We are fortunate today that the majority of the world's nations are democracies. This has only been the case very recently. For most of human history, society has subscribed to the belief that birth is the most important determinant of a person's future. In Elizabethan England this was particularly true. Those born into the nobility enjoyed privileges throughout their lives, while those born outside their ranks existed primarily to serve them. A century later, the British faced an even stricter form of this belief when they conquered India. The Hindu caste system, which dictated one's future based on birth, much like British society, was considered even by the English to be excessively restrictive. After taking control of the subcontinent, the conquerors attempted to supplant the caste system with a semblance of meritocracy. The new subjects of the Empire, instead of accepting this imposition of the values ​​of a foreign culture, reacted with unease and general discontent, demonstrating that no society, however unjust or prejudiced it may be, tolerates well interference. Shakespeare's King Lear demonstrates the same concept: that any violation of society's conception of natural order results in chaos, and that the only way to restore harmony is to conform to the expectations of that society. It is important to distinguish the concept of nature present in King Lear from the images it evokes in modern culture of picturesque forests teeming with every kind of adorable squirrel and chipmunk imaginable. As Sarah Doncaster puts it in her essay “Representations of Nature in Shakespeare's King Lear,” nature in Shakespeare's hands “is a social construct used to legitimize the existing social order.” The idea that a... middle of paper...... a mock trial for his unfaithful daughters. He regains only a modicum of sanity when he is rescued by Cordelia, who treats him as he deserves, giving him fresh clothes and restorative medicine. When Lear wakes in his presence, he is not entirely lucid, not knowing where he is or what is around him, but the doctor states that "the great rage you see is killed in him" (IV. vii. Once Lear regains his former majesty, his madness is assuaged. The imbalance of nature is corrected and therefore the spirit of the king of nature is healed. Works Cited Doncaster, Sarah. Representations of nature in King Lear. Shakespeare Online. August 20, 2000. January 6, 2014. .Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia L. Freund. New York: Washington Square, 1957. Print.