An Examination of the Significance of the Fool in King Lear

Authors Avatar

An Examination of the Significance of the Fool in King Lear

        A Fool is used in plays as a professional jester or clown whose function it was to amuse the king and his followers by his jokes and witty remarks. The Fool enjoyed the freedom to speak on any subject and to comment on persons and events without any restraint. The Fool’s function was purely to provide entertainment and to amuse people. Shakespeare’s objective in introducing the fool in King Lear is to provide comic relief in the play where the events are very tragic and oppressing.

        The jokes of the Fool serve to lighten the gloom and to relieve the tension and the stress which are generated by the cruel treatment delivered to Lear by his own daughters and by the storm, fury and violence which he faces of which are too great to bear by the aged king. The Fool only speaks to Lear himself, and his words are generally of a nature to ‘rub in’ the mistakes of Lear. The sarcastic remarks of the Fool intensify the sufferings of Lear and actually become a contributory cause of his madness. The Fool is essential to Lear’s character development. The Fool represents the conscience of Lear, maybe a reason why there is no more of the Fool when Lear loses his mind.

        The significance and the role of the Fool is not confined to just one objective. Shakespeare uses the Fool for a number of reasons. I will examine the Fool’s various significances in the play, King Lear.

        The Fool has a strong attachment to Cordelia, one of the daughters of the king. The first mention of the Fool comes when Lear, who is spending his first month giving away his entire kingdom to his two daughters, asks one of his knights where his Fool is and then says that he has not seen the Fool for the last two days. The knight replies that, since Cordelia’s departure for France, the Fool has much ‘pined away’ and ‘has been feeling most wretched and miserable’. This reply by the knight shows that the Fool was greatly attached to Cordelia, and that her having gone away to France, having been disowned and disinherited by her father has greatly depressed the Fool. In this one remark by the knight, we are made to see the human side of the Fool who otherwise seems indifferent to the people around him.

        Within the first appearance in the play by the Fool, we are able to observe his use of clever imagery and powerful metaphors. The Fool makes his appearance and on finding Kent, a loyal follower of Lear, offers his ‘coxcomb’ (cap that a jester wears) to him. This reason for offering his cap, which is the symbol of his own ‘folly’, is that Kent too has proved to be a Fool because he had taken the side of Lear who is now out of favour with ‘fortune’. The Fool then tells Kent that Lear had banished two of his daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will; and that, if Kent still follows Lear and supports him, he would be no better than a fool and would therefore be entitled to wear a Fool’s cap. The Fool by his canny remark means that, by having given his entire kingdom to two of his daughters, he had made them absolutely independent and had in this way lost their love and obedience. Doing the third a blessing against his will implies that Lear, by disowning and disinheriting Cordelia, had made her Queen of France. The Fool then offers his cap to Lear, saying that Lear needs two such caps and that he would beg the second cap from his daughters to whom he had given away everything, without having kept anything for himself.

Join now!

        The Fool’s apparent foolish remarks have a deep sense that exhibits his great insight into events when Lear warns him not to talk in this irresponsible manner and threatens to whip him, the Fool replies that a man who speaks the truth is surely treated like a dog who must be whipped out of the room, while a flatterer, who always speaks falsely, receives kindness and affection. Lear feels lacerated by this remark which, he says, is like ‘a pestilent gall’ to him. Lear means that the Fool’s attaching remarks on him are painful to him. It can be depicted ...

This is a preview of the whole essay