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The Madness in the play King Lear The King Lear play is considered as a titanic work of Shakespeare. It is a masterpiece among the plays presented by the genius playwright. The events of this play revolve around the madness of the possession of the old King. The madness of authority and kingdom lead him to do a tragic flaw. Shakespeare gives a kind of phobia that infects the king, i.e. the phobia of losing property. King Lear is becoming weak by the time and wishes only to spend his last days quietly with his three daughters. The elder two are married, while the youngest – Cordelia – has two suitors, the dDuke of Burgundy and the King of France. Lear summons his three daughters together and proposes to distribute his kingdom among them. “But first,” said he, “Which of you shall we say doth love us most?” Both Goneril and Regan elegantly and eloquently announce their deep love to their beloved father, which pleased the King greatly. He then asks Cordelia, “Now, our joy, though last not least,” he said, “What can you say?” “Nothing, my lord,” answered Cordelia; she is uncomfortable by the way her sisters have falsely shown their fake love. “I love your Majesty according to my duty – no more, no less.” Lear, who has loved Cordelia most, is surprised by her answer and becomes at great rage, “be forever a stranger to my heart and me.” The Earl of Kent tries to justify why she says so, but Lear would not listen and banishes him out of his court. He divided the kingdom between Goneril and Regan, and declares that he will keep a hundred knights at arms and live with his daughters by turns. Poor honest Cordelia is left with nothing. The King of France,however, sees her strength and marries her after the Duke retreats because he does not want her without land. When the King goes to stay with Goneril, her true dark side of her personality appears; she is rude and unfaithful to him, and disgraces him by reducing his retinue. The King has been left only with two faithful friends, the Earl of Kent, who is disguised as a serving man, and his Fool. Lear leaves Goneril’s palace with a great wrath and heads for Regan’s castle. Regan welcomes her father severely, declaring that fifty knights are too many to wait on him, and Goneril (who has hurried there to forbid Regan from showing any kindness towards the Old King) questions why he is in
need of any of them. Lear cannot plainly see he is not welcomed warmly and so angrily he leaves. In a wild and stormy dark night he walks to the heath, almost mad with misery and with no companion but the poor Fool. Presently his servant, the good Earl of Kent, meets him and persuades him to take shelter. At daybreak the Earl of Kent removes his royal master to Dover, and hurries to the Court of France to tell Cordelia what has happened. Cordelia’s husband gives her an army and with it, she lands at Dover. Here she finds poor King Lear wandering about the fields, wearing a crown of nettles and weeds. She embraces him. “Forget and forgive,” said Lear; “I am old and foolish.” He knows at last which of his children is that has loved him best. Cordelia is defeated by the joint armies of Goneril and Regan. She and her father are thrown into prison. Goneril’s good husband, the Duke of Albany, hears the truth about Goneril and Regan’s wicked and adulterous behaviour. Being exposed, Goneril kills herself,but not before poisoning Regan out of jealousy. The old King tries to rescue Cordelia but finds her hanged in prison. Broken-hearted and devastated, he dies with Cordelia in his arms. Madness of King Lear “O! that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that.” King Lear (III. IV. 21-22) The nature of madness is something very insubstantial and difficult to determine. One can, however, explore it in researching the way it manifests itself and the degree of realisation the individual has of their own madness. Lear's madness is both caused by and shown through a series of stupidities and mistakes that will greatly affect himself and those around him. The Madness of King Lear finds the spirit of the old King unable to rest after the tragic events of his life. Lost in his memories, his madness has taken control. We see Lear fight within to understand the actions of his three daughters and his dear Fool. The Fool – as Lear’s shamanic companion – shape shifts to help his master, but madness is a
Other than King Lear’s family, Edmund, Kent, and even a fool are all subjected to show the madness. Madness drives Edmund “the bastard” to cheat his father and discard Edgar. Kent is the most loyal character, but certainly is not a sane character either. Fool is actually the most intelligent character in this play, which makes him an abnormal character in the play. Alone of the tragedies, madness is the epicentre of King Lear. The climatic storm on the heath is also“this tempest in my mind”,to use the words of Lear himself (Act III Scene IV). Lear does not see his own absolutism,born of power and of age; rather, he externalises fault by projecting it to others - expressed in words seared onto our culture’s consciousness, uttered in Act I: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child !” (King Lear:Act I Scene IV) Although Lear does not understand the cause, he understands the consequence. At the end of Act I he exclaims: “O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!” (Act I Scene V) Thus he fights against his inner emotions. To the cold Regan he says in Act II: “You think I‟ll weep; No, I‟ll not weep: I have full cause of weeping, [Storm and tempest] but this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws Or ere I‟ll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!” (Act II Scene IV)
By Act III the storm fully breaks and so does Lear’s mind. After his famous storm speech “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks” Lear turns from nature to himself: “My wits begin to turn” (Act III Scene II) and then mixes the two of them: “When the mind’s free, The body’s delicate; the tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude !” (Act III Scene IV) Too late he sees the danger of recrimination: “O Regan, Goneril Your kind old father, whose frank heart gave all - O, that way madness lies: let me shun that: No more of that.” (Act III Scene IV) Pride, disgracefulness, willfulness, impotence, self-pity and moral blindness,haughtiness have exhausted him. Lear drowns in the madness
- characterised as always in Shakespeare by speech in prose. In one of Shakespeare’s great presentations, the King thereafter speaks jargon and the Court Fool speaks rational. Ultimately, a broken Lear makes up with his daughter Cordelia, who with her husband invades England from France. In the politics of the early seventeenth century in England, it would not have done for Catholic France successfully to invade Protestant England. Cordelia is defeated, and in the final Act, Lear comes on stage, his beloved Cordelia dead in his arms, and fluctuates between sanity and madness. Madness of Goneril and Regan
tragic flaw is when he intends to get rid of the burden of the kingdom and its responsibility and at the same has the authority to enjoy the courtly life.Lear tries to ensure that the kingdom after his death has no struggles. “Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom:” (Act I Scene I) Here, King Lear says he wants to divide his kingdom into three parts.Although the play is set in ancient Britain, Lear's division of the kingdom would have had some contemporary harmony. “[…] and tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death.” (Act I Scene I) When Lear declares his strange decision to divide his kingdom among his daughters,he says he's transferring the great burdens of kingship and responsibility to “younger strengths” (his daughters and sons-in-law) while Lear, an ageing king, “crawl[s] toward death.” In this passage, Lear conjures an image of a weak old man who cannot walk straight and upright and must "crawl" like an infant, which suggests that King Lear's retirement (and old age in general) are infantilizing - leaving one as weak and vulnerable as an infant. Lear's decision to relinquish his kingdom to “younger strengths” seems like a pretty poor choice. “Our son of Cornwall, And you, our no less loving son of Albany, We have this hour a constant will to publish Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy, Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn, And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters, (Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state) Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril, Our eldest-born, speak first.” (Act I Scene I) Lear, because of having no sons to inherit his crown after he dies, believes that dividing up his kingdom now (among his daughters and sons-in-law) will demolish any " future strife" that might come to happen if he dies without an heir. Although Lear says he's going to divide the kingdom into three equal parts, here, he makes an act of love test (based on who says they love Lear the most) to select who will get the largest share of his kingdom.
