Chapter Themes of King Lear - Study Guide by William Shakespeare

him; and it is a way of reaching Lear’s true nature. For the purpose of the play it also serves as a cocoon from which the butterfly of the heroic Edgar of the final scenes can emerge.

FOOL

To a certain extent the Fool should be considered one of the saner characters within the play: he is compos mentis but by the traditions of the court is a comical loon. This gives him a great influence: he represents the wisdom in madness that becomes during the storm scenes the basis of the play’s message and Lear’s healing. He speaks in riddles that endorse sanity (Poor Tom does this too) and is very quick- witted. The Fool is fully aware of the events that surround him and continually tries to stress the mistake that Lear has made with his daughters. His exit from the play is well timed and oft discussed: just as Lear falls into the hands of those who truly care about him his Fool does not appear again. Where we might ask does the Fool go? He disappears completely and is unnoticed. He is like the plane that takes a glider into the air only to leave it to its own journey in servitude to the whims of the air itself and therefore "nature". The Fool leaves Lear to his fate and is no longer required as a conscience for his master.

ABSENCE OF REASON

There is a great deal of this within the play. There are the most obvious examples such as Lear’s behaviour towards his daughters but there is also a more subtle variety. For example Kent remaining with Lear even when the Fool warns him it is not safe – he uses the image of a wheel running down a hill, knocking over those who get in its way. Gloucester shows no reason in his belief in Edgar’s trick: he is punished for this through his misery and blindness rather than madness. Cordelia also shows a remarkable lack of practicality and thus absence of reason. She is not reasonable but she is "true", and it is the very practicality of the other sisters that fires their greed and makes them the villains they are. Absence of reason creates the dilemmas of the play but also its solution in the healing madness of the storm scenes.

MEGALOMANIA

As a couple Cornwall and Regan are hugely power hungry. She encourages him to take out Gloucester’s eyes and together they devise pointless humiliation and pain for both Gloucester and Kent – they are almost perverse. In killing her sister and arranging for the death of her husband Goneril proves what little regard she has for humanity. Edmund is an opportunist: he arranges Cordelia’s death, leaves his father to be punished and discredits his brother. All these characters are driven by ambition and are to a large extent choked by it. They are unbalanced and obsessive. They have little or no compassion and no respect for the family unit.

Ideology

It is questionable as to whether or not there is a pervading ideology within the play.

SELF

This is the only dependable force within the play. Gloucester is failed by a superstitious dependence rather than a belief in self-knowledge. Lear by a need for loyalty, love and lip-service. Good forces such as Cordelia and Kent are also undermined when they act for others rather than the self. The Fool preserves himself when he perceives when he is no longer useful and leaves. Edmund who is the ultimate self- server actually achieves the most within the play – he resorts to other systems of interpretation such as fortune when he dies. Regan, Goneril and Cornwall all prosper in acting for selves but are corrupted by a desire to turn in on each other (i.e. in wanting Edmund.)

JUSTICE

There is no moral system or reliable social system within the play – it is realistically erratic. For Gloucester there is an inverted justice: his eyes are pulled out for disobedience whereas in reality it was a punishment