Lear, like all Kings and people who have power and money, are well known for their impatience and constant demands. If their expectations are not met or if they have been disenchanted, they will not hide or disguise their extreme disappointment, usually expressed in a hyperbole manner.
A good character example of this is King Lear. He is, as we all know; a powerful figure. His character is strong and has an affect on some of the other characters in the play. They like to tell him what he wants to hear, in order to get on his good side and please him. However, things do not remain this way due to the fact that he gave away all his land and so therefore his daughters hold the power over him now.
He thus remains in a situation which is unethical for a king and disobeys The Divine Right of Kings.
Within this piece of written work, I shall be analysing and examining Lears state of mind from a particular extract. I will pay close attention to the punctuation, language and above all, the dialogue that the two characters are sharing.
We, the audience are aware of Lears short temper and at times, unstable state of mind. This is made evident to us from his rash and imprudent decisions. For example, banishing his favourite daughter and giving away his land.
However, his erratic behaviour takes a completely new face when he is standing at the top of a heath in the middle of a violent storm with the Fool, whom he seldom seems to acknowledge is even there, proclaiming his anger to the Gods and the Heavens.
My first presentiment displaying Lears unstable state of mind is the scene and its attributes. if any normal person were to be caught in a storm, their first instinct would be to escape from it and find shelter. However, in Lears case, he has decided to go out and place himself where the storm will hit you at its strongest. He has gone up on a heath. Once he is there, he is urging the storm to get more violent and aggressive. Perhaps Shakespeare has done this as a way to explain to the audience that this is what it feels like to be Lear, and perhaps he is using the storm to mirror his own feelings and anger against the world and the people within it. The images of destruction reflect his mental state: rage, thunder, frustration, passion and also a type of punishment for humans.
Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!
In the above quote and also throughout most of Lears dialogue you will notice that his sentences are quite short and have exclamation marks. This suggests to us that he is shouting and blinding and not taking a pause to take a breath. This also demonstrates his anger. It is almost as if he is ridding himself of all his emotional problems by proclaiming them and that if he stops, they will never leave.
Crack natures moulds, an germans spill at once
That make ingrateful man!
The above quote also caught my attention and this I feel that this is also a good example presenting Lears mental collapse and his endless disappointment from his daughters. He is telling nature to crack break its pattern and to stop having children that later become ungrateful men. This quote tells the audience that he is still very much upset and angry by his daughters and their actions towards him. Another interesting factor was the fact that he does not see himself as a human. It is almost as if he is immortal of sort and he is above everybody else. He does not see himself as an ungrateful man. Another thing that shines through here is his self-pity. He feels sorry for himself.
Then the Fool talks to him and Lear is oblivious that he even spoke. it was almost as if Lear felt like he wasnt in this world, and that he was in his own world; a pit of betrayal, anger, self-pity and regret. The fact that he did not respond to the Fool perhaps implies that he is talking to someone, just not the Fool. He is addressing and pleading to the Gods, so is it possible that Lear, in his fragile and unstableness is seeing and talking to people or figures that are not even there? No sane person would go up to the top of a heath in the middle of a storm and begin ranting.
In the second part of Lears speech, he is encouraging the storm to become more powerful and vicious. It is almost as if he is feeding it.
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
Once again, the use of exclamation marks and short sentences indicate to us that at this stage, Lear is very worked up and enraged and anyone watching would feel rather frightened and scared.
It almost sounds as if he is befriending the storm and empathises with it in order to grant his pleads.
Throughout most of his second speech he is talking to the storm. That in itself sounds rather improper. He is also complimenting it by calling it an agent servile ministers.
To summarise the above, I think that it would not be inappropriate to say that due to his circumstances, Lear has gone mad. However, this scene could also be mistaken. Lears actions in this scene could simply be down to him releasing all his anger and seeing the situation as it really is.
I, for one am not that convinced that he is crazy. I do believe that he lost all that he had to his name, like his land, and he also lost all that he had to his heart; which was his daughters. Particularly Cordelia, who is not even aware of the situation because she was banished by Lear. I also think that on the heath that night, he had a moment of clarity and saw the chance to release his anger and start again. Although there is no doubt in the fact that the whole thing is rather worrying and startling, I think that anyone would go off on a tangent in that setting of a storm.
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