Comparing The Fool In Shakespeare's 'King Lear And The Storm'

King Lear's fool is undoubtedly one of the wisest characters in the play. He is not only able to accurately analyze a situation which many other characters are blind to, but he is also able to foreshadow the actions of many characters and many other incidents to come. The main instruction the fool gives to the king is to beware of doing things that are unnatural, such as giving his inheritance, (splitting his kingdom among his daughters) to his daughters before he his dead. By doing this unnaturally, Lear must face many adverse consequences, such as losing his identity, self-worth, and respect from his daughters.

Lear's insanity increases throughout the play, demonstrated to the audience through more speeches, until his emotions overthrow his reason at the climax of the play. Lear randomly shouts in to the storm,

King Lear is understandably one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, it encompasses the journey through suffering and explores, in detail, the idea of justice. Each character in the play experience s one or the other throughout the progression of the plot, it is evident that through compositional features such as these, the play write is trying to convey this meaning. Through methods such as intense imagery, motifs, repetition of words and rhyming the play write has given intensity to certain passages, speeches and conversations. Shakespeare, through the use of character development, unravels the way in which humanity responds to injustice, the character relationships, specifically character foils, give rise to a number of notions

At the beginning of “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

The overarching theme that surrounds King Lear by William Shakespeare is justice to nearly all. The play opens in a royal “court,” but this court is unjust with wicked people such as King Lear, Goneril, Regan, Duke of Gloucester, Edmund, and numerous others. The justice does not come in this literal court, but the figurative court of nature. King Lear is reprimanded by two of his three daughters along with the natural storm that causes him to lose his mind, Goneril and Regan, whom are wicked are punished by death, Edmund is slaughtered by his brother, Gloucester is punished with the loss of his child, property, wealth, and eyes, and the retribution continues for nearly all the characters. While each player earns their punishment, the most deserving

Although he is meant to be the fool of the play, he is actually the wisest of them all. However his other personality, which is kept deep down until near the end of the play, is feisty and dark which is confirmed when he says,

In conclusion, the disappearance of the Fool from many productions diminishes both King Lear and Lear greatly. One sees the importance of the Fool to Lear early in the play. He plays the role of teacher, advisor and commentator. Also the Fool sheds light on Lear. One can see the mercy of Lear

Furthermore, King Lear suffers a loss of power which causes him to reveal his true nature when his powers as King and as a father are departed and he is able to see the innocence behind his daughter, Cordelia's, love for him. He is reunited with Cordelia and instantly compelled to beg for her forgiveness: "We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage./ When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down/ And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,/ And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh..." (5.3.9-12). This is unveils King Lear's truly humble and loving nature. In summary, because Cordelia, Gloucester and King Lear all suffer a loss of power in the play, their true natures are ultimately revealed.

The storm scene in King Lear is one of the most involving scenes the play. During this scene Shakespeare gives the storm as a personality and it echoes Lear’s inner confusion. It allows Lear to grow a sense of human weakness and humbleness. Brook’s interpretation of the storm scene remains consistent with his simple Shakespearean techniques. Wobble boards and symbols are used for thunder and

Later in the play, during the storm scene, Lear’s madness becomes even more apparent. The chaos created by the storm parallels the chaos that is within Lear’s mind. Late in Act 3, Lear himself speaks on the effect that the storm has on his mental state. The King proclaims, “Thou’dst meet the bear i’the mouth. When the mind’s free, / The body’s delicate: this tempest in my mind” (3.4.11-12). The chaos that arises from the mental decay of Lear parallels the chaos that arises from the storm. It can be inferred that the chaos created by the storm parallels the chaos within the King’s mind, and the fact that King Lear says “this tempest in my mind” while is standing in the tempest, which means storm, proves that this parallel exists. This also further proves that authority is more powerful that chaos because as Lear’s mind decays, chaos consumes him, and as the storm rages on, the chaos from the storm consumes the country of England. The authority that Lear used to represent has been diminished by his decreasing mental capacity in the same way that the stable conditions of the country has been destroyed by the chaos that the storm has created. In the middle of the sixth scene of Act 4, Lear’s madness in conjunction with nature becomes evident again. The stage directions read, “Enter LEAR mad [crowned with wild flowers]” (332). First, the brackets around “crowned with wild flowers”

First, the Fool’s loyalty to Lear drives Lear away from hopelessness, knowing that someone is always on his side. The Fool is loyal to Lear because he cares about Lear’s well-being even when Lear is delirious and because Lear depends upon the Fool’s service. As an illustration, when Lear is locked out in the rain by his daughter, the Fools comments, “O nuncle court holy water in the dry house is/ better than this rain outdoor,” (Shakespeare. III. II 13-14). This demonstrates that the Fool genuinely cares about Lear’s well-being, despite his idiocy of trusting his daughter. Additionally, in this scene, King Lear acts forlorn as his daughters left him out in the rain, and this proves that the Fool will be at his side even through his depression. Moreover, Lear allows the Fool to be loyal to him instead of pushing away his loyalty as he did with Cordelia; unlike Lear’s daughter, the Fool has a much lower standard to be held by. As stated by Viera de Jesus, “Unlike his [the Fool’s] fellows in other plays, he is nameless, with no more distinguishing badge of individuality than plain 'Fool.’” Therefore, Lear will always rely on his Fool to be his “King’s Fool” no matter how uncanny he acts because his label as Fool, which is a label for someone of a lower class, allows his actions to be justified. Therefore, the Fool supports Lear through his loyalty because he advises Lear to care for himself and because Lear entreats the Fool to stay on his side.

In addition, he strips himself to expose the true nature of man which he realizes as insignificant. It's as if he is intentionally trying to alienate himself. As if he views all mankind to be a foreign concept due to the irrational state of life. He curses, “You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!(III. ii. 32)” to defy the elements. We can't help but see Lear act against nature as if he is the storm itself. Moreover, he tries to justify his temper by mentioning that nothing can hurt him more than his daughters. Not even the elements can corrupt this poor, old man. We see the storm bring about awareness when Lear exclaims,“You sulfurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head!(III. ii. 33)” as if he begins to finally discover his true hair color which directly correlates with his age. I see that Lear is becoming aware of his age, but not willing to accept the anemic state of his body and mind. He intentionally makes note of his hair color, but the realization leaves him in a state of mental insanity soon to discover his impending death.

In Elizabethan times, fools were used as entertainment in royal courts, with a specific role to entertain the king. However, in “King Lear”, the fool plays a much more significant role than comedic relief, as he, ironically, is able to provide insight into human nature and draw correlations between the play and everyday life. This is most evident when he talks to King Lear about what he has done wrong or what he has overlooked.

Lear, likewise, is the victim of a tempest, also a turning point in the plot, as well as a powerful force in his own agonizing journey through growth and self-discovery. In a way, Lear's tempest is more significant in that it represents the Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, synthesis; out of Lear's agonizing conflict with nature and his subsequent madness comes a new and better man, a man cleansed, literally and figuratively, by the raging water of the storm. It is interesting to note the main difference between the roles played by Lear and Prospero in their respective interactions with the storm: Lear is the victim of the maelstrom, Prospero the creator. Each character is defined to a certain extent by this relationship to nature's wrath, one experiencing it as a kind of chastisement, the other utilizing it to further his own ends. Lear rages against the storm, shouting, "You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,/ Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,/ Singe my white head! And thou all-shaking thunder,/ Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th'world!" (III.II.4-7). Compare this with Miranda's request that "If by your art, my dearest father, you have/ Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them." (I.I.1-2).

Lear has been driven mad because of his own poor choices and decisions he has taken in his life. His blindness to Gonoril and Regan’s false flattery and his inability to see Cordelia’s real affection has led to his insanity. When he goes mad, the turmoil in his mind reflects the disorder that has descended upon his kingdom. However, his madness teaches him humility and provides him with important nuggets of wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity, stripped of all royal pretensions. There is a dramatic value in Lear's madness whose roots lie in his moral and spiritual defects, and the cure is his moral regeneration which has come late. Madness is a central theme in King Lear’s characters between the ones that act in an insane way that are the wisest, and the sane characters that act in a foolish and unreasonable way. Lear’s madness is real compared to Edgar’s which is feigned as Hamlet’s. Edgar who has been the victim of a brother’s treachery perfectly enacts the role of a fool in his