How Does Shakespeare Present Human Frailty in Act 1 of King Lear

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How does Shakespeare present Human frailty in Act 1 of King Lear? King Lear is a play illustrating the effect of human weakness and the widespread disaster caused by frailty in the human nature. It is a 5 act play, but by the first act, the frailty in the human nature is apparent. Shakespeare presents human frailty as a potentially dangerous force as it leads to the destruction in the play; particularly so as it seems that frailty gives rise to more frailty. The feebleness of the human nature is explored through the portrayal of characters depicting good and evil as well as affirming the possibility of a personal transformation from evil to good, shown through the protagonist as he makes the journey towards his enlightenment. The good in human nature is represented by characters such as Cordelia, Edgar and Kent, whereas the evil of human nature is shown through the likes of Regan, Gonerill and Edmund. This particular portrayal of human frailty chosen by Shakespeare emphasizes the constant battle between the desire to do good and the unavoidability of weaknesses in the human nature, of which Shakespeare took a great interest. Shakespeare's seventeenth-century audience would have been familiar with the story of King Lear through a combination of myth, legend and history. Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland of 1587 tells of the King of Ancient Britain's division of his kingdom between his three daughters. Shakespeare made some significant additions to create his play, including Lear’s madness and a parallel sub-plot of Gloucester, mirroring Lear’s own afflictions; therefore, the frailties possessed by Lear are also found in Gloucester. This plot is crucial in Shakespeare’s presentation of human frailty, as the set up shows King Lear as an ‘every man’ who has flaws too. Lear is a powerful King and in Act 1 we can see that he is an
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