Vanity, in all its forms, leads to one's inevitable downfall. King Lear is a play that illustrates this poignant theme in brutal reality. Lear's vanity extends to four different forms in his overall character: lack of self-knowledge, egotism, rashness of judgment, and self-doubt. These tragic flaws lead to Lear's downfall, which servers as a warning to all mankind to keep their vanity in check or face the consequences. Vanity, which is one of the seven deadly sins, is a product of evil, which is quite prominent in the play.
At the beginning of the play, we see Lear as a proud, vain, and rash old king, not necessarily evil, but not good either. His egotism in dividing up his kingdom according to which daughters praise him the most leads to the disownment of the one daughter and servant who truly care for him, and the revelation that Regan and Goneril's profession of love for him was merely empty praise. Turned away by both Regan and Goneril, Lear rages against a storm, and bellows "I am a man more sinned against than sinning" (Act III, scene 2, 56-57). Lear refuses to accept fully the fact that his suffering is of his own making.
The storm upon which Lear rages is itself a metaphor for Lear's growing madness and rage. When Lear declares, "No, I"ll not weep / I have full cause of weeping, but this heart / Shall break into a thousand flaws / Or ere I"ll weep. O Fool, I shall go mad!" (Act II, scene 4, 325-328), it shows that as Lear's heart breaks into a hundred thousand pieces, nature will also in the form of rain, thunder, and lightning. This disorder of nature is also reflected when Kent says, "Since I was a man, / Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, / Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never / Remember to have heard, Man's nature cannot carry / Th" affiction nor the fear" (Act III, scene 2, 47-51). Nature and man are in turmoil and out of control. When Lear yells, "And thou, all-shaking / thunder, / Strike flat the thick rotundity o" th" world.
