Insanity and the Necessity of Madness in King Lear Essay

The Necessity of Madness in King Lear At the beginning of â€Å"King Lear,† an authoritative and willful protagonist dominates his court, making a fateful decision by rewarding his two treacherous daughters and banishing his faithful one in an effort to preserve his own pride. However, it becomes evident during the course of the tragedy that this protagonist, Lear, uses his power only as a means of projecting a persona, which he hides behind as he struggles to maintain confidence in himself. This poses a problem, since the audience is prevented from feeling sympathy for the king. Shakespeare’s ironic solution is to allow Lear’s progressing madness to be paired with his recognition of truth, thereby forcing Lear to shed his persona, and†¦show more content†¦In working so hard to project this persona, Lear is untrue to himself, and loses sight of who he is. Even the scheming Goneril and Regan notice that their father â€Å"hath ever but/ slenderly known himself.† (I, i, 282-283) This ma kes Lear a very insecure person, which explains in part why he insists that his daughters stroke his ego before receiving any of his kingdom. His identity crisis is highlighted when he asks who can verify who he is, and the response by the Fool is: â€Å"Lear’s shadow.† (I, iv, 251) At this point in the play, Lear is sane and is still the monarch of the kingdom. Nevertheless, the Fool’s insightful comment insists that Lear is nothing more than a shadow of his true self. Plato would say that he is trapped in the shadow world of the cave, unable to grasp the true forms.[5] This self-imposed persona estranges Lear from his audience; his vulnerability as a human is masked by his rash behavior and unjust decisions. Bloom says that â€Å"before he goes mad, Lear’s consciousness is beyond ready understanding; his lack of self-knowledge, blended with his awesome authority, makes him unknowable by us.†[6] Without understanding a character, an audience is mo st definitely unable to sympathize with him, and here we run into a potentially problematic issue. Aristotle believes thatShow MoreRelatedClear Vision in Shakespeares King Lear Essay1821 Words   |  8 PagesSeeing Clearly in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  King Lear of Britain, the protagonist in Shakespeares tragic play of the same name undergoes radical change as a man, father and king as he is forced to bear the repercussions of his actions. Lear is initially portrayed as being an egotistical ruler, relying on protestations of love from his daughters to apportion his kingdom. Lears tragic flaw is the division of his kingdom and his inability to see the true natures of people because of his pride while hisRead More Madness and Insanity in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay3091 Words   |  13 PagesHamlet and Insanity      Ã‚  Ã‚   William Shakespeare’s creation of the character of Hamlet within the tragedy of that name left open the question of whether the madness of the protagonist is entirely feigned or not. This essay will treat this aspect of the drama.    George Lyman Kittredge in the Introduction to The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, explains the lack of success with Hamlet’s pretended insanity, and in so doing he implies that the madness is entirely feigned and not real:Read MoreExistentialism : What s It All About And Who Cares?3875 Words   |  16 Pagesfilms of director Bernardo Bertolucci (such as â€Å"Before the Revolution† of 1964); and psychiatrist R D Laing (1927 – 1989) defines psychosis and schizophrenia in Existential terms. Shakespeare’s (1564 – 1616) drama (particularly in â€Å"Hamlet† and â€Å"King Lear,† for instance), is profoundly Existential. The nature of Existentialism: In this introduction we’ll consider the â€Å"mainstream† Existentialism espoused in particular by Sartre. This is categorized as â€Å"anti-idealist† (there is a â€Å"real world† out there