The Madness of King Lear by William Shakespeare | Teen Ink

The Madness of King Lear by William Shakespeare

March 8, 2011
By Cstudey SILVER, Phoenix, Arizona
Cstudey SILVER, Phoenix, Arizona
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

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The Madness of King Lear by William Shakespeare, published in 1608, is an interesting book from a play involving action and a bit of love, as it enlightens those who read it of the older times. The overall theme is-making the right choices when with children, and not making the choices of doom. Along with the theme, there were several tones throughout the book: concern, serious, and open to thought.
Now, since the theme is making the right choices, the character that helps represent this theme is the Fool, King Lear’s Jester. The Fool says at one point, “O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this rainwater out o’ doors. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters blessing.” Since Lear gave his kingdom to his bad daughters, Goneril and Regan, Lear is kicked out of his own castle in the rain; moreover, he ends up going mad. There is also another father, Gloucester, who has a good son and a bad son. The bad son attempts at removing his father and brother in order to get a better title. Consequently, both Lear and Gloucester go through a series of tests in order to solve their children problems.
My favorite character is the Fool because he uses double-talk to try to talk sense into Lear. I can relate to the Fool in this story because he tries to be funny, and he is a big help to Lear in some ways. In addition, this book is fun yet sad and old, old times. I wish the ending was a little happier. Maybe the ending could have less people ending up inactive.
In the end, I recommend this book to people with a deeper purpose to read. Anyone who reads it should know that it takes time to read old English. The Madness of King Lear can be a great novel for those looking for a major challenge.



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