The Sense Of Catharsis In King Lear

Few Shakespearean plays have caused the controversy that is found at the ending scenes of the tragic playKing Lear. Every human death for people, who witness it, is an image of our own promised end. "Is this the promised end?" asks Albany at the end of King Lear. "Or image of that horror?" replies Kent. The bizarre nature of the scenes at the end of King Lear causes numerous questions to arise. One important issue that critics and readers have about this play is whether there is any sense of catharsis at the end of King Lear or not. Catharsis helps the audience feel fulfilled and frees them of burden and tension caused by the play. Some people believe that there is no sense of catharsis at the end of King Lear at all because of the exceptionally painful conclusions
Some characters leave the feeling of catharsis while some don?t. One such character that does leave the audience with some sense of catharsis is the character Edmund. Edmund is one of the most evil characters in this play who betrays his father and his younger brother by faking a letter. He also cleverly gets the support of the two evil sisters by showing both of them that he loves them. From the starting of the play he believes that the world and his father is not fair to him and tries to achieve as much power as he can. ?Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land, Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund.? Edmunds brother Edgar who is the legitimate son of Gloucester suffers great pain and sufferings because of Edmund?s evil plot and his father?s blindness. At the end of play when Edmund dies and Edgar still alive, gains his land back, it leaves the audience with the sense of catharsis and makes them feel that justice has been done. Some people might even find the blindness of Gloucester an act of catharsis because it took him so long to discover his real son who loves him the