Question: The fool is wiser than the king in King Lear. Justify. Or, Lear’s Fool had wisdom on the disguise. Elucidate. Or, critically comment on the character and the role of the Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Introduction
The Fool is one of the most important characters of the tragedy. To a modern audience, the Fool seems to be an outlandish kind of person. But the figure of the Fool was familiar to Shakespeare‘s original audience. To Shakespeare, Fool is not a foolish character, he possesses some qualities, which make him wise to some extent. In King Lear, he should not be considered merely as a sloped but also a wise person.
Prophetic Power
A careful study of the plot reveals that among all Shakespeare’s fools, Lear’s Fool is the most intelligent who acts primarily as the conscience of the old king. It will be noted throughout that the Fool makes remarks that without the best hesitation, no one else would have dared to make any comment in the presence of the tempestuous king. In his very first appearance in Act one – Scene IV, the Fool assumes the role of mild admonisher and tries to convince Lear through his jesting how unwise it was on his part to abdicate the throne and divide his kingdom between his two daughters. Like the blind prophet Teiresias in Sophocles’ “King Oedipus”, the Fool is also the embroilment of wisdom. His sage counsels come from his lip through his fooling, revealing the most touching loyalty and affection for his master.
Importance in Lear’s character development
It seems hardly possible that Lear’s character should be properly developed without the Fool. He serves as a common exponent of all the characters like the mirror in which their finest and deepest lineaments are reflected. And that is why the character of the King is starkly dependent on his Fool.
Exposer of truth through humor
As the Fool represents truth in the guise of humor, he cannot be brought forward until the rupture with the moral law has taken place. In his grief of Cordelia’s banishment, the Fool has almost forgotten his part, and this affords us a pledge that under the veil of humor, the deepest earnestness is concealed. He touches on the fault of the King regarding the fact that the injury was done not because of love but of scorn. Hence, the Fool makes the folly of the King in his humor: the harmless words that he throws to expose a deep and penetrating significance. When immediately after Goneril’s first rude speech to her father, the Fool breaks out with the apparently random words; “Out went the candle, and we were left darkling”. Thus, he catches oftener at some harmless, jesting remark, to relieve his master from the suffering, and to lighten the burden of his own grief.
The wise provoker and comforter
The Fool in King Lear emphasizes the tragedy of the events and is the reliever of them. He emphasizes the tragedy because in his character as Jester he exposes the folly of his master’s action and its consequence. His aim seems to be to induce Lear to “resume” his power. Hence he harps or expounds continually on the folly of what Lear has done and expresses the regret to which his master is ashamed to give repentance. From the close of the second Act, the tone of his sallies changes. The Fool has assumed here the role of the comforter as soon as Lear realizes that he has done wrong. But Lear’s injuries are beyond the Fool’s power to alleviate, and nothing can relieve its sheet horror. So, the Fool drops out of the action.
Full of sympathy
The Fool has no suffering of his own to move us, yet rightly seen, he does move us, and deeply too. But the process of his interest is very peculiar and recondite. His anguish is purely the anguish of sympathy – a sympathy so deep and intense as to induce absolute forgetfulness of self, all his capacities of feeling being perfectly engrossed with the sufferings of those whom he loves. He withdraws from the scene with the words; “And I’ll go bed at noon”; which means simply that the dear fellow is dying, and this too, purely of other’s sorrows, which he feels more keenly than they do themselves. For instance, when Cordelia is banished, he cannot tolerate this and takes a rest for two days without being appeared before King Lear. Along with this, when the king feels guilty for his wrongdoing, he tries to soothe him with his delightful words.
Conclusion
The Fool in King Lear does not make us laugh lightly but his witty comments do indeed relieve the tension, which might otherwise become unbearable. Beyond this, he serves to highlight poignantly the King’s folly and when Lear realizes this mistake, he becomes his master’s helper. With Lear’s madness, the Fool’s role ends. So, it is no doubt that the Fool is wiser than the King himself.
