On the Roles of Children, Parents, Fools, and Nature in King Lear

With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,

Turn all her mother's pains and benefits

To laughter and contempt, that she may feel

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is

To have a thankless child!"

As one grows old, there is naturally an exchange of responsibility between the parent and the child. In King Lear, we see two sets of people in this situation. First, we have Lear dividing the kingdom between his three daughters, and simultaneously we have Edmond tricking Edgar and Gloucester out of the inheritance. The play begins with Lear dividing the territory between his three daughters according to their skills in flattery. Cordelia refuses to join in, and Lear becomes enraged at her; he later describes this as the "O most small fault, how ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!" which drove her from him. This is the beginning of the exchange in power from Lear to his two other daughters. Also, in the beginning Edmond is established as the bastard son of Gloucester and Edgar as the legitimate. Edmond is jealous of Edgar's inheritance, and, before the duke is even ready to pass on his estate, Edmond tricks the rightful son out of his position and prematurely intercepts it. He says, act 1, scene 3, " Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit; all with me's meet that I can fashion fit."

The difference in the exchanges in the two families is very important. In the first, Lear's daughters come into power as a result of Lear's own will. He is ready to pass things on to his daughters so that he can "crawl to death unburdened", he is ready to forfeit his position of father and assume the role of dependent for the assumedly short remainder of his life. On the other hand, Gloucester does not give the impression of being ready to make this exchange. Edgar is not ready either, but he assumes that he will be the successor to his father's role. Edmond forces both of them out of their positions by deceiving them. Where Lear's exchange is prompted by him, Gloucester and Edgar's are forces from them.

These exchanges of roles occur throughout the play, between three things specifically- parent, child, and fool. First, we see Lear place himself as the child of his daughters. The way in which he goes about this is not in itself unreasonable or dishonorable, dividing his entire kingdom among his daughters, but things turn bad when he dismisses Cordelia and then Goneril and Regan completely take advantage of him. The fool states Lear's new role, as dependent child, most clearly in act 1, scene 4. Here, the fool is basically rubbing it in Lear's face that he has lost all control over his estate and in turn himself. Lear asks him, "When were you so want to be so full of songs, sirrah?" and the fool replies, "I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest they daughters thy mother; for when thou gavest them the rod, and puttest down thine own breeches."

The roles of parent and child are obvious, but the role of fool does not seem to fit into so nicely. Shakespeare, however, weaves the fool throughout the play. It seems that when natural rule is forced aside by man, the result is that man becomes a fool. Lear should not be treated as a simple child, as he is by Goneril and Regan, but rather a respected dependent. When Goneril and Regan take advantage of him, he becomes a fool as stated earlier by the actual fool of the play. Once again in Shakespeare, we see the fool knowing the truth of the situation while others pick up the connotation of his role.

Lear in this respect turns to madness, and so Edgar is forced out of the role of son and into the role of a fool because the natural succession was interrupted by Edmond. Edgar is tricked, and forced to disguise himself as Poor Tom, which brings about a series of even more characters.

The madness of Lear, though, seems primary in the play. There is strong evidence of the fool taking over where nature is pushed aside: mainly, the representation of Lear's madness by the storm. He says, in reference to his age and the onset of his madness, in act 2, scene 4, "Infirmity doth still neglect all office whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves when nature, being oppressed, commands the mind to suffer with the body. I'll forbear; and am fallen out with my more headier will, to take the indisposed and sickly fit for the sound man."

It is also interesting that here in the midst of the storm, Lear encounters Poor Tom, a man seemingly without any of Lear's problem. He is essentially the natural man, free of possessions, roles, and especially daughters. Shakespeare presents him to us perhaps as an example of what this man would be, and to emphasize Lear's own realizations and oncoming madness. Lear, in his envy of Poor Tom tries to strip away his clothes and live like Tom, but he cannot because his Gloucester forces him in for the night.

Finally the fools of Edgar and Lear meet in a sort of understanding in act 3, scene 5. Edgar, still disguised as Poor Tom, has just encountered Lear and for the first time express a direct sympathy towards him, and also lets the audience know that he is aware of what has become of himself. Edgar says, act 3, scene 6, "How light and portable my pain seems now, when that which makes me bend makes the King bow, he childed as I fathered!" Here, Edgar seems to accept his position as the fool tricked out of the role of the son. Also, we see the two instances of nature failing, in the fools, come together in an understanding here. At this point, they both understand their situations as being taken advantage of by their families and forced from their natural roles.