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The Fool character profile - Coggle Diagram
The Fool character profile
Relationship with Lear
acts as lears conscience
"i am a fool, thou art nothing" - the fool has an identity in court unlike lear who has given his away - reduced himself to nothing and without his status does not know who he is
lears protector when cordelia is banished
"can you make no use of nothing, uncle" A1S4 commenting on how lear has given everything away, lear has falsely relied on the goodwill of his daughters and now must realise that his daughters do not allow him to retain a certain degree of authority and power. questions refers to A1S1 when cordelia was banished because of her 'nothing' and fool suggests the 'ntohing' cordelia had to offer was more valuable that materialism and was her avowal fo true affection
"thou shouldn't not have been old till thou hadst been wise" A1S5 - knows lear gave up kingdom and power prematurely and criticises his rash behaviour
wisdom
sees through Lear and comments on the mistakes he has made "all thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with
aware of Goneril and Regans vile nature "the hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long / that it had its head bit off by its young"
only character allowed to criticise lear and avoid punishment and moderate Lears behaviour
thinks it was unwise to give away his kingdom "when though clovest thy crown in the middle and gavest away both parts...thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when though gavst thy golden one away"
symbol
is a symbol of truth in a world of lies and deceit
his function is a metaphoric mirro to lears follies
context
court jester or entertainer
ability to satisise artistocrats or the King and Queen (privilege)
tarot cards widely used in the 15th century europeans by mystics and fortune tellers - the fools card is a circle / zero or 'nothing'
A05
Cheri. Y. Halvorson - 'Shakespeare uses the beings that his world deems lowly and foolish to destabilise conventional wisdom about class and to subvert the hierarchal expectations of culture' (role of the fool)
John McRae - 'the fool is a force of anarchy in the play'