Significance Of The Storm In William Shakespeares King Lear - Research Paper Example

Lecturer: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STORM IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR Introduction In the construction of their works of literature, novelists and poets such as William Shakespeare always have a way of idealizing the themes and lessons that they wish to put forth to the reader. For Shakespeare in particular, the use of nature in exemplifying some of these roles has been very common. This has been found to be partly due to a personalized understanding that the writer has for nature and its relation to humankind. The work of King Lear is no different of such works where nature is made to place very significant role. More specifically, a storm was selected as symbolic representation of nature to exemplify the kind of relationship that nature could have with humankind. The impact of nature on humankind is also showed in how the storm was symbolically used. In this research paper, the various significant roles played by nature are scrutinized. This is done by identifying the specific roles that the writer personifies in the storm and then concludes the paper by critically scrutinizing how successfully this symbolism worked in bringing about certain changes in the setting where the whole story was focused. Symbolism of the Storm First and foremost, the usage of the storm can be said to a hypothetical manifestation of pending and prevailing physical circumstances. Specifically, we read of King Lear who was plagued with madness. Meanwhile, madness is a physical situation that the king was faced with. With all cases of madness, there is always a deep psychological unrest that makes people experience a deep inner and mental turbulence (Adelman 90). In a very close relation, storm is also characterized by acts of chaos and turbulence, which comes amidst the blasting of thunder and whirling of loud wind. Even though the storm took place as a natural physical, it was actually used to represent what was pending for King Lear in the physical about his mental state of unrest and madness. Somewhat, King Lear as a person had already had a realization of signs of these mental states of unrest and uneasiness with himself. For example the King burst it out loud that he had "tempest in [his] mind" that's not unlike the storm that rages on the heath (3.4.4.). This means that the symbolism with the storm was in its right place in casting a shadowing at coming events because King Lear had a very critical and serious inner turmoil and pending madness (Adelman 110). At the time of the storm therefore, there was an indication and reflection of Lear’s inner confusion and unrest but not a representation of the completed manifestation of the madness. To a large extent therefore, the storm was a parable or riddle that Lear had to solve about pending situation. Generally, the story of King Lear is one that had a lot of thematic basis for the relationship between nature and humankind. In effect, the author was using his work to express a divine relationship that exists between the spirit world and the physical world. However, in often cases, the physical, through the manifestation of actions of humankind was displayed in a manner that seemed that there was no regard for the existence and potency of the spirit world or the supreme natural element of life (Barish and Marshall 351). The storm can therefore be said to have been introduced to be a manifestation of the awesome power of nature and the supremacy that nature has over humankind. At several points in King Lear, people had use personality magnification and political authoritativeness to exemplify how superior and powerful they were (Bullough 73). The coming of the storm was therefore a symbolic language that needed to be decoded by those who were affected by it therefore. To a large extent, it was expected of the people, particularly the king to recognize his own mortality and how powerless he would be when brought before the might of nature. Very significantly, the eventual interpretation of this symbolic storm was for the king and all people to adopt the attitude of humility and appreciate that fact that they are frail and under the control of a greater power. As this had hardly been exhibited at any point in time in the story, it was expected that the coming and going of the storm would make humankind realize this need for at least the first time ever in the way he conducted himself. If nature is really in charge of humankind and controls the actions of humankind, then it should be possible for nature to put the ways of man right. Several other works of literature by William Shakespeare have been used to depict this and this was no different in King Lear. Throughout the play, there had been events and actions of people that were clear distasteful to nature. As the monitor of human life, nature was pouring out its justice as a representation of its anger for the things that had taken place in the play (Florio 55). Very specifically, mention can be made of serious acts of betrayal and extravagant exhibition of power. Throughout the play, acts of wickedness were displayed by use of betrayal, where we read of familial and political betrayals. As creatures of a more divine and holy Supreme Being, humankind is expected to embody very unique imagery and likeness of his maker by trying to cloth himself in love and respect for the welfare and dignity of one another. This is supposed to be done through support that we give to each other and by taking each person’s troubles to be our own troubles. But quite in the reverse, this does not happen as brothers are seen betraying brothers and children betraying father (Cavell 100). The storm had thus come to give divine justice to those who deserved it and punish those who deserved it. Once Goneril and Regan can go to the extent of betraying Lear to take up power in Britain and Edmund would also betray both Edgar and Gloucester to join Goneril and Regan, nature would have no other choice than to pour out its divine justice on the surface of the earth. Apart from the specific acts of weakness that some people displayed in the play for which nature would strike to bring about natural justice, the coming of the storm can also be attributed to the generalize political disarray that was taking place under Lear’s Britain. The supreme forces that control the actions of humankind were therefore discerning heavily on earth through the storm to signal to Britain the need for it to come back to its senses in the way and manner it undertook and engaged itself in politicking. In the reign of King Lear, nothing else of politics of wealth making and unjustified authoritarianism was taking place, denying the very indigenes for whose interest the kingship had been instituted their right to see such acts of socio-political liberation (Parker 74). Power was being abused, either intentionally or unintentionally but there could not be any justification for this, no matter how unintentional it was. This is because in a bid to put his own house in order, Lear was denying other people the right to deserve kingly attention. As a result, people where more or less forced to cater for their own interests, creating room for much chaos and political disarray, amidst political struggling by the very people around Lear. Parker (40) notes that it was rightly placed that William Shakespeare would choose to use the meteorological chaos in storm to represent this situation because indeed in the British political system, there was nothing else than political chaos and political disarray going on. Somewhat, the people had exhibited how comfortable they were with these chaos and thus the need for them to be given more, but in a much ironic manner that would make them wish for a break in chaos. Finally, it can be said that the storm was symbolically used to represent a sequence of event, which was specifically the madness of King Lear. This is because in the poem we nothing a very calculated implementation of the storm rather than a sporadic and spontaneous one. More specifically, the maneuvering of the storm started on a gradual basis to depict the gradual beginning of King Lear’s mental torture and torment. With time, the strength of the storm will be heightened to depict the climax of the mental torment, which had now developed into madness. But as the storm rages on at different parts of the play, it calms down eventually to coincide with the return of normalcy of Lear’s madness. At the time that the storm will clear totally, there is a significant turning point in the entire reasoning and mental health of Lear. Ideally therefore, it can be said that William Shakespeare had used the storm to symbolize the sequence of events, specifically the sequence of Lear’s mental state of wellbeing. There was no storm when Lear was not going through any form of mental distress because of the special role and place that the storm would later come to have with its chaotic and harsh nature. The storm would however start to depict the start of a state of mental unrest amidst blasts of loud thunder, glittering lightening, and strong wind. Rightly so also, the calming of the storm will be used to mark the end of the mental unrest. The storm was therefore fused into the whole plot of the story as it successfully depicted the flow of events. Effect of the Storm There cannot be any other better way of concluding the paper than asking whether the reasons for which the storm was introduced by the researcher achieved the goals for which it was introduced. In the first place, the influence of the storm on King Lear clearly stands out as very achieving in accordance to the reasons for which nature has been found to have brought the storm. This is because nature is said to have brought the storm as a way of drawing King Lear’s attention on some of the most grievous atrocities and calamities that was going on around his immediate life in the form of the disregard he had for the natural existence of a supreme force. When the storm goes down in the eventual while, we read of Lear coming to his senses of what he had done in time past after his mind was cleared again. So apart from the fact that the storm was effective in giving a timeline on Lear’s mental state of behavior, it was also very useful in achieving the goal of making Lear the impact of his past and making a useful decision to withhold himself from such conduct of life that was contrary to how nature expected him to live (Florio 55). What is more, on the need for the storm to have come to prompt of the unacceptability of the actions they put up in the form of wicked betrayals, we see a remarkable change in ways in which things were done after the storm was over. More specifically, we had read of Lear’s unwarranted and foolish betrayal of Cordelia’s love for him, which later set the tone for a number of actions of betrayal to follow, even from sons against fathers. But when eventually what could be said to be Lear’s punishment in the form of his mental unrest was over, one of the very first things that Lear sought to do was to make peace with people around him, including those he had offended initially. As the head of the kingdom, this action taken by the king was enough to start a sequence of self realizations of the unacceptability of actions that had been committed earlier. After Lear had proclaimed "Tremble, thou wretch That hast within thee undivulged crimes Unwhipped of justice" in Act III Scene 2, he had certainly come to terms that he had sinned enough than had been sinned against him and thus the need for him to lead the need for immediate change among all the people that were with him Cited Works Adelman, Janet. 1992. “Suffocating Mothers in King Lear.” In Suffocating Mothers. Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet to The Tempest. New York: Routledge, 103–129. Print. Barish, Jonas A. and Marshall Waingrow. 1958. ‘‘‘Service’ in King Lear.” Shakespeare Quarterly 9 (3): 347–355. Print. Bullough, Geoffrey. 1973. Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare. Volume 7, London, New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul/ Columbia University Press. Print. Cavell, Stanley. 2007. “The Avoidance of Love: A reading of King Lear.” In Disowning Knowledge: In Six Plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 39–123. Print. Florio, John. 1611. Queen Anna’s New World of Words, or Dictionarie of the Italian and English tongues. London: Printed by Melch. Bradwood, for Edw. Blount and William Barret. Print. Parker, Patricia. 1996. Shakespeare from the Margins: Language, Culture, Context. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Print. Read More