Lear's Utopian World Falls into Dystopia

Lear’s Utopian World Falls into Dystopia

Utopia is a name for an ideal community, taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempted to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. "Utopia" is sometimes used pejoratively, in reference to an unrealistic ideal that is impossible to achieve, and has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.
A dystopian society is one in which the conditions of life are miserable, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, and/or pollution (Wikipedia).
Shakespeare takes these themes at shows them both at work in his play, King Lear. Through the betrayal of the plays characters we see a utopian world fall into dystopia. It is because of this betrayal that we see the workings of wickedness in both the familial and political realms, as brothers betray brothers and children betray fathers. Goneril and Regan’s betrayal of Lear raises them to power in Britain, where Edmund, who has betrayed both Edgar and Gloucester, joins them. It is as this betrayal occurs, that we see Lear’s utopian world turn into a barren landscape, which is filled with death and deceit. It, therefore, can be said that each of these characters are responsible for their own destinies due to their actions, which will ultimately shape the world in which they inhabit.

William Hamilton