Mistaken Judgments

Mistaken Judgments

King Lear was a tragic hero. Tragic in the sense that King Lear was one of the greatest leaders of his time, and he also made tragic mistakes that led to the fall of his reign. That is how the sense of tragedy comes in. King Leontes, also in the Winter’s Tale, is paranoid and goes to the extent of killing his wife because of allegations that she is an infidel. The two plays have instances where wrong judgments have been passed, and the consequences the false judgments rendered them.

King Leontes is acting awkwardly. When his wife succeeds in convincing Polixenes to stay a little longer in their home, Leontes becomes jealous and believes that his wife and Polixenes could be having an affair. How skewed could it be? The going to the extent of instructing his cupbearer to poison Polixenes. He managed to survive the plotting and flees away. The passing of judging and the making of false conclusions show how unstable Leontes was. Polixenes escapes, Leontes transfers his wrath and imprisons Hermione with no evidence. His speculations led to the suffering of others. Hermione, while in prison, gives birth to a baby girl. Even the news of the newborn infuriates his father and threatens the messenger together with her husband and instructs Antinogus to take the baby to exile. The wrong judgment and perception lead to the suffering of weak and innocent like Hermione’s baby.

Hermione, as weak as she was from childbearing, is taken to trial, and a message from the oracle proves that she is innocent. As soon as the judgment of her innocence is passed, the news of the death of her mother gets in. She faints and later dies. This when the reality hits Leontes. He has caused the death of his beloved wife. He will now be in solitude due to his reactions. He is becoming a victim of his indecisiveness. Although Leontes corrects his mistakes, he suffers the consequences of judging without the proper information.

Othello illustrates weak human judgments can be. The demise and disappearance of the two characters Othello and Iago, are majorly due to weak and compromised human judgments. People tend to overlook situations and give biased and compromised judgments. Othello is too quick to trust, and it costs him a dime. He trusts Cassio and believes that he behaves well. However, Cassio takes alcohol that lands him in troublesome situations. Cassio, because of alcohol, is entangled in an argument and stabs Montano to death. People can easily be manipulated, and their so “esteemed” character fails. Othello.

Othello also is jealous. Jealousy consumes Othello and starts hating Desdemona. The blind anger makes him irrational and makes him pass uninformed judgments. Anger makes him detest Desdemona at every sight and vows to murder for the good of humanity. “Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men” Othello makes fatal judgments because of impulse anger. He even convinces himself that he is acting for the interests of Desdemona and assumes that Desdemona is the “cunning whore of Venice” The believe that Desdemona is unfaithful to him is misinformed. However, Othello lets anger get the best of him and never trusts Desdemona. “I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without instruction.” (Shakespeare 4.1.30-31). Iago’s words become the start of the downfall of Othello and his family. This is how misinformed judgments can be tragic.

Othello deteriorates emotionally and psychologically. The false accusations against Desdemona were eating him up. “My lord is fall’n into epilepsy.” (4.1.40).this is due to the words that were said to him by Iago. Iago’s words get deep to him and cause his mental wreckage, and Humans are weak beings. Sometimes they act because of impulse. Sometimes they become irrational and make misinformed decisions that sooner or later end up destroying the lives of their loved ones or even their own lives. Othello is an example of leaders who would rather be disappointed than be surprised. Sometimes people tend to over trust, and sometimes they fail to trust, and both lead them to a position of contempt.

Macbeth is another play by Shakespeare that illustrates how wrong the passing of judgment can have deadly repercussions. The killing of Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff s family, illustrates how Macbeth deteriorates in character to the extent of becoming a cold-hearted murderer. His untamed desire to be a King makes him “unstoppable” and goes further to act by the direction of a lady. She succumbs to the pressure from a lady to murder Duncan. “When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man” (Act I, scene vii, l 49-51). Lady Macbeth had slowly but surely manipulated his mind to think that murdering Duncan was the right thing. However, Macbeth carried guilt and resentment alone. He felt that no one will ever forgive him for the atrocity he committed and felt that his soul would never know peace, nor will it be ever cleansed. In his own words, he says, “They pluck out mine own eyes! /Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather/The Multitudinous seas incarnadine, /Making the green one red” (act II, scene iii, l 58-62). This shows that he had no intention of killing Duncan, but he killed him to prove his worth to lady Macbeth and for him to become the King.

Macbeth earned himself the name murderer because he accepted his character to deteriorate. He also encounters the cleverness of Banquo. This becomes another problem. Banquo becomes suspicious and questions every move of Macbeth. “And mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man, to make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings!” these are his words as he backs off having realized his mistakes and realizes he has no way of reversing them.

That is how passing wrong judgment is. Some can compromise moral values for personal gains, but reality always has a way of catching up. Whether it comes early or it delays, that is never the point; the point is, it always catches up.

King Lear shows the relationship between many characters. Some good, some evil, but all play a part to develop different themes, and passing judgment is one of them. There is a misjudge. The bad ones are labeled good, and good ones are labeled as bad. It is a book where mediocrity is rewarded, but toward the end, justice is served. The English rule is hierarchical, and King lear makes a grave mistake by treating his own children as treacherous while trusting the outsiders.

King Lear ignores the Earl, who tries to show him the people who have his best interests at heart. King is so arrogant that he would not listen to anybody’s advice. Provided you disagree with him, you are wrong. There was no room for criticism, and that is how he became weakened and trusted the wrong people. Shakespeare is giving us a view of a king who cannot see a situation and compare it with others to know what he has in store. He would rather be flattered than be told te ugly reality “Dearer than eye-sight, space and liberty,” says Goneril. Goneril and Reagan are praising the King to obtain favors and delicacies that come from pledging allegiance to an authority that is above you.

Cordelia, the daughter of King Lear, loved her father but could not love him the way he wanted. That made her be disowned. Cordelia was so genuine and honest with her love, but King Lear would hear none of it, and the daughter flees away to be married by the King of France. Cordelia describes his daughter as “Unfriended, new adopted to our hate, dow’red with our curse, and strangered with our oath”(I,i,203-204). Cordelia remained true to her father, even him disowning her. Later, King lear is mistreated by her two daughters and Cordelia chips in to save him. “now and then an ample tear trilled down her delicate cheek”(IV, iii,12-13). Cordelia is remorseful of his father and forgives his father and forgets that had been done to her. Cordelia embraces her father and accepts him as if he was flawless. “But love, dear love, and our aged father’s right. Soon may I hear and see him”(IV,28-29)! She was always sincere, and that is why she refused to profess her love for her father to rule a portion of Britain. King Lear is brainwashed and gives the reign to her two daughters, who never cared for him.

Gloucester has also suffered the same fate as King Lear has. The plucking of his eyes and be stepped by boots can be seen as a punishment for the horrendous deeds he has to be people. Both Gloucester and Lear experience suffering, which is both physical and mental as a result of what they did to the people. The misjudgment and even the trusting of the wrong people is what they are paying for. Such people are ones that, when they die, the universe can accept their going because of the misfortunes that they caused to others. Nevertheless, the play never misses tragedies, where even good people equally die with bad people. That is where tragedy comes in.

Many characters In the mentioned plays seems to be paying off for the sins they committed. It is therefore paramount that whatever judgment is made, it should be made with the information that it may come back to haunt those who were making them.