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Examples Of Disappearance In King Lear

Decent Essays

Character disappearance is such a mystery, it leaves cliff hangers yet it also creates theories. In the play King Lear, the fool acted as Lear's conscience, served as comic relief, and wisdom. Even though all of these traits are amazing the fool disappears. His disappearance is unclear because he states he will always stay by Lear. The disappearance of the fool shows he is useless now. The fool left because he became hopeless, cannot bear to see Lear as an actual fool and the fool cannot provide any wisdom anymore. The fool acted as Lear's conscience, he would let Lear decide what he wants to do then tell Lear what he did was right or wrong. A quote that shows this is "If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself."(Act 1, Scene …show more content…

He tries to prolong this because he does not want to see a great king turn into a mad fool. When Lear starts to realize what he has done to Cordelia was wrong, the fool tries to keep his spirits high by telling a joke. "Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?"(Act 1, Scene 5, line 23). This is supposed to be funny because the Fool has been shown to be very wise so far. Lear expects and actual answer from him but instead he replies with me neither which should catch Lear off guard and make him laugh. Comic relief is major in this play because if there wasn't any Lear would of turned insane quicker due to his mind always being stressed. Even though comic relief slows down Lear's descent into insanity it is bound to happen. The fool disappears in the end because he could not be able to bear seeing Lear like a mad fool. What makes him think this is when he experiences it firsthand, you can see by this quote, " It shall be done; I will arraign them straight. [To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; [To the Fool] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!"(Act 3, Scene 6 line 20-22). King Lear has finally gone mad and become a fool. You can see he is becoming a fool because he does this for comedy. You can also see he has become mad because he tries …show more content…

He gave the audience a little wisdom but he was mostly depicted as king Lear's old self. I say this because due to them having a role reversal, it should also mean the Lear was wise back in his day. A wise thing that the fool says is shown by this quote, "Lear's shadow"(Act 1, Scene 4, line 220). This is wise because he wants to remind Lear that he is not the powerful king still and that he is just a faded image of what King Lear use to be. He wants Lear to think about how much power he lost when he gave it all away. The fools wisdom is key to Lear because he teaches him lessons so he can become wise too. This is all washed away by his insanity. The fool disappears because he cannot provide wisdom to Lear anymore. In these quotes you can see the Fool is trying to teach Lear a lesson and share his wisdom but the king doesn't take him seriously and decides to say that himself is the madman. "Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a yeoman?"(Act 3, Scene 6, line 9-10) " A king, a king!"(Act 3, Scene 6, line 11)Due to Lear's senility, it would be useless to give him advice because he wouldn't remember or just wouldn't be

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