Preview

The Role and Function of the Fool in King Lear

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3015 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Role and Function of the Fool in King Lear
Explore the role and function of ‘The Fool' in ‘King Lear'

The Fool in ‘King Lear' is a William Shakespeare creation. Shakespeare has the ability to reveal a human character with an exceptional use of language. He allows us to see more than just words on the paper; we're given a multi dimensional insight into a character. Usually his characters aren't as straight-forward as black or white, they are invariably more complex. Edmund for example, it's easy to present him as the villain but Shakespeare also shows us a sorry side to him as he attempts an apology before he dies. Shakespeare has given us concrete images of things that are inexpressible, such as love. To articulate a multi- faceted view of a person and present it concisely with words is certainly a gift. The Fool himself is one of these characters; he is not simply there to serve one purpose, but to serve many. He acts as Lear's conscience and trusted guide, yet he is also a critic of Lear, a truth teller. In effect this makes a true friend, however some believe it was the Fool's constant remarks that drove Lear to madness. Some critics argue that The Fool actually is Cordelia or a representative of her. Others consider him to be an aspect of Lear's alter ego. Technically Shakespeare seems to use the Fool as a vehicle for pity or as a dramatic chorus. The Fools songs, riddles and jokes are a source of comic relief, used to break up the intensity of scenes. The Fool appears to have a deceptively simple part in the play when in actual fact his role is of key significance. The Fool and Lear have a fascinating relationship throughout the play. Lear seems to depend on his Fool increasingly to be his voice of reason or his conscience, because he reminds Lear of all his mistakes and manipulates his feelings into realising them. This is a great irony as the king who is supposed to be wise is in-fact a fool, yet the Fool himself is full of wisdom. The Fool's character is a tool Shakespeare has used to help us



Bibliography: www.rsc.org.uk www.123helpme.com www.cliffsnotes.com York notes And casey 's brain

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    At the beginning of the play, Lear was a selfish man. Power was very important to him. Suffering turned Lear from a selfish man wanted to be treated as a king without having the responsibilities that come with running a kingdom, to a man that comes to realize his morals and values. Lear gave away his kingdom to Gonerial and Regan but still wanted the same status and power of king. Lear gained wisdom through his mistakes of banishing his youngest daughter, Cordelia. Lear comes to the realization of his foolishness in act three. For instance, “Let thunder rumble! Let lightning spit fire! The rain, the wind, the thunder and lightning are not my daughters. Nature, I don’t accuse your weather of unkindness. I never gave a kingdom or raised you as my child, and you don’t owe me any obedience." Here King Lear is coming to terms of his mistake of giving away his kingdom to the wrong people. He then goes on "So go ahead and have your terrifying fun. Here I am, your slave a poor, sick, weak, hated, old man. But I can still accuse you of kowtowing, taking my daughter’s side, against me, ancient as I am. Oh, it’s foul!” In this scene Lear is in the storm with Kent and the fool. In this act the king is turning from an arrogant man to a noble man. It takes king Lear a complete breakdown to realize his mistake.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    King Lear then begins to once more lose his sanity. In this scene the reads can see how Lear’s judgment and perception are affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Having recovered his sense with the fool and Kent just moments earlier King Lear loses them just as fast as he regain them. Kent advises Lear to go inside the temporary shelter they found to which Lear responds with a speech about how this storm is nothing compared to his emotional pain; “When the mind’s free, / the body’s delicate. The tempest in my mind / doth from my senses take all feeling else. Save what beats there—filial ingratitude” (III.iv.11-14). The reader is now becoming aware that the loss of Cordelia and the reality that his two other daughters do not love him as much as they had said. Someone who suffers from Alzheimer’s are prone to depression, which can be the reason to Lear’s emotional suffering in this scene…

    • 2139 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    King Lear Notes

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The fool in King Lear, though always joking around proved to have great wisdom behind his usual jesting personality…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I find it quite ironic how Gloucester finally ‘sees’ and understands his world until he loses his vision. I believe Shakespeare most likely did this to create tension. As a reader, I find it truly amazing how Shakespeare made Gloucester ‘mentally’ blind by not realizing his son’s loyalties by then making him physically blind and making him ‘see,’ ironically, how Edmund had deceived him. I also found it quite ironic how King Lear decides to divide the land between Goneril and Regan and refuses to share the land with the only daughter who truly loves him, Cordelia. I believe King Lear let his pride get to him by not thinking about the consequences. It is safe to say the theme of this play is the inability to see things for what they are. As the story progresses the reader gets to see how King Lear’s stubbornness gets him absolutely nowhere. He had no reason to accuse Cordelia for being ‘unfaithful’. After all, she was the only one who truly loved him. It is also ironic how King Lear banished Kent, his most loyal servant for saying things for what they were for. As a good ‘friend’ Kent decided to let Lear know that what he did was wrong and unnecessary. Because of this Lear’s pride was hurt and this caused him to make irrational…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In King Lear virtually every character is either a fool or a knave; however these terms contain multiple layers. The crucial scene in which this idea is presented in the play is act 2 scene 4 when the Fool talks to Kent after he has been put in the stocks, and more specifically his line “The knave turns fool that runs away;/ The fool no knave, perdy.” On one level the Fool is mocking Kent for his loyalty towards Lear despite the fact that Lear’s fortunes have disintegrated, and seems to imply that a clever knave would grab the “great wheel” that is Lear, when his fortunes are up and drop him when they are down. Yet, the Fool also says that a self-interested knave “who serves and seeks for gain” abandons his friends while the virtuous fool will “tarry” and “stay”. Elizabethan England was a very hierarchical society that demanded absolute deference be paid to the wealthy and the powerful, however King Lear demonstrates how fragile this society actually was; parents and noblemen were vulnerable to the depredations of the unscrupulous younger generation. In this way Shakespeare divides society within the play and allows the viewer to make a moral decision as to whose side they choose. Aristotle believed that the very nature of ‘tragedy’ has a cathartic effect on the viewer, purging him of negative emotion, but there is also a sense that this genre of play forces us to choose some characters over others, and Shakespeare depicts the fools in the play, both honest and loyal and willing to weather out the storm with those who are suffering, as the positive characters we sympathise with and ‘choose’ above the clearly selfish knaves.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Play writers and authors commonly use blindness to symbolize ignorance or the refusal to see the truth, and Shakespeare was no exception. In King Lear, Shakespeare brilliantly uses the blindness of characters to symbolize ignorance. In the play, there are two main characters among the main plot and the subplot; Gloucester and King Lear. Both Gloucester and Lear lead troubling lives, one is a narcissistic king, and the other a bad father, which blinds them to the truth because they somewhat neglect the feelings of others. Eventually, their children simultaneously think of plans to betray their fathers; Lear’s daughters, Regan and Goneril, hope to kick him out of his kingdom and Gloucester’s son, Edmund, attempts to trick him into killing his…

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The character of King Lear possesses the fatal flaw of hubris. He is arrogant, self-absorbed, an imperious king who is unbelievably unrealistic. Especially in the division of his kingdom, his title always came first and he had little or no understanding of what it meant to be a father or to love as can be seen in Act One nothing will come of nothing. Speak again. Hence Lears suffering from Act Three onwards is a large part of his journey…

    • 1443 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Later on, the Fool shows regret for Lear's reduced status. Lear then becomes angry and declares he will go to Regan's castle instead assuming she would welcome him. Lear attacks Gonerill's ingratitude and defends his followers' honour. After this, in rage, Lear curses Gonerill with no children and if she did have children, they would be disobedient and unloving.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Shakespeare's King Lear, the Fool is a source of chaos and disruption in King Lear's tumultuous life. The Fool causes the King distress by insulting him, making light of his problems, and telling him the truth. On the road to Regan's, the Fool says "If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I'd have thee / beaten for being old before thy time." (1.5.40-41). He denies the king the respect due to him as an aged King, causing the King to wonder at his worthiness. The fool also makes light of Lear's qualms making snide remarks in response to Lear's ruminations. When Lear asks Edgar cryptically, "wouldst thou give ‘em all?" the Fool responds, "Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed" (3.4.69-72). The Fool's snide remarks do little to maintain Lear's fragile control of his faculties. However, the Fool speaks to the king candidly, a rare occasion in Lear's life. Even Kent acknowledges the truth of the Fool's statements, saying, "This is not altogether fool, my lord" (1.4.155).…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Deception in King Lear

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages

    has no love for him and it does not exist. The same goes for her sister, Regan,…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To understand the Fool in this story we need to know what a fool is. "Fool: also called jester, a comic entertainer whose madness or imbecility, real or pretended, made him a source of amusement and gave him license to abuse and poke fun at even the most exalted of his patrons." (Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1995 ed.) Although the fool is a funny entertainer, he tells the hard truth. He is “allowed” to tell the cold, hard truth about someone or something. This is only allowed for him, it would be inappropriate for someone else to point out hardships. The way they would do this is through a parable, riddle, or a story. Where he can act funny, crazy, weird, and outrageous, but underneath, he is giving us an underlining meaning about a certain issue or hard truth. With saying all of that, the fool was a crucial part of that time period and make critical changes in society.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Shakespeare 's tragedy King Lear can be interpreted in many ways and many responses. The imprecision’s and complication of the play has led to its many production. Interpreting the issues and ideas in King Lear is dependant upon each individual responder. Individuals may be influenced by their own personal experiences, moral and ethical standards and the situation of their time.…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wyrd Sisters Quotes

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Initially, the fool was loyal to King Verence and consequently the Duke after he takes the throne, saying that “a Fool should be faithful to his master until the very end, after all others have deserted him. Good or bad doesn't come into it. Every leader needs his Fool. There is only loyalty. That’s the whole thing. Even if he is clearly three-parts bonkers, I’m his Fool until one of us dies [sic]” (Pratchett 171). The Fool was expecting to serve Felmet until death, regardless of what either of them thought. He was going to stand by the Duke even in the face of fear, the Fool was willing to die for his King. During the climax of the story, the Fool realizes that rather than a specific man he needs to serve the kingdom as a whole and stands up to the Duke. In doing so he willingly sacrifices himself, knowing that his proclamation of the Duke’s actions will not only result in his death but, will also result in the repair of the kingdom. The Fool’s loyalty to Lancre directly causes the removal of the Duke and Duchess and the reconstitution of a healthy kingdom. The Fool cared about Lancre and the people in it, he acted when no one else could and even went against his honor as a fool to do…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    between a bitter fool and a sweet fool. When Lear admits that he does not, the…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Role of the fool

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the opening of King Lear, we don’t see or really hear about the Fool until Act 1 Scene 4, to me this suggest that the importance of the Fool earlier in the play is not really significant. Although this can be seen as quite ironic as I know in Shakespearean times, there would always be a fool of some sort, who is used to enlighten the mood of the King or of the higher archie by its humour and sarcastic tone.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays