If you used the word fag in Shakespeare's time; you wouldn't call yourself a homophobe, you'd just be referring to a bundle of sticks. If I considered women less capable than men; you wouldn't call yourself a misogynist, you'd be a Jacobin realist. If you believed that the leader of the nation is God's rightly appointed hand on the earth; you would not be considered crazy or even unusual. When it comes to understanding; context is everything, and King Lear is undoubtedly a timeless reflection of the Jacobean era for which it was composed. By employing dramatic techniques to weave notions of justice, identity, and destiny with contextual elements unique to his time and his audience, Shakespeare reflected the true nature of the Jacobean world that he and his audience lived and breathed. Through this interconnection of broader human experience with era-dependent contextual notions, Shakespeare not only engages audiences in widely contrasting time periods, but also allows us to understand the context that shaped King Lear and ultimately challenges the modern audiences to consider the true extent to which their understanding of not only the text, but the world, is colored by their individual contextual lens. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In King Lear, Shakespeare asks whether “the heavens” aim to do justice to mankind or simply “like wild boys… kill us” for their sport.” This fundamental question about the true nature of justice is explored as the play's tragic plot is foreshadowed in the revelation of Lear's "darker purpose" to "crawl unburdened to death." This expression of arrogance, which ironically hints at the “future conflict” that will come from trusting Goneril and his sister “of the same metal,” means little in the eyes of today's audiences, but to Shakespeare's audiences it was a grave offense against the heavens. and a reckless mockery of the divine right of kings. In the God-fearing mind of the Jacobean spectator, Lear sealed his tragic fate in a few lines of the play by putting the world out of commission, further emphasized by the pathetic fallacy of the storm. Shakespeare, however, does not limit his exploration exclusively to divine justice. Using conflict as a means to highlight comparative visions of justice, Shakespeare employs characters such as the “legitimate Edgar” and the “bastard Edmund” as symbolic lenses for contrasting perspectives and ideologies. Edmund's decision to acquire "lands by wit" represents a clear rejection of the prevailing Jacobean belief system and his disillusionment with the notion of natural justice. Edmund can therefore be considered a personification of Renaissance thought, which seeks to understand and control the natural world without regard for the supernatural. On the other hand, the audience is introduced to Edmund's decidedly contrary brother, Edgar, who openly believes that "the gods are just" even after the overwhelming tragedy and horrific mutilation of his father. In his unshakable conviction, Edgar symbolizes the most common vision of justice among the Jacobean public. In a sense, divine justice is delivered when most of the characters metaphorically "taste the cup of their own merits", however, this is tainted with ambiguity when the ever honest and forgiving Cordelia dies, leaving the audience to ask the rhetorical question “Why should a dog, a horse, a mouse have life and you don't sigh at all? Through these contrasting and juxtaposed events, Shakespeare highlights that the true nature of justice is littlemore than a perspective and, in fact, is opposed to the notion of absolute divine justice. Symbolizing instead that "the wheel has come full circle" when almost all the characters are destroyed by their actions against each other and can no longer "be guilty of [their] disastersun", effectively reflecting the superstitious and at the same time context himself by subtly attacking him through Edmund's words. This essentially presents justice in King Lear as a perpetual struggle between poetic, divine, and human justice, and through these contrasting modes of justice, Shakespeare mirrors the ongoing clash of ideologies that takes place in the real world at the time of composition. This conflict ultimately drives home the fundamental point made in King Lear when read from a modern perspective, that true justice is little more than a reflection of the context against which it is measured. The importance of identity in determining one's destiny was unprecedented in feudal and medieval times. superstitious Jacobean context. To have a certain "star in the firmament shining upon [those] bastardized ones" was to be made "rough and lewd" throughout one's life, and to "have lands by wit," "not by birth" was to express a severe form of arrogance. , a moral attack directed at God, of equal gravity in Jacobean eyes as Lear's early retirement plan. Shakespeare reflects this contextual understanding of identity's connection with destiny through the juxtaposition of the overly confident Edgar with his cunning brother Edmund, who are engaged in a constant struggle between faith in divine and worldly ambition. The audience is made to love and hate Edmund through his conflicted characterization, Shakespeare uses Edmund's soliloquies to provide insight into the prejudices he endures due to his identity as a bastard and encourages them to empathize with his plight, however, this feeling is quickly reversed as the plot develops and his devious plan is revealed. Shakespeare also uses bitter irony to demonstrate the power of one's identity over one's destiny through characters such as Albany's servant, Kent, and the Fool. Each of whom offers sound and thoughtful advice to their masters, but is severely punished by the people or the plot, highlighting the prevailing truth of their context, which Edmund only learns from the blow of Edgar's blade: the great chain of being must not be broken. . In contrast to modern viewers, who love to see the underdog win; Shakespeare's audience would splatter the walls of the Globe with rotten fruit if a character got away with exceeding their caste, and this is clear in the unfortunate fate prescribed to those who dare to overstep their station. Interestingly, in parallel with asserting the importance of identity, Shakespeare uses ambiguous characters and deception to criticize the superficiality of the Jacobin view of identity. In this, Shakespeare mirrors Edmund's philosophy, while portraying it as wrong in context. He first alludes to this with Lear's willingness to accept blatantly hyperbolic declarations of love from Regan and Goneril and attempting to force Cordelia to "mend [her] speech" before being banished for refusing to "put his heart on in your mouth." This contrasts with Shakespeare's typical contextual lens and challenges his audience to consider whether their superstitions were truly supernatural in nature, or little more than self-fulfilling prophecies. Lear's apparent willful blindness could further be considered a double entendre, in reference to the public scandal of William Allen mistakenly dividing his wealth between three..