The study or Shakespear's Lear and Kurosawa's Ran

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"As flies to wanton boys, are we to th' gods, They kill us for their sport." ( ACT IV, sceneI, l.6). By analysing Shakespear's King Lear and Kurusawa's Ran, we analyse the common ideathat the universe is indifferent to the human life which is meaningless and brutal. By dividing theidea in three parts we can easily examine the brutality of humans, their destiny and meaningless


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as well as the universe's indifference to humans through the character in Lear and in Ran.The characters of King Lear and of Ran are easily identified between the good and thebad, like pieces of a chess board as Northrop Frye would say. The good characters beingCordelia, the Fool, Kent and Albany in Lear and Su , the Fool and Saburo in Ran. The badcharacters being everyone else basicaly. The level at which the characters stand in the naturalorder is important. To understand this concept more, according to the Elizabethans, humans havefallen from grace or from the Gardens of Eden, therefore we stand on a lower level a "fallenlevel". According to Northrop Frye's reasearch, it is a "world seemingly indifferent to man andhis concerns, though the wise can see many traces of its original splendor". He explains thathumans can choose to stay at this lower level or to rise up to a good natured world. In this fallenworld, humans react on impulses. They become destructive and brutal. We associate all the badcharacters in Lear and in Ran much closer to the evil world. Trough their actions we recognizetheir destructive nature as they creat war, sufferance and chaos because of their own selfish andself-centered needs. According to Stephen Prince about Kurosawa's Ran, " Hidetora and his sons, no mattertheir intentions, are doomed to enact to scenarios of betrayal, vengeance and murder in theirquest for power". During Hidetora's reign he tortured and killed many local families, he killedSuand Kaede's parents and in exchange for Tsurumaru's life Hidetora gauged his eyes withoutany mercy. He basicaly led a life of war and destruction. By passing on this value to his sons itwas inevitable that they would do the same once they were in control of the kingdom. This waspointed out by Saburo "One berren of loyalty of feeling. You spilled oceans of blood. Youshowed no mercy, no pity we too are children of this age weaned on strife and chaos". Aspredicted by Saburo, Taro and Jiro's initial intentions were to kill Hidetora and his army but theyonly went against each other. Jiro sent Karogane to murdered his brother Taro in order to obtain abetter position of power. However, Jiro didn't seem to feel guilty about his actions at all andmake's it his life dedication to hunt down Taro, Hidetora and Saburo. In the end most ofHidetora's army perishe's in war. We find out through Hidetora "My loyal men died in a uselessdeath". This brutality is also transcendant in Kaede's attitude in her quest for vengeance, as sheplans to destroy all of the Ichimonjis. There is a serious insensibility of humanity there.In King Lear, Goneril and Regan plan to kill Lear even though he has given them hiskingdom. However he doesn't believe that they could be so cruel, "They could not, would notdo't. Tis worse than murder to do upon respect such violent outrage". (ActII, sceneIII. 1-)Edmund on the other hand believe's that human nature is naturally selfish. He agree's thatbrutality is only part of the human nature. So he acts upon his beliefs. He does so by endangeringEdgar's life, by getting Gloucester tortured, by allowing Cordelia's death and by trying to killLear. His lust for power caused brutal actions which he witnessed without any mercy. Most ofthe brutal acts were done by Cornwall, Regan or Goneril. After Cornwall had plucked uotGloucester's eyes, a servant points out Regan's cruelty in allowing Cornwall to do such a brotalact. " If you did wear a beard upon your chin I'd shake it on this quarrel. What do mean!".(ActIII, sceneVII. 78-7). Albany finaly noticed in the fourth act Goneril's brutality, " What haveyou done.... Most barberous, most degenerate, have you madded?" (ActIV, scene II. 46-4) We see most of the brutality through the hellish visions of war and chaos. Kurosawabelieve's that his movie is a reflexion on human life. He reflects " The timelessness of humanimpulses toward violence and self-destruction. If you look at the world around you, i think it'simpossible in this day and age to be optemistic". Ran begins with a boar hunt, a brutality towardsinnocent animals. As Ran progresse's sequences of blood, fire, deaths and war exagerate thebrutality. "We truly are in Hell", say's a warrior to Hidetora, which he later state's "This is Hell,the lowest level of Hell". According to Tango, brutality is normal "It's how the world is made. Men prefere sorrowover joy, suffering over peace. They celebrate murder". Later on Saburo finds Hidetora professing that he would rather die than live in such a brutal world "How are you so cruel, whypull me from my grave?" In the end brutality and sufferance cause's madness but "in a madworld; only the mad are sane". Kyoami (The Fool) By analysing the character's evil nature, their selfishness and their creation of chaos, warand suffering we can conclude that they are certainly brutal. As well as being brutal, the characters are meaningless. They are meaningless because oftheir brutal actions, but also because of their reversed fortunes and the final faith to thecharacters. In King Lear and in Ran there is a serious depreciation of the human life. Accordingto Gloucester, the fate of the universe will lead to decay just like the human world, " O ruinedpiece of nature! This great world shall so wear to nought. Dost thou know me?"(ActVI,SceneVI.16-17) as the human world destroy's itself the value of human lives becomemore and more meaningless. At first, Lear believe's that it is luxury that brings humans to thehigher level. As he meet's Poor Tom later he declare,s that "man is no more but such a poor,bare, forked animal as thou art". (ActIII, scene IV. 108-110) It is only later that he calls on thepower of the storm to "sterilize the human race". He realize's the chaos that is created andbelieve's that it is better to die than to live in chaos. We get the same general idea in Ran thatHidetora, Taro and Jiro depreciate the human life since they killed so many people through chaosand war. Among themselves humans believe that their live's are meaningless. By reversing certaincharacters fortune to the worst, they become meaningless. By studying the theme of nothing,Northrop Frye states "A king who dies is still something, namely a dead king; a king deprived ofhis kingship is nothing even if, or especially if, he still goes on living". We see this once Lear isrejected by Goneril. As his fortune reverse's he become's more and more meaningless to thedaughters; his followers eventualy leave him alone with the fool. We see much the same effecthappen to Hidetora as his fortune is reversed. He also become's meaningless. As for Gloucesterand Edar they become meaningless as soon as Edmund gains power. It's evident that once thecharacters reach their lowest point, they are mearly worthless to the others. As Cornwall reacheshis lowest point as he dies, Regan show's him no compassion and leave's to go find Oswald. As Shakespeare indicate's people live and will eventually die and by causing chaos andsuffering depreciate the human life. Humans are doomed to the same fate. We are all destined todeath. We learn that even the innocent people die as well. In King Lear's Cordelia and in Ran'sSuand Saburo characters all died brutaly and unjustly. They recieved the same fate as the evilcharacters. In the last scene of Ran, we see Tsurumaru deserted making him insignifigante tohuman life. Finaly we come to the last point, the universe is indifferent to the human life. "As flies towanton boys, are we to th'gods, they kill us for their sport". (ActIV, sceneI. 6-7) The idea isthat the gods only torture humans and kill them for their own amusement, or that the universedoesn't interfere with human life even to stop death. By allowing the innocent people to die theuniverse is unjuste. Cordelia get's hung, Saburo get's shot and Suget's brutaly murderedthrough Kaede's. The "gods" show no mercy to Sueven though she believe's that Buddha willprotect her. This make's it hard to believe that there even are gods. Near the end after Hidetoradies, Kyoami ask's " Are there no gods...no Buddha? You are meschivous and cruel! Are you sobored up there... You must crush us like ants? Is it so much fun to see men weep?". "He is gone from this evil world. His gardians are in exile, routed by the fury of Ashur. We can'trely on Buddha's mercy". We suppose that in the creation of war and chaos the gods punishhumans. However the gods don't seeem to stop the chaos. Even as we call for their help, the gods seem to ignore humans. In Ran, Tsurumaru pray'sto the Buddha for peace but never find's it. In ActIII, scene VII. 71, Gloucester ask's for the godshelp but they show no mercy as he is tortured and eventualy dies. Albany call's on the gods tosave Cordelia which failed to help her. Even through Edmund's redemption (Act V, Final scene.45-56) and attempt to do some good he could not save himself or Cordelia from death.Kurosawa believed that Ran was a reflexion on the human life. In this particular time ofwar, we relate more than ever to his work. Millions of innocent children, woman and men diefor unworthy causes. Maybe this world truly is leading into self-destructive chaos and the godsprove just to be indifferent to the human life by allowing the chaos to prevail. Therefore by not answering the cries of help, by allowing the innocent people to die and byallowing chaos to go on, we come to wonder if there even are gods, they are indifferent to thehuman life. In conclusion, it is through many examples found in Shakespeare's King Lear and AkiraKurosawa's Ran, that we realize how the universe proves to be indifferent of the human life,which is brutal and meaningless. " Worse I may be yet; the worst is not so long as we can say"This is the worst"." "So long as man continues to suffer, even greater suffering may await him."(Edgar, Act IV, scene I, 4-6) This essay was written by Julia Babne for a grade 1 english class Please note that this sample paper on The study or Shakespear's Lear and Kurosawa's Ran is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on The study or Shakespear's Lear and Kurosawa's Ran, we are here to assist you. 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