King Lear - Madness quotes & analysis

Act 1

‘Peace Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath’

‘Here I disclaim all paternal care, propinquity and property of blood’

• Irrationality in anger

• Lear’s Hubris and ego prevents him from thinking rationally, being blinded and irratic due to his power and arrogance as King.

Regan describes Lear’s irrationality as ‘the infirmity of his age’ - further divides the generations, forshadowing Lear’s madness in the face of change.

‘O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!’

Act 2

‘No […] I say, no! […] By Jupiter, I swear no!’

‘This mother swells up towards my heart, Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow’

• Reference to hysteria - mainly associated with women in the Jacobean period.

• A Metaphor suggesting perhaps emotions of pride and anger are beginning to overpower Lear.

• Reflects a panic in Lear at his loss of masculine, powerful identity.

‘my heart, my rising heart! But down!’

‘Vengeance, plague, death, confusion!’ - PERIPETEIA

increasingly crazed diction in this hyperbolic list of exclamatives, depicting extreme rage at his treatment by his daughters.

‘Unnatural hags!’ - insults intensify rage!

‘O, Fool, I shall go mad’ (before he marches out into the storm)

Act 3

The Storm: A symbol of Lear’s developing madness and disorder.

‘Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, or swell the curled waters’ - The Gentleman

• Arrogance and hubris still lingers in Lear, conveyed through the imperatives that illustrate his attempt to demand nature to do his bidding.

‘Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!’ - Lear is apostraphising the wind, as if the storm is a subject! - Delusion of power

‘in his little world of man’ - Contrast between this and the wind and rain communicates Lear’s irrationality.

He has attempted to control his family, court, and now even the weather, but now is powerless in his ‘little world of man’, still containing HUBRIS.

ANAGNORISIS:

Ironic realisation of truth in Lear the crazier he becomes.

‘O, I have ta’en too little care of this! Take physic, pomp’

• The first realisation of reality in Lear and first sign of his desire to change and heal his destructive pride.

Act 4

ANAGNOISIS:

In his madness, Lear discovers profound truth.

‘Reason in madness!’ - Edgar (ironic in observation of Lear!)

‘We cry that we are come to this great stage of fools’ - vulnerability of humankind

• Life is metaphorically described as a ‘great stage of fools’, full of pretenders in robes and furred gowns [that] hide all’, and who are ultimately powerless to their fates.

• Crying: A symbol of suffering and weakness experienced universally by all of humanity.

ANAGNORISIS IS COMPLETE:

‘I am a very foolish, fond old man’

• CONTRAST to Act 1, utter humility in Lear’s humble tone as he realises his unjust nature when full of hubris.

• Sense of calm in this tone too, he has reached full realisation of truth and reality.

‘We’ll live, and pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh at gilded butterflies’

• Calm, child-like tone as he depicts an almost romantic scene of peace with Cordelia in prison in this list.

• Creates pity and perhaps horror, in an audience as they see him fall from power. - PATHOS (convention of tragedy)

Act 5

Lear dies of a broken heart at Cordelia’s death, asking ‘Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all?’.

• CATHARSIS for the audience

Lear’s decent into madness, and journey to anagnorisis whilst overwhlemed by insanity depicts Shakespeare’s King Lear to be a ….

Powerful exploration of the human condition running throughout the ages.