Madness/suffering

• What can we tell from the end of Act 1, Scene 1 about Lear's character?

  • old man spoiled by a lifetime of power
  • perhaps was once a great King (suggested by Kent's loyalty) but flattered by rich language of court & exaggerated pretence of respect, he now seems unable to judge people round him clearly - gives way to irrational & violent rage & making hasty-ill considered decisions
  • has isolated himself emotionally by rejecting Cordelia - only daughter that truly loves him
• 'I'll resume the shape' (of kingship) - Lear (1.4)


  • still thinking of himself as King when he has given up power & his daughters are the ones who wield power & authority (reversal of order)
  • establishes his delusion - inevitably lead to tragic breakdown & suffering
• • The first Act ends with Lear beginning to experience the consequences of his terrible error of judgement in the first scene and his continued violent passions (e.g. his extreme curses of Goneril)
  • Lear brings himself into conflict with those nearest to him in an ill-considered, arrogant way, and reveals a terrible lack of self-knowledge
• takes 'the basest and most poorest shape' 'Bedlam beggars' - Edgar soliloquy (2.3)


  • Edgar disguises himself, pretending to be mad - thinks if he can act made he won't be classed as human
  • raises question whether extreme suffering makes us less human
  • image of a mad man echoes chaotic world unleashed by protagonist's error of judgment & the rise of tragic villains
  • Edgar's determination to survive leads to status at end of play where he is a survivor of tragedy & a witness to the immense suffering of his father & Lear
• 'You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!' - Lear (2.4)


  • sympathy for Lear, has been betrayed by daughters
  • breaks down under his grief
  • sense of helplessness
  • believes universe controlled by Gods - belief in divine justice - however actions so far have been controlled by his action to divide kingdom & by R & G's deception - appealing to Gods pointless?
• 'Man's life is cheap as beast's' - Lear (2.4)


  • Goneril & Regan, in stripping Lear of his knights (symbol of power), are reducing him to the level of an animal
  • knights are what makes him & shapes his identity - what makes him human as without he is an animal
  • loss of identity is driving him mad, despite attempt in this passage to assert authority, he finds himself powerless & all he can do is vent in rage
• 'Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once / That make ingrateful man!' - Lear (3.2)


  • cries out for the destruction of ungrateful
  • wants nature to destroy itself thus destroying molds that nature uses to create men
  • displays Lears sense of hopelessness - ungratefulness of daughters has left him so despondent that he approaches a belief in nothing - having nothing is better than suffering as result of daughters - theme of nothingness - proleptic of void of nothing Lear is left with at his death
• The storm is a symbol of Lear's emotional & psychological conflict & destruction. The tyranny of the storm breaks down Lear's tyranny and magnifies his suffering - consequence of errors
• 'this tempest in my mind/ Doth from my senses take all feeling else' - Lear (3.4) (storm)


  • suffering is so great it has removed all feeling in his body - feels nothing
  • sense of numbness creates sense of storm being all in his mind - so overwhelmed by his mental suffering that physical discomfort of storm is immaterial - losing control of mind
  • link storm inside vs storm outside
• 'I will arraign them straight' - Lear (3.6)


  • mock trial
  • monarch who is mad trying people who aren't actually there - not actually able to try them yet still using legal language
  • mad judges/ absent daughters - disorder of way justice works
  • monarch is meant to be source of justice yet his madness & inability to see straight makes justice impossible
  • L searching for motive/ reason for daughter's actions - attempting to gain grasp of truth to restore sanity but ultimately still blind to true source: his mistakes
• 'the little dogs' 'they bark at me' - Lear (3.6)


  • depth of tragic suffering as he seems to be hallucinating & seeing people as animals
  • perhaps morphed daughters into dogs - shifted view of daughters as animals completely mad
  • pathos of his language - sympathy for his suffering
• 'When we our betters see bearing our woes,/ We scarcely think our miseries our foes' - Edgar (3.6) 


  • reminds us of who Edg truly is & reflects on mental suffering which has driven king mad
  • Edgar feels comforted as L who is above him in rank suffers also
  • when we are alone we suffer most - L's isolation worsens his suffering - Edgar recognises how L sufers in his mind & sympathises with him - Edg's compassion contrasts w ruthlessness of brother - inc respect for Edg
• 'Distribution should undo excess' - Gloucester (4.1)


  • like Lear his suffering allows him to recognise the suffering of others - considers poor & disadvantaged
  • if get rid of excess & give to those w nothing you will be rewarded - sense of need for equality & rejection of heirarchal system
• 'Away and let me die' - Gloucester (4.6)


  • At start of scene, before he falls Gloucester wants to die & doesn't listen to Edgar's (as Poor Tom) attempt to make him accept his misfortunes & wait for death not actively seek it - won't accept life is a 'miracle' as Edgar claims
  • has quarreled w Gods for justice for long enough
  • cannot bear to put up with life & suffer any longer
• 'Down from the waist they are Centaurs, though women all above' - Lear (4.6) 


  • prose - increasingly mad - mad ranting
  • shaming & criticising women - presents them as monstrous creatures
• 'O thou side-piercing sight!' - Edgar (4.6)


  • heart-rending image alluding to crucifixion of the innocent Christ who side was pierced
  • thus sense that old man's punishment is out of all proportion to his original error of judgement
• 'We are not the first/Who with best meaning have incurred the worst' - Cordelia (5.3)


  • connects her & Lear's experience to a universal human condition - many others have suffered despite their virtuous intentions - link to L's realisation of other's suffering
  • recognition of tragic outcome & sense of acceptance of their fate - they are now at mercy of forces beyond their control
  • identifies sense of unjust nature of the world
  • poignant - shows Cordelia's resilience - also evokes sympathy for C & L
• 'Howl, howl, howl, howl' 'O, o, o, o' - Lear (5.3) 


  • screams of huge sorrow - painful - sense of regret
  • inarticulate cries of sorrow
  • 'O' represent zeros/ lack of words - link to theme of nothingness - L confronted w a void - sense of emptiness where all meaning & purpose seem to dissolve into nothingness - link to question surrounding human existence
  • L's inability to understand Cordelia's meaning of 'nothing' in 1.1 sets in motion series of events that lead to feeling of nothingness at end of play
• Look, at her lips,/ Look there, look there!' - Lear (5.3) 


  • before Lear dies he seems to think for a moment that Cordelia is still breathing
  • dies deluded in joy - to be joyful is to be deluded
  • question whether death is redeeming - is it better to die believing one he loves most is ok?
  • ongoing struggle to perceive reality - struggle leads to demise
  • Lear's refusal to accept Cordelia is dead makes his death even more poignant
• 'The oldest hath borne most; we that are young shall never see so much, nor live so young' - Edgar (5.3)


  • final lines of play
  • old have made mistakes & suffered the most - Edg acknowledges that what he (& the young) have been through can't begin to compare w what L & Gl have suffered - they have seen more & seen more deeply than those who survive them can comprehend - in doing that they have transcended their time & thus lived far longer
  • shows life can go on despite how awful it has been - 'young' have learnt from mistakes & won't repeat them