Madness Of King Lear In Shakespeare's Play

Madness and nature often goes in the same path in strange ways. Nature can lead man to madness and madness can take a man to nature. In Shakespeare's King Lear, both of these situations prove true. William Shakespeare was one of the most intuitive and sharp observer of human race. It is evident that King Lear’s character could have been Shakespeare's observation of Dementia of his era. It is shown that Shakespeare positions Lear on the brink of madness since the very beginning. Lear's madness turns out to be one of the root strife in the play. A deep analyzation into the character tells us that his madness is already seeded in his nature because of his age. Lear does not suffer any general madness of Shakespeare's day, rather a more specific version of mental illness. King Lear exhibits signs of an elderly person that is suffering of a well-known progressive condition of Lewy Body Dementia. Studying Lear's character from the perspective of an individual affected with mental illness can prove that his mental condition justifies his rash decisions, shows the way this specific mental illness was being treated at the time by Regan and Goneril compared to Cordellia.

In Dennis Seloke’s article The Aging Mind: Deciphering Alzheimer's Disease & Its Antecedents, he asserts that “In the popular mind, and even among scientists and philosophers, the idea that great age inevitably brought about an inability to think clearly was widely accepted…reinterpretation of the nature of the aging mind has profound implications on both the personal and societal levels. ” Reinterpreting from the perspective of mental illness, Lear’s actions share a large amount of similarities to the behaviour of a patient affected of dementia. Some of these similarities include: vicious mood swings, confusion, depression, inability to deal with change, sleep disorder, hallucination and delusions. His actions towards the treatment of his court and his own daughter closely relates to the common occurrence amongst dementia patients where they lash out at their caretaker as well as the people that they closely relate to. It is seen that Lear’s mental instability was seeded in him from the start of Act 1.

Throughout Act 1, Lear is slowly declining into madness. Although it can be argued that his foolishness is the reason for his madness, as the act progresses his behaviour shows that it is not foolishness rather insanity and rash judgements. Especially the division of his kingdom is not based on the ability or right judgement, but rather based on flattering words, “Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend where nature doth with merit challenge. ” This proves that Lear’s fading mental sharpness ruins his ability to rule his own kingdom. In Scene 4 of Act 1 Lear is shown questioning his own identity when he asks Goneril “Are you our daughter?”, “Does any here know me? This is not Lear. Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargied - Sleeping or waking? Ha! Sure 'tis not so! Who is it that can tell me who I am?”. This quote clearly points to the symptoms of dementia such as confusion and mood swings. At the end of Act 1, it is evident that Lear’s mental condition is depreciating gradually. Later on in the scene, Lear admits himself of his mental condition when the fool says “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise. ” and Lear replies by “O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper. I would not be mad”.

Going forward, Act 4 of the play clearly portrays Lear at the worst state of mental illness. In the beginning of Act 4, he is running around a field with a crown of flowers on his head, he believes Gloucester to be Goneril with a beard then he also briefly believes to be in Hell “There's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit; burning, scalding, stench, consumption. ” At the end of the scene, Cordelia's servants come to get the King, but he runs off telling them they can take him back if they can catch him first “Then there's life in't. Come, an you get it, you shall get it by running. Sa, sa, sa ,sa!”. In these scenes Lear is showing symptoms such as hallucinations, memory loss and delusion. Towards the end of the play, Lear is shown in his confused nature as he is unaware of both the time and place he is in. In an exchange with Kent nearer to the end of the play, Lear demands to know his whereabouts. “Lear: Am I in France? Kent: In your own kingdom, sir. Lear: Do not abuse me. ”. Losing time or mistaking time and place are common among LBD patients. Lear’s actions where is fleeing to the heath and throwing a tantrum, are very childlike in their own way which is a common symptom of LBD patients. On the heath, Lear rages against a terrible storm; this is an allegory for Lear raging at his own nature and the nature of his disease. He laments that “Here I stand, your slave, A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man. ” Lear speaks not only to the Storm and Nature, but to himself and his own mental illness of dementia. He is a captive of nature and his own nature. Both have made him a shadow of who he once was, who he wishes he still was. This idea of senility and inability in old age is pervasive. Some of Lear’s company, including his daughters, treat him like an old man, useless past his prime. Regan, when Lear arrives at Gloucester’s castle tells him: “O, sir, you are old; Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine. You should be ruled and led By some discretion, that discerns your state Better than you yourself. ” Rather than taking Lear’s emotional and mental legitimacy into consideration, they treat him as an unworthy mad blight to be cast away; it is analogous to the way that many dementia patients are committed to memory facilities long before their mental power are far gone.

Lear’s relationship with his daughters is a problematic one at best, his relationship with Goneril and Regan is a tempestuous one, but they do not seem to care about Lear outside of what he had to offer them of the kingdom. After Lear banishes Cordelia, Goneril says to Regan, “You see how full of changes his age is”. They remark in a cold and calculating manner on the shifts in Lear’s actions as he is old, wondering how it would affect them after their inheritance of the kingdom. Goneril plots with Regan about how to hit Lear down, “Pray you, let’s hit together”. They agree that Lear has to be put away and that he shall not be allowed to roam around in their homes. Unlike one would wish to be treated from their loving daughters, they treat him with an air of disposal and uselessness.

Cordelia, on the other hand, recognizes Lear’s gradual progression into madness. She, as the favorite daughter, closely understands the changes Lear has been experiencing in his disposition over the time. Later in the play, when Lear is brought to Cordelia, he has a moment of clarity about his state of being: “And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind. Methinks I should know you, and know this man; Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant”. He also realizes who he is speaking to; “I think this lady To be my child Cordelia. . . If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me; for your sisters Have, as I do remember, done me wrong”. Although he is not entirely correct about Cordelia’s feelings towards him, he is lucid. Periods of lucidity are not uncommon among dementia patients. Although his condition did not reach its worst, as to no longer remembering anything, his dementia is still progressed enough to make this bout of clarity rare. Lear’s treatment is similar to many elderly people of modern time. The elderly, even in this day and age, are treated as somewhat frail. The treatment of the elderly is usually fraught with disrespect and mockery, and in Shakespeare’s day this seems to be the case as well.

Lear’s character in the play is incredibly rash. Identifying King Lear as a character with mental illness somewhat changes the play’s nature in accordance to his character. Audience tends to focus on the effects of Lear’s madness, and the actions it perpetuates, has on the play rather than on Lear himself. Lear is obviously tortured by his older daughters’ actions and inhumanities and his youngest daughter’s refusal to play to his ego, but he is also tortured by the loss of himself. Lear’s death is tragic; he is having a rare moment of clarity about Cordelia and her state, and right as he believes her to be breathing and not dead, he dies. The end of his life was traumatic and fraught with the descent into an illness that seems to have been creeping in for years before the beginning of the play. Edgar, at the close of the play, poignantly states why the elderly should be treated with dignity, even in the clutches of illness; “The oldest hath borne most; we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long. ”