Essay on Madness in King Lear: Act 4

Pride is one of the very many themes that plays a fundamental role throughout the play. Toward the start of the play Lear seems to be a vain and proud old king. Not so much violent, but not safe either. He wants the title of a king but does not want the responsibility that comes with it. His ignorance and pride prompts the distance of his only daughter who truly loved him, Cordelia (Lear 1.1.95) and the revelation that Regan and Goneril’s words were never genuine (Lear 1.1.70). Ignored by both Regan and Goneril, Lear turns against the storm and screams, “I am a man more sinned against than sinning” (Lear 3.2.56-57). Here, Lear still believes that he

Shakespeare's King Lear is a play which shows the consequences of one man's decisions. The audience follows the main character, Lear, as he makes decisions that disrupt order in his Kingdom. When Lear surrenders all his power and land to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him, the breakdown on order in evident. Lear's first mistake is to divide his Kingdom into three parts. A Kingdom is run best under one ruler as only one decision is made without contradiction. Another indication that order is disrupted is the separation of Lear's family. Lear's inability to control his anger causes him to banish his youngest daughter, Cordelia, and loyal servant, Kent. This foolish act causes Lear to become vulnerable to

Though King Lear, of Shakespeare's play, King Lear, wrongs both Cordelia and Kent in his harsh treatment against them, the unjust actions of Regan and Goneril against King Lear cause him to be "a man more sinned against than sinning" (3.2.60-61).

In this soliloquy, the audience gets its first glimpse of the character of Goneril. The full spectrum of her greed and selfishness will not be revealed until later, but this is certainly a good sample of her personality. Her profession of love is so large that it seems almost artificial, and it also seems motivated by the fact that possession of land is involved. Still, Lear seems immensely pleased by her statement, and requests a similar profession of love from his other daughter, Regan. She obliges, and in her declaration she tells her father that she loves him even more than Goneril does. Regan emerges from her

In the same way, both protagonists are mentally ill, and have psychological problems. This is evident throughout King Lear. King Lear foreshadows that he will develop psychological problems when he screams, “O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!/Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!” (King Lear 2.1.43-44). The Fool tells Lear that he should be wise because he

The example of Lear invoking the storm to destroy the seeds of matter along with many other absurd statements illustrates that he has an

At this point in the play, King Lear has completely lost his sanity and is yelling at his surroundings during a storm. Upon saying these words, he takes off all his clothes and declares himself free of the trappings of civilisation. The importance of this quote lies in the symbolism of nakedness. Nakedness is representative of many things, including insanity and loss of status. As stated before, Lear’s insanity is at its

Reacting with rage at this notion, Lear proceeds to beat his forehead with his fist in frustration: “O Lear, Lear, Lear!/Beat at this gate that let thy folly in/And thy dear judgement out!” (1.4.267-269). Lear believes that he is still the ruler, despite giving up his kingdom, and as such feels that Goneril should obey him. He obviously regrets his decision to give Goneril any power. Later, Regan and Goneril cause Lear further suffering by undermining their father’s sense of authority, without hesitation. They do this by severely diminishing the number of knights they will allow him to keep under his rule:

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 “hath ever but/ slenderly known himself.” (I, i, 282-283) This makes 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: “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 “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 most definitely unable to sympathize with him, and here we run into a potentially problematic issue. Aristotle believes that

In King Lear two of the older characters, King Lear and Gloucester, fight with their own sanity not only in the eyes of their hateful children but also from their own view. Lear says this very early on in the play in regards to his sanity “Oh, dear god, don’t let me go mad.” Even very early on in the play Lear foreshadows and maybe even feels his sanity starting to weaken. While Lear and Gloucester deal with issues with sanity their children are taking every vital power position not only in Britain but also in France. Goneril states this in regards to Lear’s credibility “Just because a senile man with poor judgment calls something an insult doesn’t necessarily mean it is one.” Goneril is trying to discredit her father and also gain dominance over him in one statement. As the story progresses the older characters

King Lear's View of Himself "King Lear" is a play all about the cruelty of human nature and the ways in which all people, "good" and "bad", can sin, or be sinned against. Lear is a very difficult character to categorise as either "good" or "bad" as he is both "sinned against" and "sinning". It is also very difficult to use these sins as a measure of his character as they a varying in severity. When we first meet Lear he is in the process of dividing his kingdom into three, preparing to hand it to his three daughters. This is a sin, as according to The Divine Right of Kings, each monarch is chosen by God, and is there fore answerable to none but him.

At the beginning of the play King Lear has more power than anyone else, the feeling of power made him think it was okay to ask his three daughters who loved him the most. When his youngest and favourite daughter Cordelia did not give him the answer he wanted by saying, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth/ I love your majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less” (King Lear 1.1.91-93). he started lashing out. Lear clearly values Goneril and Regan fawning over him over Cordelia’s sincere honesty. Out of pride and anger, Lear banishes Cordelia, as well as Kent for defending her. Lear splits the kingdom in half to Goneril and Regan which leads to the deaths of many people in the play. Throughout the play he becomes increasingly shocked when people do not obey him the way they did before and the lack of respect he receives. With his loss of power Lear often responds to these problems with anger saying things like “My curses on her!” (2.4.138). about his own daughter. By the end of the play he recognizes that he takes responsibility for both his own problems and for those of others. King Lear’s actions were the first step to the plays tragic outcome.

When he asks for her to proclaim her love to him she simply answers, “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty.” (1.1 1145). King Lear acted out maliciously because he did not have control of the situation so he banished the one daughter who would have truly loved him. When King Lear gives his kingdom to Goneril and Regan, it is the first instance of King Lear giving up some of his control, but also the first instance in his decline to insanity. King Lear soon loses all control when Goneril and Regan refuse to let him stay with them. “I gave you all…” (2.4 170) Lear says to both Regan and himself when he realizes he has nothing left. Not only does King Lear lose control of his kingdom and his daughters, but also his emotions, “You see me here, you gods, a poor old man’s full of grief as age, wretched in both. If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts against their father, fool me not so much to bear it tamely. Touch me with noble anger. And let not women’s weapons, water drops, tain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags.” (2.4 1179). In this quote, King Lear is beginning to act truly hysterical, and he compares his uncontrollable emotions to the emotions of a woman. In this scene, we begin to see the release of King Lear’s feminine counterpart through the power of the

The inevitability of death begins to settle into Lear, not enabling him to accept it, but to drive him towards the brink of insanity. We begin to see Lear view life as an existential concept that constricts his mental state. The painful surprise of mortality leads him to go insane and his anger turns into

King Lear is a character who displays a great deal of anger throughout the course of the play, he often allows his anger to take over him. A lot of things that are said and during the course of the play are due to Lear’s anger which is a leading factor for his insanity. Lear loses his temper during a love test when his daughter does not give the answer that he was looking for, he disowns her calling Cordelia his, “sometime daughter,” (1.1.119) and gives her share of the land to her sisters. This in turn leads to his insanity because in his blind rage he does not acknowledge the sincerity behind Cordelia’s veiled words; unlike her sisters she does not try to flatter her father in order to receive more land, whereas her sisters have their secrets agendas and do not truly love Lear. In addition to this, King Lear is also enraged when the Earl of Kent who is a loyal follower of Lear, goes against the banishment of Cordelia and speaks up in favour of the youngest daughter. Lear is livid with Kent going against him and banishes Kent, as well reminding him that, “if on the tenth day