Is "King Lear" a negative or positive play?

Is the play ‘King Lear’ a positive or negative play?

    The play ‘King Lear’ by William Shakespeare is a very intricate and complex play with many positive and negative aspects to it. We see a lot of negativity in this play from the vial way that women are treated to the hopeless and saddening idea that you only realise what you have done when it’s too late. Despite all of this negativity there are still small beams of hope throughout the play such as when Edgar saves his father’s life and helps him see that he is valued in the world.

   In the first act, Lear is speaking about his daughters as if they are his possessions. He does not think of them as individuals who can think for themselves, but as things that have no feelings and are simply there to look pretty. The poor treatment of women continues throughout the play as, when speaks up Cordelia proves his idea of women wrong, King Lear begins to talk about his children, and women in general, using animal imagery. He calls them “little dogs” and “serpent’s” showing that he doesn't even respect his daughters enough to refer to them as the human beings they are, but talks about them as unimportant animals that cannot speak and don’t have a say in what is important or not. This shows a very negative side to King Lear as the women in the play are treated cruelly and thought of as negative things that only cause problems. We again see this horrible treatment of women in our second key moment when King Lear puts a curse on Goneril so that she cannot have any children. “To make this creature fruitful! Into her womb convey sterility!” He does this to punish her as he believes she has only brought pain and inconvenience into his life and that she isn’t grateful for all the things he has done for her. This again shows negativity in the play as King Lear sees Goneril as a negative thing in his life.

   We see more negativity the play in the idea that nobody sees the damage they've done and the pain they have caused until it is too late. This is shown in an almost humorous way, yet it is an almost sadistic type of humour. Towards the end of the play, as King Lear is at the peak of his madness, he finally begins to realise how cruel he has been to the people that care about him most and he beings to care about other people. He wants to help people and to become a better person, yet it is too late for him to do so as he is slowly losing his mind. The kind and goodhearted feelings King Lear now has are being concealed by this vicious madness that is taking hold of his mind, showing us he is too late to make up for his cruel manner. “My wits begin to turn.” This is a very sad and negative idea and in my opinion shows the negativity in this play. We again see these negative thoughts the play has when Gloucester finally realises that Edmund never cared about him and it was Edgar who was the kind and caring son all along. It is sad that Gloucester only sees how good Edgar is after losing his eyesight and it again shows this sadistic humour in the play. If Gloucester had only realised before then he would have been able to see through Edgar’s disguise and would realise that he still has a chance to change how he treated his son. Instead Gloucester has no chance as it would seem that he can only truly see once he has been blinded. “If Edgar live, oh, bless him!”

     Despite all of this negativity in this play, we can still see small glimmers of hope and positivity. One scene in which we specifically see this positivity is in Act 4 Scene 6, when Edgar saves his father’s life. This scene really shows how good Edgar truly is and how much he cares about his father. At the time he still believes that his father is angry at him and is looking to kill him, yet Edgar still wants to help his father as it is clear how much he still loves him despite all the false lies that Edmund told him. “..henceforth I’ll bear/ Addliction till it do cry out itself…” This quote shows that Gloucester no longer wants to kill himself and he now believes that the gods care about him once again. This shows positivity in the play as it shows the deep bond that the father and son have with one another, a bond that cannot be broken by the horrid lies told by Edmund for his own gain. It is one of the few times in the play where good trumps evil and proves that even in a world filled with negativity, that is still a possibility.

   To conclude, I believe that this is a mainly negative play with many depressing ideas and cruel treatment to people, specifically to women. However, despite all this negativity there are a few characters that shine through to show that the world is not a completely horrible place and that there will always be some positivity no matter how much negativity exists.