King Lear- As Moral Tragedy

Abstract

Hence it may be not be relevant to associate Shakespeare with postmodernism where his religious and moral convictions lie. Indeed, evil is shown to be a necessary structural metaphysical opposite of good, but not defined by Shakespeare as its condition of possibility but something to be defeated and overcome. Indeed, this moral defeat of evil is normally brought about in Shakespeare’s plays through the enactment of divine retribution and a restoration of the moral universe and Christian cosmos. Indeed, it is popular to subscribe to postmodernism and moral relativism in the contemporary world. Faith has declined in modern Europe and there are even atheist preachers in some Scandinavian quarters. However, I would argue this was not the context of Shakespeare’s time. Faith had a strong foothold in much of Europe and this was the reason why the cosmos of Shakespeare’s plays were largely Christian in which themes of redemption and divine justice and telos were prominent. Hence good and evil are not merely relative designates defined in opposition to each other, but metaphysical absolutes that are distinct from each other.