World Literature Phase 4 DB 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

World Literature Phase 4 DB 2 - Essay Example unchaste action, or dishonoured step,/That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;/But even for want of that for which I am richer,/A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue/As I am glad I have not, though not to have it/Hath lost me in your liking†. In sharp contrast to this poetic statement is this coarse dialogue from King Lear in Act IV, Scene VI: And the creature run from the cur? There thou/mightst behold the great image of authority: a/dogs obeyed in office./Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!/Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;/Thou hotly lustst to use her in that kind/For which thou whippst her. So, in short, Shakespeare is real. And it is in this sense of reality, the frankness of portrayal of human nature which can be lyrical at times, and rude and brutal at others, that Shakespeare has triumphed over time. Shakespeare’s themes are universal: they strike a chord in people of the twenty-first century, and interestingly, some or the other versions of King Lear, Regan, Goneril, Edmund and Cordelia exist in the modern times. For instance, there are many people in today’s capitalistic times, who like Edmund, strive to rise above their circumstances, "Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit; / All with mes meet that I can fashion fit", More importantly, Shakespeare does not make King Lear a morality play where the good get rewarded and the evil punished. While those that are evil meet with their deaths, the innocent die too: Lear, Gloucester and Cordelia die despite not having done much to deserve it. Shakespeare seems to say that evil is a part of human existence, and that the world is not a just place. Death takes those that are evil and those that are innocent with a grand indifference and seemingly without reason, a distinctly post- modern or existentialist way of looking at things. What is more, Shakespearean plots are well-structured and undiluted. Full of drama, vivid imagery and iridescent language, Shakespeare