Essay Database

RE-EDUCATING A KING: KING LEAR'S SELF-AWARENESS Halfway down Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: The fisherman that walk along the beach Appear like mice. Although this quote from Shakespeare's King Lear is made by Poor Tom to his unknowing father Gloucester about the terrain far below them, it accurately summarizes the plight of the mad king. Lear is out of touch with his surroundings, riding high …

…are not new to Lear; it is obvious that these qualities have escaped him only after many years of rule. Nonetheless, Lear finds himself reduced to a mere man and must now somehow get back in touch with his sanity. It is the subordinate characters in King Lear that help Lear to break the distorted lens of madness with which he has viewed the world, thereby re-establishing his link to God, logic, and the throne.