The King’s Storm- A Point of No Return

Shakespe atomic number 18s mogul Lear examines the politics of betrayal and the awful costs paid by its victims. Nowhere in the play ar these costs more than apparent than in those scenes in which Lear and his exiled companions find themselves caught in the midst of a thunderstorm unsheltered. As King, Lear embodied the basic assumptions of monarchy, one being that the universe is ordered according to a overlord logic. Within this ideological construct, natural phenomena works as the hand of God.Therefore, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and floods are all extensions of Gods judgment- Biblical examples include the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Great Flood, the Parting of the Red Sea, etc., etc. Though King Lear is solidifying in pre-Christian Britain, the dynamic enshrined in these examples operates here as strong- the wicked shall be punished and the righteous shall be rewarded. This order of due punishment and reward is shocked when Lear is betrayed by his ungrateful da ughters, Regan and Goneril. The ensuing storm is a manifestation of this order overthrown, and is as notable for its emblematical function as it is for its direct effect on King Lear.Just as a storm will cover the suns rays, many of the characters left over(p)field in the storm hand been forced to cover or mask their true, righteous natures. Kent and Edgar both fool the apparel and manners of unlearned beggars in order to help those they serve in a clipping of crisis. Lear similarly adopts the apparel of madness, though unlike the previously mentioned characters, he does so by compulsion rather than artifice. For Kent and Edgar, these transformations arent permanent, as the indignity symbolized by the storm does not conquer them. But for Lear, the storm is the last al-Qaeda for his sanity. Hes simply unable to think of his daughters betrayal, for that way Madness lies (Act III, scene 4, line 21).Another fire parallel between the nature of the storm and that of Lears madness can be drawn here. A storm is by definition the release of pent-up energies, energies that either implode or explode dear now will not dissipate. As the horrible knowledge of his misjudgments dawns on Lear, this knowledge takes the form of psychosomatic energies which mustiness either implode as madness or explode as acts of revenge.Perhaps if Lear were a younger man, he might have tried at revenge, plainly madness is the seemingly inevitable result of much(prenominal) extreme misfortune at such advanced age. Just as the storm explodes with its torrential rains and its thundery thunder, Lear begins his implosion in counterpoint, descending into madness. As he cannot match the explosive rage of the storm with an act of revenge, he must mount an equally powerful attack on his own psyche.His pain runs so oceanic abyss by this point that the literal gales cannot compare to the Tempest in his Mind (III, 4, 12). Pragmatically, implosion serves not just now the social function o f dispersing irrepressible psychosomatic energies, save also fates up a bulwark through which further constancy cannot penetrate. Thus, the aforementioned Tempest in Lears Mind / Doth from his Sense take all Feeling else / Save what beat there, Filial Ingratitude (III, 4, 12-14).Viewed from a different perspective, the storm can be seen as a contend to Lear- can he show the strength and resolve thats necessary to right the wrongs that have been make to him? His answer to that challenge is a resounding no. Though at some(a) points he seems resolute, as when he calls out to the storm to Pour on, I will endure, his ensuing madness betrays such exclamations (III, 4, 16).Lear does endure, but only behind the aforementioned shield of implosion, a purgatorial state in which neither exponentiation with reality nor death is possible. Its only a little later that he effectively renounces what was left of his regal spirit, crying, -Take Physic, Pomp/ Expose thy self to feel what Wretche s feel,/ That thou mayst shake the Superflux to them/ And shew the Heavens more Just (Lear, III, 4, 33-36). Though this statement could be interpreted as a positive call for over-embellished humility in another context, here it is nothing more than a slightly veiled entrance of surrender. In lowering himself to the level of a common Wretch, he does not take dignity with him, but leaves it a memory of his once-glorious past.When considering the effects of the storm on Lear, one must consider not only the storm in itself, but the circumstances in which he experiences it. If he had experienced such a storm in even a poor peasants cottage, the deposed poof might have been able to clutch onto a final shred of royal composure and dignity. But lost in the wilderness, Lear realizes that he has truly lost mold of a land he once ruled, and of himself as well for that matter. To build a shelter for oneself from cold and wind and rain is at bottom an attempt to control the elements, to mode rate their rule over ones life.Lear has, by this point, precipitationen so far from his preferably height that he no longer has this basic semblance of control to shield him from the whims of nature. The former king has effectively fallen from the highest station one could possess to the very lowest. This extreme transformation finds its expression in the extreme nature of the storm. It is not a polite storm but one in which Sheets of Fire,Bursts of exorbitant Thunder,and Groans of roaring Wind and Rain paint a picture of hell on Earth (Kent, III, 2, 46-47).With these symbolic cues, one is meant to understand that Lear has fallen from the paradise of his court to the hell of a stormy wilderness. His fall bears some resemblance to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve who were tempted by the flattery and promises of Satan into actions forbidden by God and thus were expelled from paradise. Accordingly, the idea of devils, or Fiends, permeates the speech of Edgar in his guise as Old To m, the beggar, and though its never explicitly stated, these Fiends are likely the betrayers Edmund, Goneril, Regan and Cornwall. The flattery of these betrayers preys on the good-natured faith of their victims, just as the snake preyed on that of Adam and Eve.But whereas Adam and Eve understood the consequences of their actions, Lear does not, and therefore his actions cannot be considered sinful, only misguided. So fittingly, it is not through the will of God but by the machinations of his betrayers, that Lear is sentenced to a wilderness, the character of which would ordinarily be mute for criminals and evil-doers. It is a realm in which, according to Edmund, revenging Gods/ Gainst Parricides did all the Thunder Bend (II, 1, 46-47). Thus, Lear is unjustly submitted to the thunderbolts that should be reserved for his betrayers. So it is that the storm appears at this critical time in the play as a manifestation of a judgmental wrath that has been rendered impotent.This is perhap s the nadir in the fortunes of the righteous, when all are gathered a collective of exiles, and the plans of the wicked have yet to begin their slow unraveling. The spaces normally reserved for the righteous (the royal courts) are occupied by the wicked, and those normally reserved for the wicked (the stormy wilderness) are occupied by the righteous. The hand of judgment seems to have been momentarily confused. At the conclusion of the play, Albany attempts to set things back in their rightful order, despite great losses already suffered, stating All Friends shall taste/ The advantage of their Virtue, and all Foes/ The Cup of their Deservings (V, 3, 295-301).Exposed to the ravages of storm, such a sense of justice seems unattainable to Lear, an ideal lost in an age of treachery. The storm serves as his personal point of no return, after such a fall from grace it seems impossible that he could rise again. And he cannot- the storm is Lears crucifixion, though he allay lived after it s passing, something in him recognizes that as he inadvertently birthed the chaos that engulfs him, he must die for it to pass.