ters to stay away from such a deceitful man! This proves that to have a deceitful character in a play means the audience will watch and react. It is important for the audience to react to the characters as it means they are believable and that the playwrights skills are good, such as Shakespeare’s. In “King Lear”, the plot is slightly more complicated but demonstrates not only death and sin but also the rule of “cause and effect” in the sense that if you sin, you die. This can actually be seen in all the plays I have looked at. In “Hamlet”, Hamlet kills Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia (although not directly) and Laertes and is then killed himself. He has had revenge for his father but has sinned and dies as a result. In “Othello”, Othello kills Desdemona, thinking she was unfaithful to him with Cassio, Iago kills his wife for revealing the truth, and Othello kills himself on realising what he has done. Iago does remain alive but for how long is an unanswered question. He is injured but not killed and it could therefore be said he is forced to see what his devilishness has caused and how many lives it has ruined. This in itself would be torture and a painful way to die, with the knowledge of what he had done.“King Lear” shows us a complicated line of events leading up to the death of the majority of the main characters. To put it in terms of sin and death, Lear sins against Cordelia who refuses to play Lears game in Act One Scene One. She says “I love your majesty According to my bond, no more nor less.”(I.I.92-3)He then banishes her, the truest daughter, from his kingdom and gives her nothing. Goneril, having been given half Lears land, turns on him, annoyed by his behaviour in her house and Lear then curses her. He goes to Regan, who turns against him and sides with her sister, and he calls her “unnatural”. Goneril and Regan have sinned against their...
