The+Role+of+the+Fool


 * __[[file:King Lear fool’.ppt]][[image:a_fool.gif align="right"]]

THE FOOL__** In the play King Lear, by William Shakespeare, there are many intriguing characters. Perhaps the most intriguing of them all is the fool. The fool seems to exist outside the play appearing and disappearing without warning. The fool is, however, a necessary character to the evolution of Lear's character, since he is the personification of truth and reason. The fool serves to show Lear how he is going insane, as well as to attempt to delay this inevitability. The fool also demonstrates to Lear the truths about people around him, and tries to point out what treachery and deceit they wish upon him. When Lear is too far-gone to heed the advice and knowledge of the fool, he vanishes without a trace no longer useful, or needed.


 * __Key Role of the Fool__**
 * Acts as the inner-conscience of Lear.
 * Provides basic wisdom and reasoning, pointing out truths and flaws in Lear’s character.
 * Amuses and protects Lear at times of sadness in an effort to prevent or delay the onset of madness.

The fool is a witty companion to Lear and a commentator on his behaviour. He fits in with those who remain loyal to Lear despite his folly (Kent as Caius in disguise, Gloucester, Edgar in disguise as a beggar from Bedlam), but he is also Lear’s alter ego during the deranged state. His wit is revealed through songs, proverbs, allegories, analogies, imagery, all of which comment on practical aspects of Lear’s folly – he has lost his house (unlike the snail, which carries his on his back) - and on more general evils and paradoxes in the social and political world.

As writer Mark van Doren in //Shakespeare //says, ‘the fool’s bitter tongue tells truths that a king only half knows.’ This comment helps with the discussion of the significance of the fool to the play. Marjorie Garber in //Shakespeare After All //develops this idea about the fool in this way and so reveals his significance: "The fool is a mirror, as the wasteland and the storm are mirrors, reflecting back at Lear his own image… The professional duty of the "licensed fool" in the period was to say things that were otherwise forbidden, to reveal painful, humbling and comic truths – in short, to do that which a later age would call speaking truth to power. The role of the fool was to reflect and epitomize the folly of the world around him, and in essence to draw it off, or neutralize it.’ Picking up on Garber’s metaphors, we can see that the wasteland of the heath is the bareness of Lear’s life now that he no longer has his own palace. The storm is the mirror of the rage in Lear’s mind given that he has discovered he has been duped and he himself has been foolish. The fool’s words fit into this pattern, a taunt to Lear, his alter ego while he is out of his mind, the astute side that is temporarily lost but regained at the end after the reconciliation with Cordelia. The fool is always in a difficult position – it is his profession to satirise but he is always in danger of the whip. As he himself says he can be whipped for ‘speaking true, whipped for lying, and sometimes whipped for holding [his] peace’. He is able to draw on a wide range of resources for his wisdom: nursery rhymes, songs, allegories, fables. He loathes the daughters, sees the world as corrupt, his king as foolish. His words act as a choric comment, a point of sanity for the audience as they see the king collapse, but they are not efficacious in helping the king. The fool is the orchestra playing as the Titanic sinks.

Right from the beginning of the play Lear shows sings of insanity. Dividing up his kingdom, for the reasons he stated, may seem to be a wise thing to do. Not trusting Cordelia, however, is a sign of insanity, as she is the only daughter who truly loved him. The fool, throughout the entire time he is in the play, is attempting to point out these insane actions and delay Lear's insanity as much as he can. The fool, however, does not tell Lear directly that he is going insane, "Then I prithee be merry. Thy will shalt not go slipshod"(I. IV. 11-12). The fool uses riddles and jokes to convey his message to Lear. Even when Lear's insanity was causing the fool discomfort, Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! Your cataracts and huricanoes, spout till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulph'rous and thought-executing fire, vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, singe my white head (III. II. 1-3), the fool stayed by his side and tried to convince Lear to go inside, "O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this rain water out o'door" (III. II. 10-11). He doesn't care about his well being he just wants to help the King any way he can. The fool also helps Lear by pointing out certain truths about people, as well as flaws in his very own actions. After Goneril gives Lear an ultimatum of get rid of the troops or get out, Lear decides to seek lodgings at the residence of his other daughter Regan. The fool simply responds by saying, "Shalt see thy other daughter will use the kindly; for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell" (I. V. 14-16), meaning, she's going to side with her sister and treat you the same. Later in the play the fool warns Lear about a misfortune which he predicts could be in the planing, "For you know, nuncle, the hedy sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it had it head bit off by it young"(I. IV. 211-13). The fool also tries to open the king's eyes so that he can see these truths on his own, "Thou shouldst have been old till thou hadst been wise"(I. V. 42), as well as have some insight as to why these events are occurring. From the point the fool is introduced he never leaves the kings side. Even when the king is going to Regan's house the fool pleads, "Nuncle Lear, Nuncle Lear, tarry take the fool with thee"(I. IV. 314-15). However, at the end of the third act the fool leaves and never comes back. This is because he is no longer needed. In act three scene four the fool remarks, "And I'll go to bed at noon"(84), which is the last words that the fool says in the whole play. Lear has gained all the insight he needs and is now capable of seeing things for himself. This is why the fool left since for the rest of the play he would have just been a plain fool tagging along with nothing else to show Lear. Since the fool is only there to enhance Lear's insight, it is only fitting that when Lear has this insight, the fool leaves. Without the fool, Lear would never have come to the realization of who people really were. The fool sustained Lear's sanity as long as he could in order to aid him to see the truth clearly. When he had finished his role in the play he vanished. Since he vanished only after Lear had gained his insight, he must have been there to show Lear these things. In addition, without the fool's influence Lear would probably have gone insane much earlier, which would have had a negative effect on the outcome of the story. The fool was the key factor in Lear's evolution as a character.

__**Key Quotes/Passages**__
 * ** "Then they for sudden joy did weep, And I for sorrow sung, That such a King should play bo-peep And go the fools among" **
 * ** “if a man’s brain’s were in’s heels, were’t not in danger of kibes?...Thy wits shall not go slipshod **
 * ** “Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gavest the golden one away” **
 * ** I can tell why a snail has a house.to put it’s head in; not to give it away to his daughters and leave his horns without a case” **
 * "For you know, nuncle, the hedy sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it had it head bit off by it young"
 * "Thou shouldst have been old till thou hadst been wise"
 * "And I'll go to bed at noon"

Critical Essays on the Fool