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The Foolishness of Fools in Shakespeare's King Lear
Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear is comprised of many distinct themes. His contrasts of light and dark, good and evil, and his brilliant illustration of parallels between the foolishness of the play's characters and society allowed him to craft a masterpiece. Just as well, Shakespeare's dynamic use of linguistic techniques such as pun and irony aid this illustration of the perfect microcosm, not only of 16th century Britain, but of all times and places. By far the theme that best allowed the furthering of this superb contrast between Victorian England and Lear's own defined world is Shakespeare's discussion of fools and their foolishness. This discussion allows Shakespeare to not only more fully portray human nature, but also seems to illicit a sort of Socratic introspection into the nature of society's own ignorance as well.
One type of fool that Shakespeare involves in King Lear is the literal fool. This does not, of course, necessarily mean that they are fools all the time; or fools in the denotative sense of the term. Edmund, for instance, may definitely be seen as a fool in the sense that he is morally weak. His foolishness derives from the fact that he has no sense of right or justice. He discusses this as his father, Gloucester, leaves to ponder the "plotting" of his son Edgar. Edmund states that, "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that / when we are sick in fortune../...we make guilty of our disasters / the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains / on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion" seemingly for the soul purpose of illustrating his wickedness (I, ii, 32). Edmund realizes that his evil was borne by himself. This soliloquy shows the a...
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... evil in foolishness, implicitly stating that it is not necessarily foolish deeds that lead to evil, but evil that leads to foolish deeds. The truth of the play is that the only way one can avoid playing the fool is to take care to heed one's own inner voice. As Edgar says in the last line of the play, "The weight of this sad time we must obey / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."(V, iii, 261)
Works Cited and Consulted
Barber, C.L. "Tragedy of Foolishness." 20th Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978.
Jayne, Sears. "Foolishness in King Lear." Shakespeare Quarterly. Spring, 1964. pps. 27-7-288.
Knights, L.C. "On the Fool". 20th Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersey; Prentice-Hall, 1978.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. R. A. Foakes. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2000.
...nt interest. The company wanted to invest extra mortgage-backed securities with $100 million and get 7 percent interest. Then the company borrows a short term loan for $100 million at 4 percent interest. The leverage of company is $10 in a debt for every $1 of equity. The return on equity would be 3.7million on equity of $10million. Hence, investor was willing to obtain short term loan in the bank while they would be given a higher premium. Diamond and Rajan (2009) suggest that the short term debt is seemed like cheaper compared to the future illiquidity’s cost and the long term capital. Therefore, heavy short term leverage market becomes more common in the market of bank capital structure. While the risk-averse banker is unlikely bear the excessive risk, the illiquidity’s costs would be more salient. This had enforced the market into a heavy capital structure.
Elton, William R. King Lear and the Gods. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library, 1966.
While developing a software many complex activities are required which in turn have dependencies along them. Large software projects require the involvement of programmers, documentation specialists, program managers, architects, database analysts, system analysts, , and trainers and last but not the least testers. Along with their independent responsibilities these persons are also responsible to maintain and keep a check on the software system quality as well.
Muir, Kenneth. "Great Tragedies I: King Lear." Shakespeare's Sources. London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1957.
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Fool is a source of chaos and disruption in King Lear’s tumultuous life. The Fool causes the King distress by insulting him, making light of his problems, and telling him the truth. On the road to Regan’s, the Fool says “If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I’d have thee / beaten for being old before thy time.” (1.5.40-41). He denies the king the respect due to him as an aged King, causing the King to wonder at his worthiness. The fool also makes light of Lear’s qualms making snide remarks in response to Lear’s ruminations. When Lear asks Edgar cryptically, “wouldst thou give ‘em all?” the Fool responds, “Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed” (3.4.69-72). The Fool’s snide remarks do little to maintain Lear’s fragile control of his faculties. However, the Fool speaks to the king candidly, a rare occasion in Lear’s life. Even Kent acknowledges the truth of the Fool’s statements, saying, “This is not altogether fool, my lord” (1.4.155).
In Elizabethan times, the role of a fool, or court jester, was to professionally entertain others, specifically the king. In essence, fools were hired to make mistakes. Fools may have been mentally retarded youths kept for the court’s amusement, or more often they were singing, dancing stand up comedians. In William Shakespeare’s King Lear the fool plays many important roles. When Cordelia, Lear’s only well-intentioned daughter, is banished from the kingdom Fool immediately assumes her role as Lear’s protector. The fool is the king’s advocate, honest and loyal and through his use of irony sarcasm and humour he is able to point out Lear’s faults. Functioning much as a chorus would in a Greek tragedy, the fool comments on events in the play, the king’s actions and acts as Lear’s conscience. As he is the only character who is able to confront Lear directly without risk of punishment, he is able to moderate the king’s behaviour.
Gloucester and Lear, create their eventual downfalls due to their inability to read deceit. Though these characters share the same tragic flaw, the means by which they make their errors is completely different. Gloucester remains a poor reader because he is quick to believe his sense of sight. When his illegitimate son, Edmund, reveals a deceitful letter designed to incriminate Edgar, Gloucester is quick to believe him. “Abominable villain”(1.2.74) he cries out before he even examines the letter with his reading glasses. Edmund’s trickery is conducted cleverly, but Gloucester’s lack of disbelief is unexplainable.
King Lear as a Tragedy Caused by Arrogance, Rash Decisions and Poor Judgement of Character
The only one that can hold a mirror, telling the king the truth about his behaviour is the Fool. He is allowed to say anything of criticism without fear of retributions. He is actually Lear’s external conscience, speaking the truth about his three daughters. The Fool has greater wisdom about the world and s...
Modigliania, F., & Miller, M. H. (1958). The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment. The American Economic Review.
The Fool begins by offering his jester's cap to Kent, saying that if Kent is to follow Lear, he had better have a coxcomb, insinuating the folly of following Lear. He goes on to say that "if I gave my daughters all my property," I'd have to keep a coxcomb. The Fool is quick to juxtapose his comment against his statement that he does not have a "monopoly" on foolishness. The Fool further points out the presence of a "wise man and a fool" without saying who is who, and he criticizes Lear for "going the fools among," implying that Lear is usurping the Fool's position as one prone to lapses of judgment and sheer stupidity. He tacitly insinuates through his actions and statements that he is among the company of fools, which provides the hint of foreshadowing the audience needs to know that Lear is losing his wits.
Requirements engineering begins during the communication activity, continues into the modeling activity, and builds a bridge from the system requirements into software design and construction. Through requirements engineering, there is an examination of the context of software work performed. It is essential for the software engineering team to understand all requirements of a problem before the team tries to solve the problem. An identification of specific needs that the design and construction must address is also included. Further is a need for the identification of the priorities that guides the order for the completion of work. This i...
Modigliani & Miller, M&M, (1958) found that in a world without taxes, the value of the firm is not affected by its capital structure, and also that the total return to investors remains the same regardless. M&M showed the
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of King Lear. New York: Washington Square, 1993. Print.
Software development follows a specific life cycle that starts with designing a solution to a problem and implementing it. Software testing is part of this software life cycle that involves verifying if each unit implemented meets the specifications of the design. Even with careful testing of hundreds or thousands of variables and code statements, users of software find bugs. “Software testing is arguably the least understood part of the development process” and is also a “time-consuming process that requires technical sophistication and proper planning” (Whittaker 71) It is important to comprehend this concept by understanding the different characteristics and aspects of software testing, and then to examine the techniques, procedures and tools used to apply this concept. This will enable the user to realize the problems faced by software testers and the importance of software testing.