he treated Edgar. Unfortunately he has no idea where Edgar has gone and has an additional disability due to his lack of sight. A further obstacle is the worsening of his health, especially mental, as depression sets in. None of these help his predicament. He reaches poor Tom (Edgar) who agrees to help him locate Lear, but his will to live falters, ultimately failing him: "I renounce this world and, before your eyes, / Patiently shake off my great affliction. / If I could bear it longer and not fall. With your great unchallenged wills, / My tobacco and the hated part of nature should / Burn if Edgar lives, oh, bless him! vi, 35-41) The meaning of this is obvious. Gloucester has realized his mistake and wishes to make amends for his past actions, but he does not know where to begin Edgar is very well hidden. What Gloucester doesn't understand is that Edgar understands and has stuck by him through good times and bad, as a good son should. He's been in disguise, to protect himself, but he's been there nonetheless The desperation of his situation haunts him as he thinks Edgar could never forgive him for such a great transgression. This is reinforced by the thought that he had once attempted to hunt down and kill his son. She doesn't realize that Edgar is so close, and so forgiving, and so she gives up on life altogether, not seeming worth it without her son. This demonstrates the bond that truly exists between father and son, on both sides. With such a bond, it is shown that Gloucester is truly irrational in his hasty judgment of loyalty. One's unfounded concerns create a question of loyalty within the kingdom. When there is a time of great conflict, it may seem as if the people around someone suddenly turn against him or her. King Lear's irrationality in this situation was originally due to the tension he felt over the big decisions he had to make. The division of his Kingdom was something that weighed heavily on Lear's mind. He's old, he's tired, he wants to go out. However, he has not yet come to realize that this, as well as the simple truth of his age, is affecting his state of mind. Does not think clearly, does not make wise and well-planned decisions. Instead, he quickly became very emotional and very suspicious, questioning first those who are dearest and most loyal to him: Hear me, recreating!/ On your faithfulness, hear me!/ That you tried to make us break our vows,/ May we never dare still, and with strained pride, / Come between our sentence and our power, / Which neither our nature nor our place can bear, / Our might made valid, take your reward. / We give you five days forprovisions / To protect you from the disasters of the world, / and in the sixth return they hated back / our kingdom. (I, i, 168-178) Dear Kent, King Lear's loyal subject is one so subject to the irrationality of Lear's troubled mind. King Lear cannot bear anyone to tell him that he is wrong at this point, especially no one who is so beneath him as one of his mere servants. Kent appears to bear the brunt of Lear's anger, as well as mental deterioration. When Kent speaks out against Lear in his decision to banish Cordelia, Lear feels it is an act directed against him, an indictment also of how he chooses to live his life, a betrayal. This is, of course, unfounded, as Kent simply hopes to show Lear that he is throwing away something valuable. Lear chooses to see it as a betrayal, deciding that Kent is not, and perhaps has never been faithful to him. As he lets the situation progress, he is betrayed over and over again. He is first disappointed by his dear Goneril, then by his beloved Regan, as well as by her husband, the Duke of Cornwall. From this he knows only pain. Since Lear sent away forever two of the most influential and, more importantly, beloved people he knows, there were some consequences. To begin with, Lear at his age was never completely stable, nor mentally healthy before then. However, since then, his stability and mental state have seriously deteriorated. To put it simply, he went crazy. As if his judgment wasn't already skewed enough, he now has this disability, which takes away all decision-making ability. Lear has suffered so much, and learned so much about real suffering, since he banished Kent and turned his back on his kingdom. He has been overwhelmed by this grief, to the point that he very rarely remembers who he is anymore. This madness is not something funny, but a real debilitation. It is something that prevents him from any sort of normal appearance of life, something from which he cannot recover: alas, it is him! Well, even now we met him / mad as the angry sea, singing aloud, / crowned with fetid fumitra and weeds, / with hemlocks, with hemlocks, with nettles, with cuckoo flowers, / with tares and all the useless weeds growing /In our support of corn. Send a century./Examine every acre of the cultivated field above/And bring it before our eyes. What can / the wisdom of man / in restoring his private senses? / he who helps him to take all my outward value. (IV, iv, 1-9) In Lear's life there is now nothing but suffering. His conscious life, that is, the time from which he emerges from the slavery of his mental disorder, to return to relative normality, is a nightmare. All he sees is darkness. The darkness of knowing that there is nothing in your life worth living for, that everything that gave you happiness is far away. The betrayals he committed against himself and those he cared about tore him apart. Then thinking about the betrayals of other loved ones towards him is simply too much to bear. Eventually Lear begins to see the error of his ways and tries to overcome it. As time passes, he becomes more tormented by guilt rather than self-pity, though it's hard to say whether this pushes him over the edge or not. One thing is for sure, he understands the wrong he has done and feels remorse for it, wishing there was a way to make things right. It's almost as if, in an attempt to preserve his sanity, he pushes thoughts of Kent and his duties to his kingdom out of his head. When she meets Kent again, it's someone she hardly recognizes. Kent is such a vague, so distant memory. Yet he is generally happy. This reunion brings only good, as both are satisfied to be in each other's company, just like they once did. In fact, it isn'tchanged much, except the names of the Caius who served Lear during Kent's absence: Lear: Art not thou Kent?/ Kent: The same;/Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Gaius?/ Lear: He's a good boy, I can assure you./ He'll strike, and quickly, too. It is dead and rotten./ Kent: No, my good lord; I am just the man-/ Lear: I will understand it clearly./ Kent: That from the beginning of difference and decay/I have followed in your sad footsteps./ Lear: You are welcome here. (V, iii, 282-289) It is a kind of reassurance that someone in whom Lear has learned to put trust, this same Caius, is the same as Kent. This is due to the fact that Kent never strayed from Lear's side, he always remained completely faithful. It should be noted that Lear's apology did not last long, as even now the distinction between social levels must still be maintained. When he says "you're welcome here" it says a lot. This is the apology, the forgiveness, the acknowledgment that Lear was the one who had made the mistake and was trying to make it right. It is also a wonderful surprise for Lear, and a renewal of faith in his fellow men, to feel that Kent had never given up on him, had been there to support him through all his trials. This shows that it was indeed a big misunderstanding, that they have a great bond, a remarkable bond considering the social circumstances. From this it can be said that it was only King Lear's unfounded and hasty judgments that presented their relationship in such an unfavorable light. The disillusioned state causes irrational judgments about the true meaning of love. Love is something that can be professed again and again, and yet has no real meaning. It is something that needs to be felt and demonstrated with deeds, rather than words. In King Lear's case, at one point he associated love with the responsibilities of his kingdom. Rather, he associated love with freedom from one's responsibilities. Most of the time you don't want to have the responsibilities you have; yet it is their destiny. This causes a sort of rebellion, without thinking about the people it might affect. This is the case of King Lear. He has aged into his eighties and feels he has lived a long and healthy life. He has grown tired of the daily tasks required to be king and decides to divide the kingdom, without thinking about how it would affect his kingdom, or his family, or even himself. More than anything, he wants relief, if only for a short time before he dies, the security of passing from one daughter to another, without having to make any real decisions himself: in the meantime we will express our darkest purpose./ Give me the map there. Know that we have divided / our kingdom into three, and it is our immediate intent / to remove all cares and concerns from our age, / bestowing them on the younger forces while / without burdens we crawl towards death. Our son of Cornwall,/And you, our no less loving son of Albany,/We have at this time a constant will to publish/the many talents of our daughters, that future conflicts/may be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,/Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,/Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn/And here they will be answered. Tell me, my daughters/(As we now both divest ourselves of government,/Land interests, state concerns)/Which of you will we say loves us most?/May we our greatest generosity extend/Where nature goes with a worthy challenge. (I, i, 37-54) Looking at this, you see that something is terribly wrong. Lear's definition of love is terribly distorted. His version of love is completely superficial. It has nothing to do with the truth; it is nothing more than professed emotions. The fact that Lear is giving away his kingdom; divide thehis power based on words that describe how much they love him unrealistically reflects negatively on him. You can see how serious he is in these efforts and how strongly he believes in this method to truly know how each of his daughters feels about him. From this he almost seems deserving of the betrayal that will come from his daughters. By banishing Cordelia, he made one of the biggest mistakes one can make. He abandoned someone, and even more so, his daughter who was faithful to him. On the contrary, for him to shower his unfaithful daughters with earth is completely unforgivable. For now, he is completely ignorant and unaware of what he did wrong, instead seeing it as something wrong done to himself. His conception of love must change, or be changed. The period following Cordelia's banishment brings nothing but torture, through deception and self-inflicted pain. Shortly after Cordelia is banished, with her words of “nothing,” King Lear sees what love truly is not. The superficial love he requested has turned against him. Goneril and Regan were both more than happy to offer him warm words, but that didn't make them any more true. Their main concern is the control of Lear now that he has renounced the rights of his kingdom: Goneril: The best and healthiest of his time was only reckless; then we must look from his age to receive, not;/only the imperfections of a long-rooted condition, but thereby the undisciplined obstinacy which the infirm and/angry years bring with them. Regan: We love having such uneven starts from him like this one in Kent's exile. Goneril: There is a further parting compliment between France and him. Please, let's strike together. If our/father exercises authority with the disposition he brings,/this last surrender of his will will not offend us./ (I, I, 296-306) In the end, Lear learns the true meaning of betrayal and the false meaning of love. This leads to the decline of his mental health, his condition in general. He becomes bitter and loses all faith in the world around him: Rumble your bellyful! Spit, fire! Throw rain!/Nor the rain, the wind, the thunder, the fire are my daughters./I will not tax you, you elements, with cruelty./I have never given you the kingdom, I have not called you children,/I have not you owe no subscription. Then drop / your horrible pleasure. Here I am, your slave,/A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man./But yet I call you servant ministers,/Who will join two pernicious daughters/Your high-class battles against a head/As old and white as This! Oh, oh! It's disgusting! (III, ii, 14-24) He cannot understand the betrayals he feels from both Goneril and Regan, after giving them all the land they could want. According to him, love should work like this: the words are spoken, there is some symbolic gift that demonstrates it and then everyone is happy. Unfortunately he didn't take into account their character, their manipulative, intriguing and controlling way. This leads them to try to take complete control of Lear and his life, attempting to make him give up any sense of individuality, of freedom. Since freedom is his only other desire in life at this point, he can't accept it and can't understand why they would try to take it to such a low level. He suffers greatly due to the insidious nature of their actions, while they remain content or become happier with their newfound wealth. With Lear out of the way, either tame under their control, or out completely mad, there is no one to stop him from plotting their evil plots. The fact that they can do this at the expense of the father's happiness, and even more so, his sanity, shows that it is not truly love. Lear notices even more how unhappy he is without Cordelia, who.