The Role and Function of the Fool in King Lear

The Fool is ironically different from his title. While the fool is commonly an idiot, Lear's fool seems to understand the political situation better that the king himself. His jokes and songs seem to be aimed at teaching Lear about the errors he has made rather than at making

-Ironically, Lear truly is the fool in this story, and even more ironically the Fool is one of the wisest characters.

One example of how the Fool’s speeches and actions reflect this attitude is when he calls Lear a fool and making clear that he should value Cordelia above Goneril and Regan, who are bad seeds. Also, when the Fool mocks Lear for giving away the kingdom to Goneril and Regan, and for leaving his one good daughter, Cordelia, out of the

Duplicity is a theme which dominates and defines the play King Lear. The rise of the Machiavellian Edmund and the fall of the eponymous tragic hero King Lear are both due to one major aspect of human nature, deception. The tragedy is set in motion by King Lear, who blinded by hubris, attempts to abdicate and retain power. His folly and hubris, allows him to deceive himself into believing the best way to divide the kingdom is to command his daughters to partake in a demeaning love test, where Goneril and Regan feed his ego with more acts of deceit. Edmund employs the same tactic of deception to manipulate his rise to power. He convinces his ‘blind’ father Gloucester into banishing his loyal son Edgar. Deception is also used for good in the play,

Then Lear has an insight into the nature of his own transgressions. His attainment of self-awareness is a step forward despite the consequences. Dismissing his feelings at the end of this episode highlights the Fool’s function the play. For the first time, he obtains empathy and considers someone else’s feelings and puts their comfort in mind before his own. By the end of Act II the prime external causes of Lear’s madness have brought about a change in Lear’s thoughts and beliefs concerning man, the universe, a change in thought that is both a cause and a reinforcement of his

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

Oftentimes when humans reach a certain hardship in their lives, they become confined within themselves. They begin to seek solitude and push away other people who are willing to assist them. As a result, they lose sight of the significant aspects that surround them. In the tragic drama King Lear, Shakespeare’s main character, Lear, faced many difficulties, mainly because he was burdened with a major flaw that obscured his ability to recognize the truth. Fortunately, Lear had an ally nearby: his fool, who offered him undivided guidance while continuing to confront his struggles.

Both Lear and Riggan are arrogant, egotistical and ultimately ignorant to the surrounding world. Iñárritu and Shakespeare utilise the dialogue of other characters towards the protagonists, in albeit different ways, to show this. Shakespeare utilises the Fool to provide commentary for the audience. In the court of the king, the Fool’s role was to provide entertainment through comedy, but Shakespeare portrays him as the only character telling Lear the truth and thus this is an example of dramatic irony. Through his anecdotes and commentary, the Fool reveals to Lear the truth, but in his ignorance the king does not acknowledge this. Iñárritu demonstrates this through the audial and visual manifestation of Riggan’s younger self. While Shakespeare uses the Fool to tell Lear and the audience the truth, Riggan’s subconscious furthers his disconnection from reality and self-absorption. Additionally, Shakespeare uses eyes as a motif to emphasise this fatal blindness, attributed to age. The plucking out of Gloucester’s eyes is also a direct link to this. Lear’s crown is also used as a symbol of Lear’s poor judgement; by splitting the kingdom between his daughters, Lear “clovest his crown i’ th’ middle”, which ultimately lead to the tragic consequences at the end of the play. Iñárritu explores a similar idea of a limited view of the world through

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.

“Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a

Although the fool being brutally honest may not be that nice to Lear at least he is helping Lear realize the choices he made were wrong. I found the question about why the fool disappears very interesting and after thinking about it came to the conclusion that by the time he disappeared Lear has realized his mistakes and now just needs to act to fix those mistakes, shifting all the responsibility now to Lear.

Comedy holds a very special place in the world of tragedy. Although, comedy can be seen as inappropriate at times, it is a crucial aspect of furthering both a storyline and characterization. In both the film Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa and the play King Lear, written by Shakespeare, there seems to be an endless void of senseless violence and betrayal. Both the play and the movie display dark knotting of familial ties and sad decaying of sanity, there is very little light heartedness in the situations. Ran features the aging Lord Hidetora’s futile attempt at peacefully dividing his kingdom among his sons, and living out the rest of his days in retirement.

When the audience is first introduced to Lear, they see a pompous king, who craves, and demands praises of love and admiration from his three daughters. After a few scenes, he is portrayed as a rash, impulsive old man, who “hat ever but slenderly known himself” (King Lear, 1.1, 294-295), fully exposing his flaws. However, through the course of the play, he grows into a caring and humble man, which is first showed, before he and the fool found refuge in a “hovel” (King Lear, 3.2, 61) from the storm, and Lear speaks to the Fool asking him “ How dost, my boy? Art cold?” (King Lear, 3.2, 68), showing the drastic change of his character from previous encounter, making him stronger though, he lost everything.

“King Lear” is known as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. “King Lear” is a play which tears off the outer coverings of human character. Two prominent themes that can be found in “King Lear” are disguise and deception. Disguise and deception are connected to each other because if you put on a disguise, you are masking yourself. If you are masking yourself, you are misrepresenting the truth, which is also known as deception. The characters constantly deceive each other throughout the play by either changing their physical appearance or changing their personality to mask their true identities and motives. Shakespeare’s exposure of the connection between disguise and deception reflects today’s culture and is still relevant today.

The most prevailing images in King Lear are the images (metaphoric and actual) of nature. The concept of nature seems to consume the dialogue, monologues, and setting.