Class Structure In Disguise
Vatsal Gandhi
Professor Baker
Survey of English Literature
December 16, 2014
Class Structure in Disguise Several characters in Shakespeare 's King Lear undergo transformations for both driving the play 's momentum and allowing for a social layer to preside within the work. King Lear displays characters whose disguises make significant class differentiations, favorably casting a light on the lower class. Realizing that he is without a home and loving daughters, King Lear learns to sympathize with a beggar, and unclothes himself in an act to recuperate his lost innocence. Edgar, the victim of deception, treads into the disguise of a beggar with which Lear sympathizes, and relinquishes his past identity. He has seen the life of 'poor Tom ' secured and presumes that he will remain by guising himself into that same class. The banished Earl of Kent disguises himself a peasant in order to restore his affiliations with the nobility. Therefore, through these characters a transition into the lower social realm is made through disguise in order to reclaim their lost statures, and it is in that transitional phase that the audience learns, in different ways learns, what the use of disguise means, and what commentary it makes on the conception of class. King Lear reveals the class struggle through Edgar, Kent, and Lear, as they, through disguises, deal with their troubles of being evicted from the noble class. I found it rather interesting that Shakespeare uses the characters ' guises only through mobilizing them downward. Essentially, it is only the characters of the upper-class disguising themselves as lower-class residents. This is elaborated in the discussion of attire by Kent: "For confirmation that I am much more / Than my out-wall (his appearance)" (III. ii. 44-45). In this instance, Kent clarifies that his disguise does not define his character. Moreover, Kent is remarking on his associations of characteristics to class, in this instance, that one 's
Professor Baker
Survey of English Literature
December 16, 2014
Class Structure in Disguise Several characters in Shakespeare 's King Lear undergo transformations for both driving the play 's momentum and allowing for a social layer to preside within the work. King Lear displays characters whose disguises make significant class differentiations, favorably casting a light on the lower class. Realizing that he is without a home and loving daughters, King Lear learns to sympathize with a beggar, and unclothes himself in an act to recuperate his lost innocence. Edgar, the victim of deception, treads into the disguise of a beggar with which Lear sympathizes, and relinquishes his past identity. He has seen the life of 'poor Tom ' secured and presumes that he will remain by guising himself into that same class. The banished Earl of Kent disguises himself a peasant in order to restore his affiliations with the nobility. Therefore, through these characters a transition into the lower social realm is made through disguise in order to reclaim their lost statures, and it is in that transitional phase that the audience learns, in different ways learns, what the use of disguise means, and what commentary it makes on the conception of class. King Lear reveals the class struggle through Edgar, Kent, and Lear, as they, through disguises, deal with their troubles of being evicted from the noble class. I found it rather interesting that Shakespeare uses the characters ' guises only through mobilizing them downward. Essentially, it is only the characters of the upper-class disguising themselves as lower-class residents. This is elaborated in the discussion of attire by Kent: "For confirmation that I am much more / Than my out-wall (his appearance)" (III. ii. 44-45). In this instance, Kent clarifies that his disguise does not define his character. Moreover, Kent is remarking on his associations of characteristics to class, in this instance, that one 's
Cited: Bevington, David M. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. 5th ed. Chicago: Pearson Education, 2004. Print.