King Lear Madness Analysis

The storm that Lear describes is not entirely literal, it represents the tests and the tragedies that he endured. Shakespeare makes it clear that, even though the tests drove him deeper into madness, they opened his eyes each time and started his path back towards sanity. Lear doesn’t stop here; rather, he moves to a digression about justice. Lear delves into an intellectual conversation, saying, “Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, // and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks. // Arm it in rags, a pygmy’s straw does pierce it.”(4.6.181) In this quote, Lear is saying that money can cover up injustice to the point where it is unreacheable, but without money justice is easily served. In this final scene with Lear, Shakespeare
Lear is in the French army quarters with his daughter Cordelia, he has been sleeping for awhile. Cordelia wakes the king, and at first it seems as if Lear is still mad and thinks Cordelia is a ghost. However, the doctor claims that it is only due to the fact that he is still half asleep. Lear proves his sanity, calling himself a, “foolish fond old man”, that he might not be, “in my perfect mind”, but he thinks he should remember Cordelia and Kent. Lear proves his sanity by accepting his circumstances and actually does see clearly now. Shakespeare gives closure in this subject with the doctor, “Be comforted, good madam. The great rage, you see, is killed in him…”(4.7.91). Shakespeare doesn’t just leave it here though, in the final scene of the play he presents Lear in his full sanity. Edmund sentences Lear and Cordelia to jail and Cordelia tells Lear that she is worried about him. Lear proclaims that he is fine and goes on to describe how jail won’t be that bad, because they will be together, “So we’ll live, // And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh…”(5.3.12). Lear has finally completed his journey, he has finally reached sanity once again, but Shakespeare will test him once more. Shakespeare didn’t intend for this to be the end for Lear. As Lear clutches the dead body of his beloved daughter, it seems as if he briefly falls back into madness. This is Lear’s final test, the final tragedy. However, he is only sad, mournful beyond extreme, and in his despair he cannot see clearly. As he holds the deceased body of Cordelia, he dies of sorrow. Kent, watching Lear die, tells everyone to leave him alone, “Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him // That would upon the rack of this tough world // stretch him out longer.”(5.3.380) Shakespeare leaves the ending open, he does not give Lear a happy ending, but he did complete Lear’s journey, as Lear died with a sane, but sorrowful