Key Issues in King Lear
Madness
Justice
Deception
Family
Blindness and insight
Authority+order
King Lear almost becomes wiser in his madness
Lear declines into madness due to his own actions and his daughters betrayal
Gloucester physically blinded meaning he can't see his own son
Lear metaphorically blind towards daughters true nature
Supposed justice towards Gloucester for his 'betrayal'- false justice as they betrayed the king
Eventually the villains pay for their crime through death
Sibling bond initially strong between the two sisters but love and greed break that bond
Bond between father's and daughters is broken and fragmented, his daughters betray him even after he offers unconditional love
Edgar constantly in disguise throughout the play to hide from persecution
Two sisters deceive father to gain power- greed
Lear initially in position of authority but loses it to madness
Constant battle over authority and power
Identity and inner self
"The nature of Edgar's inner changes, on the other hand, is an entirely different question; whether he possesses what may be called a consistent inner self has been widely debated." (Carrol 426)
"Much of the difficulty in discussing Edgar stems from the series of roles he plays in the middle of the play which seem embodiments (if that is possible) of negation and self-alienation, most cryptically expressed in a string of orphic negatives" (Carrol 426)
"The play's eerie calculus transforms these negatives into the positive assertion of identity that Edgar makes to Edmund at the end of the play: "My name is Edgar, and thy father's son" (V.iii.169)-and yet even this positive assertion is characteristically ambiguous" (Carrol 426)
"We will never be able to explain everything about Edgar-the mystery of things is too great in his case-but his role in the play becomes clearer when we look more closely at his disguise as Poor Tom, the Bedlam beggar, and when we realize that the play's persistent interrogation of the human body's place in the natural and social orders is culminated in Poor Tom's suffering body. We will also see how a link between Poor Tom and Edmund helps clarify Edgar's situation in the play." (Carrol 426)