An Examination of the Significance of the Fool in King Lear

An Examination of the Significance of the Fool in King Lear

A Fool is used in plays as a professional jester or clown whose

function it was to amuse the king and his followers by his jokes and

witty remarks. The Fool enjoyed the freedom to speak on any subject

and to comment on persons and events without any restraint. The Fool’s

function was purely to provide entertainment and to amuse people.

Shakespeare’s objective in introducing the fool in King Lear is to

provide comic relief in the play where the events are very tragic and

oppressing.

The jokes of the Fool serve to lighten the gloom and to relieve the

tension and the stress which are generated by the cruel treatment

delivered to Lear by his own daughters and by the storm, fury and

violence which he faces of which are too great to bear by the aged

king. The Fool only speaks to Lear himself, and his words are

generally of a nature to ‘rub in’ the mistakes of Lear. The sarcastic

remarks of the Fool intensify the sufferings of Lear and actually

become a contributory cause of his madness. The Fool is essential to

Lear’s character development. The Fool represents the conscience of

Lear, maybe a reason why there is no more of the Fool when Lear loses

his mind.

The significance and the role of the Fool is not confined to just one

objective. Shakespeare uses the Fool for a number of reasons. I will

examine the Fool’s various significances in the play, King Lear.

The Fool has a strong attachment to Cordelia, one of the daughters of

the king. The first mention of the Fool comes when Lear, who is

spending his first month giving away his entire kingdom to his two

daughters, ask...

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play and the audience of the play.

As Lear suffers tremendously during Act three, his ‘injuries’ are

beyond the Fool’s power to alleviate, and ceases to be necessary to

the scheme of the play. No words of his are needed to emphasise its

self-evident tragedy, the king’s madness is emphasis enough, and

nothing can relieve its sheer affliction. So, the Fool is no longer

needed in the play and drops out of the action.

The Fool in King Lear does not make use laugh audibly, but his witty

comments do indeed relieve the tension, which might otherwise become

unbearable. Beyond this, he serves to highlight vividly the king’s

folly. The Fool is like a mirror, striving to show Lear his true

image. When Lear is able to realise his mistakes the Fool becomes his

master’s helper. With Lear’s madness, the Fool’s role ends.