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Specimen Paper
The tragic outcome of both plays results from a failure of leadership
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King Lear is in an elevated position of responsibility but in my opinion, he makes a fatal
mistake of dividing his kingdom which is an irresponsible decision as a leader
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The tragic outcome of both plays are undoubtedly due to a failure of
leadership, but there are obvious external factors that also lead to the tragic outcome
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Enter a servant bearing a coronet, King Lear, Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan and
Attendants
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The props that are used are highly significant, the sennet symbolises the high
rank of King Lear and the coronet is a symbol of his kingly power
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Heaney also uses stage
directions to portray the greatness of Creon, “Enter Creon with his guards
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However, Lear is an established leader whereas Creon is
only a new leader
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In both plays the protagonists make fatal mistakes that reflect a failure of leadership as a result of a lack of
judgement
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This “darker purpose” would have also been shocking for the Jacobean
audience who would remember how the taxing question of succession had loomed large during the reign of
Elizabeth I as they were particularly concerned about the possibility of a civil war
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A successful leader is meant to create a sense of
stability but by dividing the kingdom into three he is making the territory weaker
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When Cordelia states
“I love your Majesty according to my bond; nor more nor less”, Lear’s response is wrathful as Cordelia has
damaged his pride by not using embellished language to state how much she loves him in the same manner
that her sisters have done
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Lear even admits that he was going to give Cordelia “one third more opulent” which
again emphasises his failure of leadership as he divided the kingdom unfairly due to favouritism
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” This is the greatest mistake a leader could make and Lear will learnt he
consequences of being a foolish leader and giving everything that he owned to his two malevolent daughters
through his suffering
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Creon first states that a
good leader must “act in the interests of all citizens” and he then judges “the man who has all the good advice,
and then, because his nerve fails, fails to act in accordance with it
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Creon creates the edict to not bury Polyneices as he is seen as a “traitor”
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This suggests that both King Lear and Creon show

failure of leadership as they make irrational decisions that are consequences of their hamartia of pride and
foolishness which will ultimately affect others
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As soon as Lear cuts all bonds with his daughter Kent tries to stop him from
making any other irrational decisions by advising him, “What wouldst thou do, old man?
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Kent is advising Lear to change his judgement and to not reject Cordelia, his tone is definite and imperious
which shows how strongly he feels about Lear’s mistake
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In
Shakespeare’s day, ‘thou’ was the pronoun used to address close friends and children and ‘you’ was the polite
form therefore Kent is being disrespectful in his address to Lear to emphasise how Kent believes that Lear is
failing as a leader
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Likewise this failure of
leadership by not taking advice of others is also seen in the character of Creon who has a similar wrathful
reaction towards the Chorus, Haemon and Tiresias when they warn him
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” Creon is rude and the use of commas creates short clipped sentences to reflect his anger and
rage towards the Chorus
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Both of the main protagonists in the play show a failure of leadership by
not listening to the advice that others give to them
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Lear is humiliated by Goneril’s servant and he “strikes” him and then shouts insults towards him “you
whoreson dog, you slave, you cur
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Both Lear
and Creon use animal imagery to portray how angered they feel towards those who have betrayed them for
example Creon states “two vipers spitting venom” to describe Ismene and Antigone
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Both kings are shown to act as poor leaders with their abusive and immature language as they cannot deal
when situations go wrong
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” Heaney also draws to the audience’s attention by making comparisons to another poor
leader, George Bush through the character of Creon for example Heaney adapts the language to reflect images
of the 9/11 attack, “hoping to set fire to the towers
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Creon is also portrayed as an indecisive leader, “No you are right
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The language that both of the main
protagonists use shows their incapability to deal when things are going wrong, therefore they are acting as
poor leaders which will lead to the tragic outcome
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” This shows that Lear is aware of his mistakes and
from Act 1 Scene 5 onwards and he attempts to make his situation better and he learns to show compassion,
for example he shows belated empathy with his subjects at the hovel, “[To the Fool] In, boy, go first” this
shows how he is thinking of others before himself like a good leader should do
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On the other hand,
Creon’s anagnorisis comes too late which is an effective structure that is used by Heaney to evoke fear, “I
walled her in and therefore I’ll be there to bring her out
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Despite Lear’s early anagnorisis there is an inevitable war where Lear loses
everything, and eventually loses his own life
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At the end of the play the

audience would feel sympathy for Lear and his failure as a leader as he did realise his mistakes and tried to
correct them whereas the audience would feel pity and fear for Creon as they are unaware of what Creon’s
fate will be for disobeying the gods as he has already lost his family and he did not have time to fix his mistakes
due to the quick pace of the condensed play
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The failure of leadership of Creon and Lear has obviously led to the tragic outcome of the play due to their
fatal mistakes made in the early parts of the play however, there are other factors which must be held
accountable for the tragic outcome
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Goneril and Regan must view
Lear as a weak leader as they believe that they can overthrow him
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To conclude, although the tragic outcomes of both plays are due to the failure of leadership of the main
protagonists there are other forces that were acting against them
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The mistakes that both protagonists made remind the audience that they are only human and
hubristic tendencies can occur in anyone even if they are of a superior stature
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In my opinion, not only was the tragic outcome of the plays due to the failure of
leadership, but it was also due to other characters’ strong influence and manipulation

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