Consider the role of the Fool in King Lear. How important is he to the play as a whole?
King Lear Essay Question Consider the role of the Fool in King Lear. How important is he to the play as a whole? How has the role been treated by different critics and in different performances? How might the role reflect the culture of Shakespeare's time? How would you prefer the role of the Fool to be performed? The Fool is considered an important character in the play even though he is not a major participant in events witnessed. His comments, full of ironic insight, provide wisdom and reasoning for Lear at times of need. He generally plays three major roles; Lear's inner - conscience, represents Lear's alter ego and plays a dramatic chorus. The way the character is portrayed also provides us with a social commentator and vehicle for pathos. Although the Fool may seem strange to us, an Elizabethan audience would have greeted the Fool with great familiarity. The position was a historic one in Shakespeare's time, with the monarch appointing an official court jester (Fool). In conventional drama of the day he was a hold over from morality plays, with his role-becoming classic. His role had established characteristics and responsibilities. Among them the Fool had license to roam the stage and interact with the audience often joking and talking directly to them. He had great popularity with the audience of the time, with his role a bridge between the action on stage and
How effectively does Shakespeare present Lear's loss of power in the play?
How effectively does Shakespeare present Lear's loss of power in the play? In the opening scenes of the play, King Lear is the character who wields the most power. However throughout the play he gradually loses his power and this is presented very effectively by Shakespeare. Shakespeare portrays this loss through the characters language, Lear's and other's, and certain symbolic events such as the loss of Lear's knights. At the beginning of the play, Lear's language displays his power and authority. His language is forceful and the line, "Come not between the dragon and his wrath", portrays his power as he compares himself to a dragon, a very powerful beast. It also shows how he can issue demands without a moment's hesitation. As King, Lear's servants and courtiers attend to his every need. Lear's first line of the play is a demand to Gloucester to "Attend the lords of France and Burgundy", which is immediately obeyed. This again portrays Lear's power. Another part of Lear's language that depicts his power is the use of the 'royal we'. He describes Cordelia as "our joy", which shows his status as King by the use of the royal we. Therefore Shakespeare effectively presents Lear's loss of power by emphasizing Lear's initial power through his language in the opening of the play. This emphasis on the vast amount of power Lear wields in the play's opening makes the audience all the
