Because justice is not administered according to moral arguments -- Lear also argues that since laws are made by the same people, they cannot be moral ones -- it is reduced to who holds power at a given moment in time. Similarly, the death of Lear's daughter, Cordelia, at the end of the play suggests that not even the gods or the divine powers which rule the universe have

King Lears Downfall of Recognition 'I know what you are," says Cordelia to her sisters Goneril and Regan. Alas, her father does not perceive the brutality and mendacity in the hearts of his older children -- and Lear pays a heavy price for his failure to recognize their true characters. (I.i.270, p.1258) Because Lear also fails to see the goodness of his youngest daughter, or even to recognize the guise

King Lear and Othello William Shakespeare's King Lear and Othello are both tragic plays where many of the main and supporting characters die. Both characters are powerful men in charge of land and the citizens within that land but lose their power because of their own foolishness. Although Lear is a king at the start of the play and Othello is only a soldier, the two men both fulfill the role

Sometimes, as we see in King Lear, the thirst for power leads to nothing but trouble. It should be noted that the power did come but it was not enough to erase what had already happened. As a result, of this power hunt, King Lear and Cordelia discover what true love is all about. Gloucester and Edgar also learn the value of love. In "The Wife of Bath's Tale,"

And had Oedipus remained with the parents who raised him, the prophecy would also have been unlikely to come about. On the other hand, one might also argue that Sophocles appears to indicate that, no matter what decisions were made, free will would never have been part of it. Indeed, destiny and prophecy are so overwhelmingly strong that whatever decisions were made would have led to the final and inevitable

Furthermore the rhetoric here is rich in symbolism. Dr. King draws parallels between the response of violence to his peaceful protests and other great personalities whose commitment to justice, truth, and love also had unintended and unfortunate consequences. Personalities like Socrates and Jesus, for example, could not be expected to deny their truth for fear of public reaction. Dr. King makes this argument even stronger by also drawing the parallel