The Fool in Shakespeare's King Lear

This study will discuss the Fool in Shakespeare's King Lear, focusing on his dual role as a commentator who furnishes clues to the meaning of the play, and as a character whose nature carries a vital part of the central theme. The Fool serves both roles well simply because he is generally not taken seriously by the other characters. This failure to heed the Fool's truth is expressed primarily in the character of Lear. The Fool is more tolerated than engaged by Lear, and this detachment allows him to both give a running commentary on the action and its deeper meaning, and serve at the same time as an essential character whose honest but "foolish" nature addresses a vital part of the play's theme of self-delusion.

The play's theme focuses on the lack of self-knowledge (and the lack of knowledge of the true characters of offspring) as primarily demonstrated by Lear. Lear is blind both to the deceit of two of his daughters, Goneril and Regan, and to the true love of his third daughter, Cordelia. The purpose of the role of the Fool is to expose the truth of the daughters' natures and to warn of the impending doom that Lear faces as a result of his ignorance. The Fool's role is ironic, because he is not the foolish one, but instead supplies a wisdom to the supposedly knowing Lear which he does not heed. Lear fails to take seriously the declarations and warnings of the Fool precisely because he is the Fool. The Fool can be seen as a sort of unconscious for Lear, as if the Fool's w

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), then why is Lear so blind to what he is saying? If Gloucester, for example, were to give Lear the same warning, Lear would be more likely to take the warning seriously. It is the role of the Fool, however, to serve as a truth-teller who is not to be taken seriously. The Fool again and again breaks out of his inferior position and tells the King the truth. He comments honestly on the King's true position with respect to his daughters, but at the same time he is, after all, the Fool, and as such is not heard by the King as a person who knows anything but foolishness. For example, the Fool directly calls the King a fool. He points to Lear when he says, "The sweet and bitter fool/ Will presently appear:/ The one in motley here [the Fool himself],/ The other [Lear] found there." If Lear were wise and not afraid of knowing himself and his shortcomings, he would ask the Fool why he was saying this. However, Lear is not wise, he is proud, and he cares only about the insult, not the truth. Accordingly, he answers, "Dost thou call me fool, boy?" (Shakespeare 1.4.142-146). Lear continues to ask the Fool what he means, but he refuses to stop and consider seriously what the Fool says in response, or he is simply not capable of considerin

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