Lear's Madness

The storm symbolizes the madness that is going on in the play as a whole but more specifically King Lear. My favorite part is were he is so completely out of his skull but at the same time gaining a perspective he didn’t know existed. “Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings! come unbutton here.” King Lear’s reply to Edgar’s (poor Tom) answer to whom he used to be. Lear seeing that Edgar is naked and sympathetic to his recent decent to poverty tries to sympathize with him by tearing his own clothes off; he also has realized that the only difference between royalty and poverty is the clothes that are worn. Early quotes lead me to think that he was also trying to gain an identity. “Doth any here know me?...Who is it that can tell me who I am?” In his frenzied state he is searching for any identity he can. This happens in a less severe way on occasion to me. It’s a pride cycle, things go really well, you build yourself up and then reality hits. I don’t go insane when it happens because I have a base that I fall on. King Lear has no base and has rid himself of the only stable person in his life, Cordelia. The stripping of his clothes and also the chaos of the storm could be paralleled with chaos in the kingdom and his personal life. Lear leaves one daughter to seek refuge with another, only to find they are both plotting against him. He has been stripped of his power and influence, and his daughters plot to rid him of any control he has left. “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!” to me Lear is saying bring it, to the elements and also to his daughters. He eventually realizes that the storm will destroy him unless he seeks cover, likewise, his daughters will destroy him and the kingdom if he doesn’t seek cover. The awesome power of the storm brings Lear to his knees for the first time.