King Lear

Through this discovery Lear grasps that he is not the sole constructor of reality and acknowledges his humanness and vulnerability, "Take physic, pomp, expose thyself to feel what wretches feel", and is able to confront the hypocrisy, injustice and inconsistencies in society and moral order. Shakespeare juxtaposes Lear to the Fool, where the Fool is very realistic about how the world works; yet his ideologies are not taken seriously. The fool has a very reductive view of the world, where the basics of materialism and greed drive man's actions. However, it took a long and painful process for Lear to discover this. Through Lear's confusion he tries to fix these discrepancies, in hope to eliminate chaos and restore order. As Lear claims his rightly title "they cannot touch me for crying. I am the king himself" he wishes to reinstitute his powers and restore his dignity. However, as Lear fell into madness, anarchy reigned, where Lear lost the battle to maintain his "sanity" and the restoration of communal order. Through all the chaos there is an abundant amount of suffering, both physically and mentally. Like Lear, Gloucester survives not only to bemoan his follies but also to accept them and to win through to a bleak and painful clarity. Lear and Gloucester's suffering run as a parallel throughout the play, where they both endured pain in order to understand the nature of life. Hence, the onset of Lear's madness confers a deeper insight, allowing the audience to realise that through Lear's madness he utters piercing truths about the nature of justice and authority. It is one of the many paradoxes on which the play is founded upon, that Lear's judgment is folly and his madness is wisdom. Throughout Lear's character it is clear to understand the relationship between authority, order and chaos.
             Shakespeare allows the battle of tradition and new order to be questioned and fought throughout King Lear.