All friends shall Taste the Wages of their Virtues, and all Foes the Cup of their Deserving Essay Example

All friends shall Taste the Wages of their Virtues, and all Foes the Cup of their Deserving Essay Example All friends shall Taste the Wages of their Virtues, and all Foes the Cup of their Deserving Essay All friends shall Taste the Wages of their Virtues, and all Foes the Cup of their Deserving Essay Essay Topic: Literature Throughout King Lear, characters judge and put each other on trial. Gloucester and Lear both misjudge their children, who seem to possess better judgement. Cordelia has the measure of her sisters and Goneril and Regans assessment of their father is acute and accurate. They see how full of changes his age is and Edmund knows exactly how to take in his gullible relatives, whom he despises for being overlooked, due to his being conceived in the lusty stealth of nature and his bastardy status. It seems that good judgement is not the preserve of those with good intentions. The working of human justice reflects Lear and Gloucesters faults. The trials that occur in the play are all flawed. Lears love-test is ill conceived and has disastrous consequences. Goneril may claim to love [Lear] more than word can wield the matter beyond what can be valued, rich or rare and Regan does proclaim to be of that self mettle as [her] sisterAndalone [she does] felicitate in [his] dear highness love. Yet it is Cordelia, Lears youngest, who says nothing, that does truly love her lord. In Act 2, the trial of Kent for plain speaking is an excuse for Cornwall and Reagan to exercise power in an arrogant way. Lears mock trial of Goneril and Regan is presided over by a lunatic and attended by a fake madman and a court jester, his all-licensed fool, his boy. The trial is a parody of the love-test in act one scene 1. It highlights the absurdity of Lears actions in the aforementioned scene, where Lear is mad. It also undermines all other trials carried out by authority figures in King Lear. Gloucesters blinding is an appalling example of human injustice, it is not he who deserves such a misfortune, he has sent the lunatic Kingto Dover, which in his mind is still serving his old King and is thus not treacherous. Cornwall and Regan pervert the law to satisfy their own craving for revenge. It is possible to see the battle between the French and the English forces as another trial, which has dire consequences. Cordelia is hanged in prison and Lear dies. Some see Cordelias death as the greatest injustice in the play. Human judgement and the justice system look extremely fallible when the curtain goes down on act 5. This point is reinforced by the examples of natural or poetic justice that we see in the play. In act 5 scene 3, Edgar takes the law into his own hands when he challenges Edmund. This is wild justice at work. However, as the reader, we accept the outcome of the duel as appropriate. Edmund deserves to die; Edgar states, if [his] speech offend a noble heart, thy arm may do thee justice. We see poetic justice at work elsewhere; Cornwall is turned on and killed by his own servant, Goneril and Regan are destroyed by their jealous lust, Regan has a full-flowing stomach, and Oswald meats a sticky end when Edgar hast slain him, yet once dead, the ever loyal servant of Goneril, Oswald, will not be missed by anyone, he is but an extension of his Mistress, who is herself is a hideous person. The thorniest question about justice concerns Gloucester and Lear. The necessity for their death, it can be said, is questionable. Some may say that a rather harsh kind of justice is at work here. Edgar suggests this when he says to Edmund the dark and vicious place where thee he got cost him his eyes. Gloucester pays very dearly for his sins (although some Elizabethans believed that blinding was the appropriate punishment for adultery). Lear also pays for his sins, Cordelia is taken from him immediately after he recognises her merits, this is too much for the already maddened King, his poor fool is hanged meaning his daughter, as it was a term of endearment. Yet this term indeed remembers Lears other favourite, his Fool. This double reference leads us to believe that Lear has lost his two dearest. We can now ask, is this not justice enough? Lear has now lost all that originally was dear to him, and all that he was taught was dear to him during his moments of madness. Although his judgement has been restores, it is too late for the monarch Lear. King Lear is also concerned with social justice. Lear and Gloucester both consider this topic carefully and seem to reach radical conclusions. Gloucester calls upon the heavens to distribute wealth more evenly; while Lear considers the lives of poor naked wretches he paid so little attention to. In Act 4, Lear rages against corrupt members of the judiciary and seems to sneer at himself when he says a dogs obeyed in office. At the end of the play we are presented with two new agents of justice, Albany, and Edgar. We accept the justice of their actions in Act 5 Scene 3. But human judgement still looks faulty. Albany has been overwhelmed by events and Edgars bitter words about Gloucesters death seem callous. Surely nobody in King Lear is morally impeccable? Perhaps Shakespeare wants us to remain uncomfortable about justice.