Shakespeare uses the fool and his relationship with the character Lear to reveal Lear's state of mind. The fool is also used to distract Lear from the pain caused by his daughters; the fools comment offers the audience a different insight to Lear mind and on his madness “ Nuncle give an egg, and I’ll give thee two crowns.” The egg could represent Lear mind, the contents of the egg emptied could mean that Lear has lost his mind, and the two fragile crowns are that he has left represent a broken. Or the egg could represent Lear's power being the yolk being emptied and is left with nothing, Reflects social chaos as well in another theory. The fool is stereotypically portrayed as not very intelligent but in King Lear, the fool is opposite because he can see the wider perspective, while Lear is blind to the events that are unfolding around him. Shakespeare has included the fool in the play to show a reverse in the natural order of the characters in the play, as the character Lear was on top in the first place, but now the fool has more power, which relieves the madness that the kingdom has been left in And in his words brings an irony perspective on Lear’s behaviour Shakespeare writes the fool’s words in verses, to try and influence Lear about his mistakes while trying to stay in role. . The fool’s general effect is to remind the audience that despite the tragic event taking place the world is still going on as normal. Lear fool is similar to the fool in Henry VIII as they joke about people with authority, as does most of Shakespeare fools they tend to have a freedom of speech, play with words and songs and enjoys doing so. “ Who is it that can tell me who I am?” in which the fool replies “ Lear’s shadow. This shows how the fool used imagery to show Lear what he has become. Also this shows that the fool has the freedom of speech because he get away with saying things like that but Kent got banished for it. I disagree with the comment made by the writer Leo Tolstoy stating that the fool was a” total nuisance.” Because I believe that Shakespeare to used the character to show the extent of Lear madness, through his play on words.
Shakespeare uses the storm is a metaphor for Lear’s mind, because the storm is raging “a tempest” like the character Lear’s mind. Shakespeare has included this scene to drive drama and theme. Also it could represent the state of the kingdom, as the leader has been dismissed from his position and there is no clear leader because it seems Goneril and Regan are only interested in power not the responsibility that comes with it. Prior to Lear entering the storm, the two evil daughters have striped Lear of his followers, only allowing a few to be with Lear. This causes Lear to become aggressive and frustrated, because of the lack of power and the lack of authority over his daughters. “ A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.” This show that Lear has realised what he has become. Lear has gone from being the most powerful person king of England, to a poor old man in a short space of time, shown by the association from the word madness, which leads to corruptions and dysfunction. This is one of the main scenes and is dramatic in its approach, so it gets across the message that Lear is finally using his madness to rediscover his sanity. Shakespeare introduces this change in Lear’s mind in act 3. This scene makes him care about people and the state that he has left the country in, when he talks to Mad Tom, and sees him as a reflection of himself. The audience realise this when he is put in prison with his daughter Cordelia and realises his mistakes about splitting up the kingdom. The audience realise his insanity because he is glad that he is in prison, which is not a normal attitude to have, so that he can be with his daughter Cordelia and makes him feel safe because he is away from society and his daughter cant harm him any more. During the storm scenes Kent still respects Lear and remains his loyal servant, as did Gloucester who also took Lear side early on, which could be seen as a great risk as Lear didn’t have the most power but people still relate Lear as the King, because the sisters had no ambition for the country just to have power. Even when Lear is going through the worst stages of his breakdown, people still relate to him as king. When at the Cliffs of Dover and Gloucester hears Lear voice he says “is ‘t not the king?” in which Lear replies “Aye, every inch a king.”
. There is a major parallel between the two father figures in Gloucester and Lear by their situation, which is stated in Gloucester speech to Edmund.
“ These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us... This villain of mine, come under the prediction; there’s son against father. The king falls from bias of nature; there’s father against child… And the noble and truehearted Kent banished. Also I have noticed in both plots the offspring are trying to obtain power except from their fathers, which causes both parents to lose their titles prematurely. Goneril and Regan get their power from the love test in the opening scene, While Edmund sets up Edgar, the natural successor to Gloucester’s title by writing a letter to Gloucester saying that Edgar will kill Gloucester for his power and making out it was Edgar that wrote it. The audience gets hope because at the end of the play Edgar survived and the others die, promoting that good triumphed over evil in the end. The two plots are at their closet when Lear is sent out into the storm and Edgar kicked out by his father comes back disguised as poor Tom, the two characters interact even though Lear is real madness and poor Tom is fake madness. Shakespeare uses the plots to compare the effects of the different events. Lear is metaphorically blind to what his daughters are planning while Gloucester is physically blind. This shows his poor awareness of what is happening around him. As the audience can tell Lear is the main plot but the Gloucester plot runs along side it to add depth to the play. The way this structure is used is called dramatic structure, which is the narrative of the play, and Shakespeare also uses symmetric structure to support the dynamic structure through imagery and language.
There is also a major contrast within the play though. The character King Lear brought his fate onto himself by the rash decisions made in the first scene, by banishing key members and dividing up his kingdom giving Regan and Goneril control over him, as Cordelia and Kent would have supported him through his madness. Lear claimed to be “ more sinned against than sinning.” Which is not true, because the mess he finds himself in his own doing. As for Gloucester family, Edmund was out to seek revenge for his bastard childhood, which “cost him his eyes.” But Gloucester couldn’t have prevent this because the situation was out of his hands, Gloucester only downfall was to losing his eyes was the fact that he still supported the king, which was right in the eyes of the audience but not of Albany’s. Edgar fate was in the hands of Edmund as you can see Edgar had done nothing wrong because he triumphed in the end. There is an event that occurs in the Gloucester Plot that doesn’t in the Lear plot which is the suicide attempt.
Though parallels can be drawn between the plots, this event shows that the accompaniment poor tom shows love and concern for his father as does the dramatic reunion in which sees Cordelia show love for her father. Gloucester is distraught by his blindness and the support and advice by poor tom on being patience help Gloucester, these are followed by the comments made by Lear “though shall be patient.” Which is Ironic for Lear because he didn’t have patience with Cordelia and Kent.
The play shows Lear’s life starting from on high as king of England and return to an average human being. Shakespeare presents madness in the scene where Lear’s naked in the flowers because the imagery shows how King Lear has been stripped of all his baggage and what is left is a helpless human being. It is also a symbol of Lear trying to become clean and pure by stripping away the faults that he has committed so he can start from scratch. “… Off you lendings.” These two scenes are dramatic and support the theme of madness, because the audience can relate to the thoughts the character Lear is having. Also this shows imagery used by Shakespeare because the flowers symbolise that a gentle being not a being with authority and power.
In king Lear Shakespeare opposes stereotypical madness, which is portrayed by Lear’s characters by using other characters to rival this view. Mad Tom’s character is the disguise for Edgar, so it is fake madness, Lear can relate to Mad Tom’s because they are on the same wavelength. Lear sees the bedraggled near naked Mad Tom as a reflection of his own condition. But Lear thinks that its must have been mad toms daughters that had caused mad toms madness. “ What has his daughters brought him to this pass.” Which shows that Lear is blaming his daughters for his madness, and cannot take responsibility for his actions. As with the opening scene the king didn’t want responsibility for his actions so he split up his kingdom. This disowning of responsibility for his actions caused the situation he found himself in after this event had taken place, and that caused his madness. “ A man more sinned against than sinners.” Lear’s madness allows Shakespeare to explore madness in great, which has been a theme in other plays like McBeth. The story of Lear in a nutshell is the loss and recovery of his sanity through his madness; Lear goes different stages of madness through the play, first fearing that he was becoming mad, which he blames on his daughters claiming no responsibility like what he wanted to do with his kingdom. And suffers from the pain his daughters have caused him and his anger towards them, especially in the storm scene. Lear then reaches his worst state of mind when he pretends to have a trail with his daughters, the next stage is when Lear starts to regain his sanity, but is still slightly confused, and finally he regains his sanity when he finds Cordelia again in Jail, by now the damaged is already done. “ O, I have ta’en too little care of this.” This shows that Lear has realize what mistakes he has made and has changes from the Start because he was taking no responsibility for his actions. The audience could hint from the opening scene that the decision to take was a mad one and this was backed up by a series of mad events and speeches.
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King Lear critics have been analysing the play. John C McCloskey examines the association of images from the world of “ animals, insects and finally rage in act three. The imagery changes to reflect he increasing intensity of his moods and to underscore the theme of unnaturalness.
Kenneth Muir, in the first excerpt maintains that Lear attacks hypocrisy and world justice “ show profound insight into human condition however the critics cautions readers against assuming that these speeches represent Shakespeare own point of view.”
William Rosen demonstrates how the focus how the flaws of dramatic interest in king leer shifts from concern with a particular man to such universal issues as justice, order and meaning in the world.
Shakespeare uses a range of different types of madness opposing the stereotypical view. The King has paid the price for not being responsible for his actions and causing his madness. Shakespeare added an ending that offered hope despite adversity. Shakespeare also used imagery and symbol to show madness to give the audience an understanding of what it feels like to be Lear
