The storm:
After king Lear starts to have flashes between his stages of
reality and insanity, he runs off into the story. The storm is meant to
symbolize Lear’s inner, mental state for his mind was lost, wandering, and mad.
The use of the storm is meant to scope into the character that is Lear and point
out how his daughters are causing him to run toward this wild, unpredictable
stage, which is represented by the storm.
Lear is pushed more and more toward the storm when his daughters drive
him away from them and toward the harsh storm. The storm is also meant to
symbolize nature. When in the storm, Lear learns more and more about himself and
how there is greater powers in this world than just that of a king. He realizes
that he is just a human and the storm is much stronger than him, for when he is
at its presence, he is at its mercy. Lear is a character who has a close
relationship with nature because we see him in the storm and then in the weeds
and the sunlight when Cordeila is searching for him. Nature is closely related
with his mental state. Finally, the storm is also meant to the state at which
Britain is in. The storm is meant to represent how in the hands of Lear’s
daughters the country is suffering s wild stage in its life, but when around
Cordeilla, we come across a much more relaxed type of country.
Blindness:
Throughout the work, it would seem as if the parental figures in
the play have always seemed to lean toward their more devious and evil off
springs, for King Lear moves away from Cordeila and toward Goneril and Regan.
Gloucester moves away from Edger and toward the evil Edmund. Both these parental
figures have the common story of loyal and disloyal off springs, banishing the
loyal , rewarding the disloyal and both seem blind to reality. Gloucester’s
blinding, due to Edmund, symbolizes the parental blindness which had already
existed. It is meant to represent how with or without eyes the parental figures
seemed blind to what is before their very eyes. It represents their blindness to
the truth about their children. The blindness is meant to bring the reader
closer into the parental figures images of their children and their perception.
The king’s Knights:
King Lear is an old man who gave all his land and power to his
two older daughters. Lear keeps with him one hundred soldiers. The soldiers are
meant to represent the small amount of authority Lear continues to have in
Britain. When Goneril and Regan are trying to take away their father’s knights,
they are trying to symbolically relieve him of the minimal authority he still has. A king is a
powerful figure meant to represent bravery and power and for Lear, at old age,
his knight’s symbolize him in his prime; therefore, when the two sisters try to
take them away, they are stripping him of everything he has left in this world.
He becomes enraged for he cannot believe that in just a matter of seconds he can
lose everything and become another average man. After that Lear goes into the
storm, he then discovers his small part in the universe and his morality
compared to that from nature. Ultimately, the knights are Lear’s image of his
remaining power and authority in Britain.
By: Saleh Hassan