The premonition of madness is seen from the phrase. ‘O! let me not be mad, not mad sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!’ as Lear here tries to retain his wits. He begins to show madness as a result of a conflict in his mind. He wants authority, having his own way, and only his suffering will acquire him wisdom. In being mad he is going to be wise.
The storm heard at a distance is reflects Lear’s madness. In his madness, the king starts acquiring a social conscience. We are already seeing the redemption of the king by spending the night in a hovel, as he reduces himself to a commoner and understands what people go through as the phrase, ‘The art of our necessities is strange, And can make vile things precious’ as for Lear, necessities make things that once appeared so evil look precious. Lear tells Kent to take shelter first himself and this proves that the king starts understanding himself and others better.
King lear’s madness is an enrichment of his character. In Act three scene four, Lear recognises himself in Poor Tom and becomes more demented as he is convinced that that cruel daughters must have reduced this pitiful man to beggary. In this scene real madness and feigned madness( Poor Tom) converge. The phrase said by Lear, ‘Prithee go in thyself, seek thine ease’ is a sign of the redemption of King Lear as he starts to understand human nature, himself and his country. As the play progresses he sees better. Lear becomes more sane in his insanity. In the phrase ‘boy go first. You houseless poverty’, with reference to the fool, the king starts to show concern for other people as now he starts to show compassion.
When he starts to talk about the poor naked wretches he realises that he should have taken much more care of the equity of justice. The king’s social conscious begins to works, as in his madness the king becomes social revolutionary and from such phrase as , ‘Is man no more than this?’ one can confirm it. He says that, if the rich were to expose themselves to what the poor feels, they might give what they don’t need to the poor and the world would be more just. The king starts identifying himself in Edgar (Poor Tom) and since poor Tom represents the people, the king realises that he has done nothing for them. Edgar’s nakedness makes him present himself as a symbol of the poor man, and Lear can only understand himself, if he is like poor Tom, the unaccomodated man, and so understand the human condition this way, and this can occur only he thinks, by being naked too. In Lear’s madness, Poor Tom is taken as a ‘philosopher’, on the assumption that it is someone dejected like him who can instruct him on the nature of man.
When Lear puts up a mock trial, he puts himself as a judge as there is the notion of the daughters getting what they deserve. King Lear in his madness, still wants a sense of order. He wants justice. Lear is lost as he starts to talk to himself and starts having hallucinations. He imagines a joint-stool is Goneril and accuses ‘her’ of kicking him. In his madness Lear thinks his eldest daughter has escaped from the ‘courtroom’ and screams for her to be apprehended. The sense of justice is seen when Lear tries to find out, why Regan has such a cruel heart. His madness helps Lear to see his daughters clearly. He is mad, but there is a lot of sense in his nonsense.
In act four scene six, when Lear is in his madness he is obsessed with social and moral justice. King Lear sees in his madness. He shows that the magistrate himself can be a thief. He is against social and sexual hypocrites and very often he says that people who judge are criminal themselves. Basically he is talking on the corruption of law and of how normally justice is unfair to people who cannot fight it. Lear wants to defend the poor and give them power, seen for instance when he slanders rich sinners who are able to break the ‘strong lance of justice’ while beggars cannot escape punishment for their crimes, because due to a lack of money cannot bribe the authorities. Lear shows that authority is worth nothing, he attacks the hypocrisy of the law, as he points out that only the poor get punished. When Lear is in the storm, he discerns that all those persons who flattered him, lied to him. He comprehends the truth when he is mad. The king has learnt that any praises of flattery do not protect him from the truth. He has realised that his position as a king isn’t much. In his madness, Lear puts himself as a judge ,when he asks Gloucester why because he committed adultery, he has to pay for the crimes. Lear insists that he will not love. His madness comes about because he cannot love, wanted love, but he does not want to give love himself. Maybe he’s been living a life of a typical self-centred person and now he could not love. In his madness Lear realises that he has wronged Cordelia. He sees in his madness by his sense of shame.
Before, King Lear used to behave with authority, but only know he realises the insignificance of authority. In his imagination he sees himself as a king, and thinks that no corruption will exist. Lear says that he needs patience but at the beginning he is rash, and understands that he has wronged.
After his madness Lear becomes a different king, a loving father and a humble man. Lear sees himself clearly as ‘a very foolish fond old man’. One has to note that the fool had insisted on his foolishness but only now he realises he is a fool. This play deals with the redemption of King Lear. The phrase said to Cordelia, ‘If you have poison for me, I will drink it’ shows that Lear is ready to die for forgiveness. He is no longer the proud and arrogant king. Lear is so happy to be united with his daughter, that he welcomes life in prison as a kind of paradise. He has given up, because he understands what the world really is,’ When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down, / And ask of thee forgiveness.’
Even the fool (feigned madness) plays his part in making King Lear become mad. The fool is a constant reminder of what the king has done and of the situation into which he gets himself. When the fool first appears in the play he criticises Lear: ‘Dost thou call me fool, boy? / All thy other titles thou hast given away; born with.’ He tells the king that he is fool as he depends on his daughters and that he is a fine guy when he didn’t depend on them as for the fool, Lear has become ‘an O without a figure.’ Albeit the fool was allowed to take considerable liberties in his jesting, he would be whipped if he went to far and Lear threatens the fool to moderate his language. The fool points out to Lear, that he has been reduced to nothingness like a sheal’d peascod. The fool is wise in his foolishness. The fool’s madness with all his songs and riddles, provides comic relief.
Another feigned madness is Edgar’s fake madness (Poor Tom). Edgar disguises himself as a lunatic beggar and is alone, out in the countryside. Edgar’s feigned madness makes him understand life, as he becomes reliable on charity and he becomes aggressive with himself. He has made a journey of self-discovery as right through the play he changes from the ingenuous and artless Edgar of the early scenes. In the last scene of the play, Edgar plays the role of the avenger as he revenges himself of all his father’s sufferings, which are caused by Edmund. At the end, Edgar shows traits of a ‘fair and war-like’ individual, and wounds his brother.
Through the image of madness the reader comes to a fuller understanding of the play. We get to understand more the notion of tragedy and comprehend the intense suffering of King Lear.