'Reason in madness' - Explore the varieties and significance of madness in King Lear.
Lear experiences lucidity, 'reason', and exhibits his most profound moments when he is mad. This is the central irony in Lear and reflects both the contradiction, which is a convention of Classical tragedy and the essential uncertainty of the human condition, which the play ultimately expresses.
- 'Reason' in madness - as the idea that the suffering of both Lear and his foil Gloucester is not futilie - relate to the tragic vision.
- Either: suffering as productive: Lear as affirmative of the Christianity
- Or: there is essentially no 'reason' in the suffering - overwhelming impression of waste.
SW
Answered by Saoirse W. • English Literature tutor
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