Madness, craziness, insanity—all are terms derived from the human psychosis of unstable mental health. Through this mental instability, one can lose sight of proper reasoning and plunge themselves into a pseudo-reality of delusions and hallucinations that can result in the tragedy of not only self-deterioration, but have a stark impact on the people around you. However, this madness does not just manifest out of thin air, it evolves from deeper rooted problems. In William Shakespeare’s King Lear this idea of madness is brought to light through King Lear’s descent into madness and his futile attempt to recover his mental faculties. King Lear, authoritative and willful at first, commands his court and makes the baneful decision to reward his
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In the case of King Lear, it becomes a gift in the form of a veil of blindness, as Lear comes to realize which one of his daughters truly loves him. King Lear’s initial erroneous decision, due to his skewed set of values, to hand over his power and land to his oldest and most superficial daughters already sets forth in motion his descent into a path of madness. Soon Lear finds himself roaming the heath, shouting at the tumultuous storm in rage, then begging and even accusing it through despondency, only to end up babbling nonsense and talking to a mouse out of pure psychological madness. This pivotal point in the play characterizes Lear’s state of mental turmoil, as it mirrors the chaos that has descended upon his kingdom, which can all be connected back to the act of betrayal, as the betrayal of Lear by Goneril and Regan is what propelled him into madness in the first place. However, the same madness that turns King Lear into a babbling insane man also lifts the veil of blindness off of him to bring him closer towards the truth, as it provided him with important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity. The truth being that his foolish betrayal of Cordelia’s true love cost him his power and land, since it was Goneril and Regan who truly betrayed him by rising to power and kicking him out of their homes and all the while stripping him of his royalty. Hopeless in trying to recover his mentality from the madness that resulted from the deep sense of familial betrayal, Shakespeare leaves us to understand that Lear’s madness was not only a curse, but a panacea in helping him to discover the true betrayal amongst his
In the case of King Lear, it becomes a gift in the form of a veil of blindness, as Lear comes to realize which one of his daughters truly loves him. King Lear’s initial erroneous decision, due to his skewed set of values, to hand over his power and land to his oldest and most superficial daughters already sets forth in motion his descent into a path of madness. Soon Lear finds himself roaming the heath, shouting at the tumultuous storm in rage, then begging and even accusing it through despondency, only to end up babbling nonsense and talking to a mouse out of pure psychological madness. This pivotal point in the play characterizes Lear’s state of mental turmoil, as it mirrors the chaos that has descended upon his kingdom, which can all be connected back to the act of betrayal, as the betrayal of Lear by Goneril and Regan is what propelled him into madness in the first place. However, the same madness that turns King Lear into a babbling insane man also lifts the veil of blindness off of him to bring him closer towards the truth, as it provided him with important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity. The truth being that his foolish betrayal of Cordelia’s true love cost him his power and land, since it was Goneril and Regan who truly betrayed him by rising to power and kicking him out of their homes and all the while stripping him of his royalty. Hopeless in trying to recover his mentality from the madness that resulted from the deep sense of familial betrayal, Shakespeare leaves us to understand that Lear’s madness was not only a curse, but a panacea in helping him to discover the true betrayal amongst his