Influences are all around us, we are influenced by the people we love, hate and everything in between. Art is an imitation of life and with that, ‘influences’ change the way we create and interpret it. Shakespeare is possibly the most famous writer in our history and his writings still have impacts on the way we tell stories, make characters and even speak on a daily basis. Influence. No one is without it and it applies so someone as significant as Shakespeare himself. Aristotle was a philosopher who “fathered Western Philosophy” and created an outline for how a ‘tragic hero’ character behaves. Aristotle’s Poetics had a strong influence on the work of Shakespeare and he wrote his own ‘tragic hero’ characters. His play ‘King Lear,’ exemplifies this and helps an audience better understand Shakespeare intentions as a writer. The tragic hero archetype of character, helps us reflect on the world around us and lets the audience realize underlying themes such as human nature, blindness to reality and injustice within society. -again- art is an imitation of life.

As humans, we are all flawed to a degree, some more flawed than others. No one is perfect. This is part of human nature and no matter how good or bad someone’s intentions may be, there is no escaping imperfections. Aristotle’s tragic hero is a effective character model to highlight this part of human nature. Shakespeare’s King Lear uses the title character to have what Aristotle refers to as hamartia or as referred to before as a ‘fatal flaw.’ Lear’s hamartia is his excessive pride and wrath, pride is a reoccurring weakness with Aristotle’s tragic hero outline and Shakespeare carefully uses this outline to reflect on how everyone from a begger to a ruler is flawed. Lear’s hubris (Latin for excessive pride) is first seen in the play when he is dividing his kingdom and giving certain areas to his three daughters. In order to decide who would get the “third more opulent” piece of land in the country. Strong demonstrations of Lear’s pride is shown in this scene as it takes a truly proud person to force their daughters to lie about their love in order for you to allow them a prosperous future. This doesn’t make Lear an inherently bad character, he actually is dividing his kingdom because he believes his daughter to be effective leaders, “Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state.” Lear’s pride makes him a more authentic character and display’s Shakespeare’s ideas of human nature. Shakespeare carefully uses animal imagery to show how a character is behaving. Lear is described as a dragon by himself, “come not between the dragon and his wrath,” here we can understand his hamartia being his pride and his wrath. Perfection. The inability to be ‘perfect’ is what comes across as the most prominent theme with Shakespeare’s use of the tragic hero. Lear is not perfect because he is too wrathful and too prideful. An Elizabethan audience would be particularly challenged by this as a King is a divine ruler that was viewed as if God himself has selected them to rule. Lear’s hamartia reflects this and even a modern day audience can appreciate this theme when reading between the lines of the play. 

Every story must come to an end. Just like life itself, a tale must begin and end. Tragic heroes such as Lear must experience whats known as peripeteia or a ‘reversal of fortune.’ Aristotle himself believes that “tragedy is the an imitation of an action,” this action can be of life itself and that’s why we reflect on the art that is theatre. In the world that surrounds us, we are constantly exposed to injustice, society itself is as flawed as the tragic hero characters that we follow. Shakespeare intends to highlight how cruel this world can be because of the injustice imposed on Lear. Shakespeare uses the influence of Aristotle to make his protagonist experience peripeteia or a reversal of fortune. For Lear, his peripeteia begins when his daughter ‘Goneril,’ decides that she will have Lear remove half of his knights, “men must endure, their going hence, even as their coming hither.” This is the first instance of Lear losing his authority to someone who is of lesser power than him. This decision may seem relatively minor however this is just the tip of the iceberg because as the story arc progresses, actions occur against Lear become more severe which ultimately leads into his demise. Lear’s luck diminishes from here. Kicked out of his own kingdom. Losing his authority. Loss of his daughter. Loss of his own life. This is an important part of the ‘tragic hero’ arc because it exposes the reality of life to it’s imperfections, even the highest form of power is susceptible to the flaws of the world. Reversal of fortune is also highlighted through the way Lear articulates himself. When he is in his best mental state, he talks in what’s known as ‘verse,’ this is because of his nobility, this form of speech is very well crafted and well spoken. This is how a king should speak in the universe of Shakespeare, however as the play digresses we begin to see a subtle shift in Lear’s diction. Prose. Lear begins to speak in everyday language that has no rhythm or structure, it reflects how he is beginning to think like a common man, he is less than a king, he has fallen down the great chain of being. This makes his reversal of fortune more harsh to the audience because not only in his actions is he deteriorating, but in his speech. His downfall is so obvious through Shakespeare’s diction shifts. But does Lear deserve this fall? Injustice is a commonly discussed theme across all forms of literature because it will never, not be relevant. A flawless reality is far from us, especially in Elizabethan times, a time where we had inferior genders, sexuality, races and classes. We still discuss this text today because in many ways, we haven’t surpasses these faults in society, however with Lear’s peripeteia we can ponder on this faults. Lear’s fate isn’t deserved, yes, he is flawed and his actions are often a product of his flaws however the loss of lives doesn’t match these short comings, “Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I’ld use them so, that heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever!” The loss of Cordelia is the most suffering that Lear is capable of receiving, it completely outweighs any of the ill-doings that Lear is responsible for which truly makes his character tragic. This causes us to think about how if Lear is susceptible to such injustice, than what does this mean for the common man? Does injustice plague all of society? These are the kind of reflections that Shakespeare want to provoke in us. It is his intention to make the audience question if we are satisfied with the balance of good and evil in the world.

Through our failures, only then can we discover ourselves. If we constantly achieved what we desired, than we would have no reason to improve ourselves. Why would we aspire to do anything if we had no risk of failure? This is why anagnorisis or recognition is an essential part of the tragic hero’s journey, it helps to teach an audience a crucial lesson, the idea of ‘blindness.’ Shakespeare repetitively uses ‘eye’ imagery to make the audience reflect on how easy it is to be unaware of a painfully honest truth. Shakespeare carefully creates a parallel plot to Lear using Gloucester, he is a man who has also had his children lie and manipulate him in order to exploit his power. During the climax of the play, Gloucester gets his eyes gouged out which reflects how he is unable to see any truth in this world. Ironically once he is literally blind, he is finally able to see the world for how it is, the deception placed upon him is clear. This use of eye imagery and parallel plot is a convention used by Shakespeare to help the audience understand the tragic hero better. Just like Gloucester, Lear is only able to view the truth once he has had all these horrific events happen to him. With his dead, beloved daughter in his arms Lear is finally able to recognize himself. His actions. His ill doings. They all become obvious to him. Lear has been blind to which daughter truly loves him, “No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I’ll not love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.” It’s when he loses what truly matters, he can understand himself. Audiences can see themselves in this aspect of the tragic hero, humans need to understand their where they have gone wrong in order to reverse them, “A most poor man, made tame to fortune’s blows who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows” Shakespeare intends to show to audiences that reality isn’t always obvious, we should see ourselves in Lear, we should reflect on if we can truly recognize ourselves, possibly, we may not want to recognize ourselves, in fear of the truth being too real.

Flawed. We as humans are destined to make mistakes and have short comings. In Shakespeare’s King Lear we are able to see how vulnerable someone as mighty as a King may be, this further leads us as the audience to see how tragedy is an imitation of life and how a tragic hero is an imitation of your everyday man. Aristotle’s poetics and extracts create the foundation of some of literature’s most famous stories and through that, William Shakespeare can get his intentions across. Aristotle’s infrastructure for a tragic character highlights important themes such as human nature, injustice and blindness to show how something as simple as a flaw can lead to all of your luck and fortune taking a steep turn leading into the demise and it’s only then, when you realize your true self and how flawed you are. This is what Shakespeare wants us to reflect on. There is so much theme and intention hidden between the lines of this script. Through writing techniques, symbolism and imagery, this all comes across to the audience. Shakespeare created this play over 300 years ago and somehow these ideas are more relevant than ever, we are exposed to fake news, injustice and human error every single day. These themes are forever with us, we will never escape injustice much in the same way we will never escape flaw. Audiences after experiencing this text will be left contemplating if society has really changed that much? Are we our own worst enemy?