Identity in King Lear

Joshua Mellinger
English 3100
10/29/06

Questioned Identity in King Lear

"Shakespeare 's plays are written from a male perspective and depict predominantly conflicts of masculine identity." (Rudnytsky 2) Throughout Shakespeare 's King Lear, the issue of identity is touched on repeatedly with Gloucester 's fall from power, Edmund 's snatching of it, and Lear 's violent fall from benevolent king to brutish castaway. Lear and Gloucester 's sanity is crushed, their sovereignty completely stripped, sense of fatherhood scrambled, and their masculinity questioned. Edgar also goes through a change in identity, although voluntary, when he chooses to become Tom to hide from Gloucester. Edmund, the bastard son, also has his own conflicts over his legitimacy and the identity it forces him into -- and what he is going to have to do to pull himself out of the hole Gloucester has dug for him. Shakespeare illustrates how these men question their identity and what that doubt puts them through, or in Edmunds case, drives him to do. When Goneril states to Regan that, "You see how full of changes his age is; the observation we have made of it hath not been little," (1. 1.) it is assumed that Lear was once a sane, and at least somewhat competent monarch. His senility, while seemingly unknown to Lear, affects how other characters in the play identify him. Goneril and Regan clearly have lost respect for him as he has aged, and because they have no respect for him, they have no qualms about completely betraying him. Because their wives view Lear as less, Albany and Cornwall also seem to have less respect for Lear due to the onset of his senility, but perhaps not to the extent of Goneril and Regan. While Lear seeks to relieve himself of the burdens of rule due to his old age, he wishes to retain, "The name, and all the additions to a king; the sway, [and] revenue," (1. 1.) of being monarch. This leads the reader to believe that, to some extent, Lear himself understands that he is losing some piece of himself as he ages, although he does not feel he is losing any amount of mental acuity. This change in self is the only one that Lear understands is happening to him, and even then, he still feels he is still capable of a "dragon 's wrath" (1. 1.) when Cordelia refuses to indulge in his self-inflating wants. However, after being rejected by both Goneril and Regan, Lear understands that he is at last, "A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man." (2.4.) Lear 's masculine identity is also questioned by himself during his outburst on the stormy heath. In his vicious outburst against the storm he shouts, "O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow, thy element 's below!" (2.4.) The "mother" swelling towards his heart is both a metaphor for the tears welling up inside him, as well as a uterus. Lear feels he is becoming too feminine, that Goneril and Regan in their witch-like ways have not only made him weak and tearful, they have also made him so emotionally feminine that he must now also have female reproductive organs. When Regan tells Lear he no longer gets to keep any of his nights he says "Touche me with Noble anger, And let not women 's weapons, water drops, Staine my mans cheekes." (2.4.278-80) implying that to cry would be to use a woman 's "tactics" and begs himself to not allow tears to flow. The tears are what Lear seems to fear the most, but he also seems to feel that the simple fact that he is being so emotional is also wasting his masculinity away to nothing. His demeanor, if not at least composed, was only compromised when he was fuming at Cordelia; the presence of screaming and crying at nothing is foreign to Lear and it makes him scared. Lear is so "femininely" emotional that he is frightened of his new feelings, and the thought of being frightened is frightening – a downward spiral for Lear.
Gloucester also has a feminine identity crisis, although Gloucester goes through a metaphorical feminizing according to Peter Rudnytsky. In the final scene Edgar states that, "And in this habit, met I my father with his bleeding rings, their precious stones new lost." (5. 3. 188-90) Rudnytsky claims that the word "stones" serves as a metaphor for both Gloucester 's eyes, as well as testicles. Cornwall 's blinding is not just a vicious punishment; it is also a metaphorical castration. At that point in that play Gloucester has lost everything, including his lordship, castle, and sons – even his masculinity. The metaphor of Gloucester 's feminization is further emphasized in the final scene when Edgar states, "The darke and vicious place where thee he got, cost him his eyes." (5. 3. 172-73) The "darke and vicious place" works both as the womb Edmund came from, but also as the bleeding holes that replaced Gloucester 's eyes. Not only does Gloucester lose some amount of his masculinity with the act of being blinded, he also becomes a less powerful force being blind, having to ask for help from Tom of Bedlam. His ability to be a strong and independent man is questioned so much that he must ask for help simply to find a cliff to jump off so he can commit suicide. Blindness as a metaphor for emasculation is also used for Lear. Lear asks, "Do 's any heere know me? This is not Lear. Where are his eies?" as well as "Who are you? Mine eyes are not o 'th 'best." (5. 3. 278-79) Much like Gloucester, Lear 's blindness causes fear within him, and that fear works on Lear 's mind, making him feel less and less masculine, but as Lear 's eyesight degeneration is due to his age, it works in a second way for him, affecting how he perceives his age. The loss of eyesight means that not only is Lear not a young man anymore, he is an elderly old man, which, at the beginning of the play he had not accepted. Lear 's repeated suggestion that his eyes are defective works as a connection between the parallel paths of Lear and Gloucester and how both of them have their masculinity "plucked" from them. Edgar 's identity change is different from that of Lear and Gloucester 's in that he is cognizant of what changes he is going through, why they are happening, or why he has chosen the change. When Edgar "becomes" Tom of Bedlam he does it because he has to go in hiding, but he chooses to take on the identity of someone who is crazy.
Bibliography
RUDNYTSKY, PETER L. ""The Darke and Vicious Place": The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear." Modern Philology 96.3 (Feb 1999): 291(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. Auraria Library. 29 Oct. 2006
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NEELY, CAROL THOMAS. Distracted Subjects: Madness and Gender in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture. New York. Cornell University Press. 2004. WINSTANLEY, LILIAN. Macbeth, King Lear & Contemporary History. New York. Octagon Books. 1970.
CRAIG, LEON HAROLD. Of Philosophers and Kings: Political Philosophy in Shakespeare 's Macbeth and King Lear. New York. University of Toronto Press. 2001

Bibliography: RUDNYTSKY, PETER L. ""The Darke and Vicious Place": The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear." Modern Philology 96.3 (Feb 1999): 291(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. Auraria Library. 29 Oct. 2006 . NEELY, CAROL THOMAS. Distracted Subjects: Madness and Gender in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture. New York. Cornell University Press. 2004. WINSTANLEY, LILIAN. Macbeth, King Lear & Contemporary History. New York. Octagon Books. 1970. CRAIG, LEON HAROLD. Of Philosophers and Kings: Political Philosophy in Shakespeare 's Macbeth and King Lear. New York. University of Toronto Press. 2001