Ultimately, this kind of reading threatens to reduce King Lear to a form of melodrama, a story of the straightforward conflict of clearly identifiable and separable forces of good and evil, in which the outcome is tragic only in the sense of being disastrous for the main characters. ... As Jaffa shows, Lear's plan, far from being the product of senility, is, if anything, too clever for his own good. ... In many accounts of the play, Lear's education is presented as an unequivocal good, as if there were nothing problematic about his experience. ...

• Word Count: 8939
• Approx Pages: 36
• Grade Level: High School