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 words came from a deeper, wiser part of the King to which Lear is simply too proud and self-centered to give credence. The Fool is the good friend of Lear, but Lear sees him only as an entertaining if irritating clown. Lear accepts the Fool as a fool, and it is as if the Fool knows that Lear will not take him seriously until it is too late. And that is precisely what happens.
It is not as if the foolishness of the King is known only to the Fool. For example,...