King Lear's Mistake Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear is a detailed description of the consequences of one man's decisions. This fictitious man is Lear, King of England, whose decisions greatly alter his life and the lives of those around him. As Lear bears the status of King, he is a man of great power, but blindly he surrenders all of this power to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him. This untimely surrender of his throne sets off a chain reaction of events that sends him through a hellish journey. King Lear is a metaphorical description of one man's journey t