Abdication of the Throne

After reading four plays that all find their main characters battling for the throne I find it interesting that this play starts with a king giving it up. As if that wasn't strange enough, he is relinquishing his crown in the most childish and bizzare manner. In stead of lossing it in an emotional and moral struggle like Richard or through a regretfull, unfulfilled death like Henry IV he's holding a who loves me most contest. I can't say I can imagine Henry IV giving the throne to Hal because he loves him a huggy buggy bunch. I know this is a tragedy, but I feel that what ever happens to Lear, he gets whats coming to him. Not only does he shirk off his duties to his overly ambitious daughters, he banishes the only two people willing to speak to him as a king and not a child who needs to be placated. Now that I think about it, maybe it's a good thing that he's abdicating the throne, he doesn't seem to be a particularly great decision maker.