King Lear and the Wonder of the Meaning of Life

Abstract

Abstract:This article builds upon an Aristotelian view of poetic tragedy to make two main points. First, a nihilistic interpretation of Shakespeare’s King Lear misunderstands Shakespeare’s intention of interweaving two plots into one play—the pessimistic story of King Lear and the optimistic story of Edgar. Because the play does not end with the murders of Lear’s daughters and with his own grieving death but with the appointing of Edgar to be the king who had been primed throughout the play for that moment, the play teaches a profound lesson—moral order survives moral chaos. Second, because moral order and moral chaos are evident in the play and in our lives, nihilism is an unsatisfactory explanation of the human experience. Rather, a metaphysic similar to the implied metaphysic of the play (that is, the Chain of Being) better explains our experiences because it can account for both moral order and moral chaos.