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William Shakespeare’s play King Lear can offer many insights into today’s rise of populism. King Lear decided to give up his power and divide his kingdom among his three daughters. Lear wanted to give the biggest part of his realm to his favorite daughter Cordelia. However, Lear decided to divide his kingdom according to how much each of his daughters professes to love him. His other two daughters, Goneril and Regan, corrupt and deceitful, lied and exaggerated their affection to their father. Cordelia, remaining true to herself, refused to play Lear’s game. Cordelia married a foreign prince and Lear was mistreated by his other daughters in Cordelia’s absence. At the end of the play, Lear ends up losing all three of his daughters after Goneril and Regan win a battle against Cordelia and decide to execute her. Towards the end of the battle Goneril poisons Regan, because they both fell in love with the same man, Edmund. After Goneril learns of Edmund’s death she takes her own life. After a failed effort to prevent Cordelia’s death Lear has lost all of his daughters and dies exhausted and devastated holding Cordelia’s dead body.
This story is a reflection of our times. Like Lear, many developed societies look for new solutions to many of the problems they face. But the masses, as Lear, refuse to listen to more sober and realistic solutions, preferring to follow unrealistic and populist opinions. After taking power these demagogues turn to each other for more power, ignoring the people and their needs, only caring for their own needs. This inevitably ends with everyone being worse off. Shakespeare offers a timeless lesson, to accept truth in face of flattery and deception. It is easy to follow the simple and easy solution when faced with complex problems, especially if the solution is to blame somebody else. But as Lear learned, this will not solve any problem but merely create many more.
King Lear offers a great insight into today’s world. Here at AGF Tutoring we merit great literary works that offer timeless lessons and we actively encourage our students to become acquainted with them. Our goal with literature is to enable the student to discover the messages of each book or create their own messages from a great work. As with King Lear we have an extensive list of classics that we use to help our students think on their own and come up with their own explanations to the complexities of these books. The analysis of King Lear above is from one of our students who put the context of King Lear into the populist wave engulfing our societies.
AGF Tutoring’s main goal is education and self-improvement. If you want to learn more about our offerings in literature, please contact one of our experienced literature tutors or consultants for the courses offered and for more books covered. We try to make every course relatable to each student and help them reach their full potential by motivating and stimulating their academic curiosity.
