Lear And His Fool example essay topic

... ve forms. Ironically, the fool and the king begin to swap places. Fool has always been quick to grant Lear helpful understanding of his decisions; this establishes the question of which of the two is now the real fool. Lear asks, 'Dost thou call me a fool, boy?' to which Fool replies, 'All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with'.

The 'king has been openly debased to the level of the fool' (Willeford 218) In the brief scene five, the fool attempts to distract Lear with silly remarks, but as per usual, their content ironically mirrors Lear's actions. He continues to remind the king of the mistakes he has made and of the precarious position in which he now finds himself. Lear feels great remorse for his treatment of Cordelia and for the first time - a premonition - a concern for his sanity: Lear: O let me not be mad, not mad sweet heaven: Keep me in temper, I would not be mad. The fool's parting comment shows once again his loyalty, as well as offering a lighter end to an otherwise heavy scene. He warns those virgins in the audience who found the situation amusing that they are imbeciles and - making the audience laugh - won't remain virgins unless penises are cut shorter: Fool: She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure, Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter. In act three scene one, Kent learns that Lear and his Fool are out in the storm.

The audience also learns that the fool is to share his master's fate - whatever that may be. In the fool's previous appearances, his primary function was to inform. He pointed out Lear's mistakes and commented on the action and events of the play to the audience. Fool's new job becomes evident in this act, his purpose is to protect Lear from the elements, enemies, and perhaps most importantly, himself.

Scene two is when Lear begins to realize his sanity is slipping, but for the first time too, he shows unselfish concern: Lear: My wits begin to turn. Come on my boy. How dost my boy? Art cold? This is a key moment in the development of Lear's character and it is significant that the fool is the recipient of his new found generosity of spirit; it introduces a new role for the fool, that of a facilitator in Lear's voyage of self-discovery. The fool tries to make light of the situation, for Lear's sake, singing that one should be satisfied with what one has: Fool: He that has and a little, tiny wit, With high-ho, the wind and the rain, Must make content with his fortunes fit, Though the rain it rain eth every day.

The fool finishes his song and as Lear exists the stage, he turns to the audience to proclaim his prophecy: Fool: ... When priests are more in word, than matter; When brewers mar their malt with water; When nobles are their tailors' tutors, No heretics burn'd, but wenches's ui tors; When in every case in Law, is right... His speech contrasts the reality of the world which Lear and himself are experiencing - where religion is hypocrisy, business is crooked, aristocrats are vain, venereal disease is rife and the judicial system is corrupt - to an ideal world where good conquers evil. The challenge for Lear is to recognize that the highest wisdom often comes in the humblest of forms.

The fool represents this humble form of wisdom exactly. With the arrival of Edgar disguised as Poor Tom - who may be read as a three dimensional representation of the king's downfall (Lear repeatedly articulates Poor Tom's plight in terms of his own) - the fool becomes fearful and exclaims: Fool: Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit, help me, help me. A spirit, a spirit, he says his name's Poor Tom The king is joined in his real madness by Edgar's feigned insanity and mirrored with Poor Tom's poverty as he is now stripped of all royal pretensions; he inadvertently gains wisdom by being reduced to his bare humanity. Indeed, Lear reaches the peak of his insanity in this act, and carries forth a mock trial of Regan and Goneril in act three scene six. This is possibly the most chaotic of all Shakespeare's scenes - onstage we physically see Lear, who is now utterly mad, Edgar who is disguised and likely to be mad, Kent in disguise and Fool who speaks as a madman - Regan and Goneril are arraigned but then, within Lear's diseased imagination, they escape, demonstrating that reality punctures even this, the most surreal of Lear's fantasies to date. The fool's departure from the play at the crest of Lear's madness may suggest that he is now superfluous in the context of a kingdom in which the king is a deranged lunatic.

Lear has so many unanswered questions in this scene, he hasn't fully understood why all this has happened to him. If he can find the truth as to why his daughters treated him so cruelly, perhaps he will be able to regain sanity. The king appoints his fool as one of the judges of the trial, where he implores the judges to 'anatomize Regan: see what breeds about her heart. ' Lear's words are so cold and angry that even Fool is unable to make any comment.

The Fool never reappears after this scene. The world has been turned upside-down, his master has now slipped into absolute madness and is beyond the fool's help. He no longer serves a purpose to the king, and predicts both his, and - as he has shared his fate to this point - Lear's death with his final line in the play: Fool: And I'll go to bed at noon. It is never clear whether the fool actually dies, but the lines spoken of Cordelia's death: Lear: And my poor fool is hang'd: no, no, no life? Once again parallel Cordelia with the fool. It would be impossible to label all the roles that Fool plays to his king.

His only assigned brief - an entertainer of the court - is most likely the fool's least important. Fool acted far more importantly than a mere source of entertainment, being Lear's informative protector and friend. By far his most significant role was that of a moral instructor to his king. Fool teaches Lear that humans are unable to know themselves completely.

Bibliography

Shakespeare, William, King Lear (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1972) Willeford, William, The Fool and His Scepter: A Study in Clowns and Jesters and Their Audience (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1969).