What is his second best tragedy and why is it King Lear?

*richard ii

Are you implying the first one is Hamlet or Macbeth?

>>9665147
I assumed that no one here would argue that Hamlet isn't the best tragedy.

>>9665154
Why is Lear better than Macbeth?

>>9665163
The 2016 top 100 had Lear on it but not Macbeth, so I assumed this board considers Lear to be the second best tragedy.

>>9665169
I'm just interested to know why this board prefers Lear over Macbeth. Lear is a very tragic play, but it's characters are not the most interesting.

I fucking hate Lear. It's so convoluted and boring. It would benefit enormously from being simplified or sped up a bit.

What sets Hamlet and Macbeth apart from the other tragedies is their protagonists are actively shaping their own destinies, rather than simply reacting to someone else who is pulling the strings.

>>9665121
>shatters classical unities far apart (vast dark world)
>lear's descent into and return from madness
>the subplot of edmund (ambitious bastard)
>range of characters

The best one being, of course, Titus Andronicus. Both are his best comedies as well.

>>9665268

Macbeth is literally tricked by witches into everything he does.

>>9665463
>tricked by witches
That's a touch reductive cuckmeister

>>9665463
He makes a rational decision to kill Duncan. Yes, the suggestion was given to him by the witches, but ultimately he weighed his options and made the choice.

>>9665474

It is literally, unequivocally, exactly what happens.

>>9665485

He was equivocating until Lady M questioned his manhood. And then again >Thou marsh'lest me the way I was going

https://youtu.be/h20g6h8KrZI

>>9665463
>>9665491

Macbeth was already flawed with this ambition and pride, and then felt he had to save face after his wife completely humiliated him. To just say he was tricked by witches is such a brainless interpretation of the play.

>>9665147
it's Titus Andronicus

>>9665839

http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/macbeth/Equiv.html

Literally the central theme of the play. Literally so sick of pedantic, know-nothing faggots popping off about shit they don't understand and don't even care about. Macbeth is a shaper of his own destiny only insofar as he is bent to it by forces external to himself, including hallucinatory weapons. This is in keeping with the foundational tension of tragedy--will v. fate. Aspects of character, including pride and ambition, are, ironically, the snares of the latter. To admire Macbeth for the control he has over his life is to miss the point COMPLETELY.