Collision And Reconciliation

According to Hegel, the original essence of tragedy consists in the fact that within a conflict each of the opposing sides has justification and pursues it one-sidedly, denying and infringing the equally justified power of the other. The truly substantial thing to be actualized is the reconciliation, in which the eternal justice is realized, stripping away the false one-sidedness and retaining the positive elements. By means of reconciliation, the unity of ethical life is restored and the eternal justice is finally extolled and brought to light.The Introduction gives a brief account of Hegel's tragedy theory and the synopsis of King Lear and then introduces the collision between King Lear and Cordelia as well as the collision within King Lear himself.Chapter One scrutinizes Hegel's basic principle of tragedy, three basic factors and his classification of collisions. From Hegel's point of view, even a catastrophe may be understood as a kind of reconciliation as it vindicates"Eternal Justice". Generally speaking, there are three basic factors of a tragedy and collisions can be divided into three aspects.Chapter Two concentrates on the collision between King Lear and Cordelia, which belongs to the second kind of collisions according to Hegel's tragedy theory. Due to King Lear's stubbornness and egotism, as well as Cordelia's obstinacy and bluntness, they stick to their own stand and fall into conflict.Chapter Three discusses the collision within King Lear himself, which belongs to the third kind of collisions according to Hegel's tragedy theory. The results of Lear's action in Chapter Two serve as the ground of this kind of collision. Unintentionally Lear has done something wrong which he gradually realizes. The basis of this conflict is the antagonism between Lear's intention in his act and the later consciousness of what the act really is.The conclusion, by recapitulating the main points of the thesis, indicates that the conflicting sides of the collision between King Lear and Cordelia as well as the...