Time

The one scene that Time has is composed of 15 rhyming couplets. The language Shakespeare uses is time-associated, “swift”, “hour”, “pass”, “stale”, “speed, “pace”. Time, with a capital “t”, is personified as the speaker. Time directly addresses us, the audience: “Your patience this allowing…” This is a formal technique and is in a way breaking the fourth wall. Time acknowledges the time that has passed and also fills us—the audience—in on what has passed in the sixteen years that we as viewers are skipping. Although there is a rhyme scheme, it sounds like a speech, which is Shakespeare’s intention. Time discusses his fickle relationship with people: “I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror/ Of good and bad that makes and unfolds error…” The speech is both a macro-perspective on time and its reputation and in not the play but life in general. Then Time specifies his purpose regarding the events of the play. The reoccurring motif of birth is evident when Time says: “…in one self-borne hour”. Time then discusses the children of the two kings, Perdita and Florizel—the children born after the conflicts of their fathers. These are the children, who in the following acts of the play, may be able to reconcile the two kingdoms.

Page 45 lines 59-75: Hermione

Through this monologue, Hermione exploits her innate duplicity but also tries to uphold her status as angelical and pure. The passage creates a detached, informative mood that stresses the calculations behind Hermione’s speech. However, her angelic façade first crumbles at the sight of the word “mistress” in her first line of speech. In addition to the negative connotations that accompany the word mistress – adulterer, lover, illegitimate – Hermione furthers this negativity by claiming she is “More than mistress of/ Which comes to e in name of fault.” She furthermore refers to herself as “a lady like me”, which separates her nature from the typical characteristics of a “lady.”

Characterizing her nature further, Hermione describes the love she conveys as “even since it could speak, from an infant, freely/ That it was yours”; this statement claims that her love or Polixenes solely stemmed from the love Leontes shared with Polixenes. However, when Hermione relates this love to an infant, the reader quickly relates the impossible-to-know paternity of the child to the impossibility of knowing the extent of Hermione’s love of Polixenes. Even more significant, Hermione’s claim that both the baby and the love stem from Leontes remains unsubstantiated.

The unconfirmed claims magnify through Hermione’s unnecessarily flowery language and extended speeches. Contrasting to Leontes’ succinct one-liners, Hermione’s verses over-implicate to the point of disbelief. For example, though Hermione could have simply stated “I loved him as in honor he required” and convincingly made her argument, she continues to say “With such a kind of love as might become/ A lady like me, with a love even such, / So and no other, as yourself commanded”; the punctuation – of these excess words being set off by dashes – amplifies its triviality.

Opposing the unnecessary language, Shakespeare makes one word stand out to the reader through personification: conspiracy. Looking for the innate traits Hermione hides all along, the reader revels in her alleged detachment with conspiracy when she says: “Now, for conspiracy, / I know not how it tastes, though it be dished/ for me to try how.” Here, though she rejects having deceptive traits, she mistakenly admits involvement with conspiracy, or at least a flirtation with evil. If conspiracy had been dished to her, she must have seen, heard, or smelt conspiracy – therefore contaminating her as deceitful.

Blog #7

Select any passage from Acts IV or V of the The Winter's Tale to close read.

What the Fool?

The fool is one of the most ironic characters in King Lear. For one, his name is "Fool," yet he gives some of the most astute commentary out of all the characters in the play. He mainly criticizes the King for giving away his land to his daughters, saying that he'd "have thee beaten for being old before thy time...Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise" (1.5.39-43). This manner of speaking is typical of the fool; he simultaneously insults yet advises Lear, thus making him realize many of the King's errors. Being that he is much cleverer and more grounded than Lear, it is ironic that the foolish King Lear is (or was) in power, while the sensible fool is just that- a fool.


Despite his logical grasp on the situation, the Fool is largely an extraneous character. First and foremost, he gives a lot of sound advice to Lear, although most of it is in double talk. Most of this advice centers around Lear's foolishness in splitting up his kingdom and giving it to the daughters who hate him the most. Despite the Fool's attempts to advise Lear, his suggestions ultimately fall on deaf ears for the King does nothing to help his situation. The Fool's jabber ultimately serves to plunge Lear deeper into his madness by making him realize the gravity of his situation. Besides making the King more crazy, the fool is largely purposeless. It can be argued that the King would have become mad anyway, as evidenced by the fact that he stupidly gave away all his land before the fool came into the picture.

So if the fool's only purpose is to drive Lear to madness, why does he disappear after Act 3? I argue that the king has been so driven to into lunacy that the fool's only purpose has been served. Not only that, but now Lear is truly unreachable, for his mind is so far-gone that there is no hope for the Fool's advice to be heeded. Now fully useless, the fool disappears from the play due to Lear's final loss of sanity.

The Suicide of the Fool

Shakespeare has historically depicted the psychological degradation of the human mind in several plays, not the least of which is Hamlet. Hamlet, the famous protagonist of the play, was devised as a complex character that cautiously treaded the line between madness and sanity. While appearing on the surface to be muttering gibberish and nonsense, Hamlet often made incredibly witty puns or veiled, cunning observations under the guise of insanity. In The Tragedy of King Lear, the Fool is the character which by occupation borders on the edge of sanity when performing comical acts for the court's benefit. Make no mistake: Lear's Fool is one of the wisest characters in the play (much like Feste, the jester in Twelfth Night) and is much like Hamlet in his dichotomized behavior, as he alternates between the antic acts of a court jester and the astute observations of a court advisor. The Fool also demonstrates his ability to do both simultaneously, as seen in his exchange with King Lear in Act III, Scene 2: "O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this rainwater out o' door. Good nuncle, in; ask thy daughters' blessing. Here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools." (3.2.10-13) Through the role of a loyal court jester and entertainer, the Fool is able to directly attempt to bring Lear to understand and recognize his mistakes. In fact, as the play progresses, it becomes unclear as to who is in charge of whom, as the Fool—having brought a sobering understanding of reality upon Lear that in turn induces his madness—braves the elements alongside his maddened master and guides him through the storm until the pair comes upon Kent. It is in this scene—the scene in which the Fool last appears—that the audience truly sees the Fool as Lear's guide and not his companion or servant.

In his final appearance as Lear's guide, the Fool delivers a fateful prophecy in which chaos and suffering are dictated when natural laws are reversed. As a loyal friend and servant, the Fool is stricken with grief at having witnessed the degradation of King Lear and feels contrition at having been an impetus for Lear's harrowing realization of reality. In the final scene of the play, Lear states that his "poor fool is hanged" (5.3.282) which might either refer to Cordelia, who previously suffered such a fate, or the Fool himself. I've heard that, because Cordelia and the Fool never appear in the same scene, it has been speculated that they were played by the same actor, and the Fool removed out of the play by necessity. If true, having Lear simultaneously address both Cordelia and the Fool with a single title might be an allusion to this. I feel that Shakespeare uses the word "fool" intentionally throughout the play—the Fool addresses himself as such when referring to Lear and himself as a "wise man and a fool" (3.2.40) —and no doubt intends a reference to the Fool in Lear's line. He merely states that the Fool is hanged; the act is neither enacted upon him nor self-induced. However, using the word "poor" as an epithet in this context denotes the observation of the described fool as depressed or upset, possibly connoting that the death may have been a suicide. Given the Fool's utmost piety and companionship in regards to his master, it would make sense if the Fool hanged himself after witnessing Lear's descent into madness—a descent that the Fool himself knowingly helped foster.

The Fool Does Not Exist

In Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” the fool acts as a voice of reason for the king, often bluntly informing Lear of the depravity of his situation. For some reason, regardless of his biting comments, the Fool is never punished. This is because there is no one to punish. In King Lear, the fool is actually a figment of Lear’s imagination, a physical manifestation of what little sanity is left in the king’s brain.
The Fool only first appears after Lear has divided his kingdom and disowned his most loving daughter, the actions that spur his descent into madness. The appearance of the Fool simultaneously indicates that Lear’s craziness has begun while also providing the king with a sort of alter ego. This is proven when the Fool's choices mirrors Lear’s actions. The king thanks his most loyal attendant, Kent, saying, “Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee. There’s/ earnest of thy service,” and tips him with money (1.4, Line 93-94).” The Fool’s very first line falls right after that; he interjects, “Let me hire him too. Here’s my coxcomb,” offering his hat (1.4, Line 95). The Fool, or the figment of Lear’s imagination, and the King himself go on to have an entire conversation, until Kent speaks. He responds, “this is nothing, fool” (1.4, Line 127). He could easily be calling the King a “fool” because he is muttering to himself.
Another piece of textual evidence that indicates that the Fool is only in the King’s head is when the “Fool” confesses, “I had rather be any/ kind o’ thing than a fool; and yet I would not be thee,/ nuncle. Thou has pared thy wit o’ both sides, and left nothing i’ th’ middle” (1.4, Lines 167-170). The figment is saying that he would rather being anything but a fool at that moment, except for the king. Thus, the king as the Fool makes sense because, according to the quote, he is “taking a step up” the social ladder in a way by becoming a fool. The king escapes his past mistakes by creating a new companion is his head – one who will stand by him with subconscious wisdom even as he descends into madness. The fool even explains that the king’s “wit,” or brain was split “o’ both sides,” leaving “nothing i’ th’ middle” (1.4, Lines 167-170). This implies that the king himself is split into two figures: himself and the fool.
It is appropriate that the Fool’s last line is “And I’ll go to bed at noon” right before the king goes completely crazy, and then finally begins the ascent from his madness (3.6, Line 45). The last time the audience sees the fool, he says he’ll “go to bed,” and by the next scene, it appears that the king has gone completely mad, and thus his “voice of reason,” or the Fool, is gone. When Lear awakes and appears to be completely sane again, he admits, “I am a very foolish fond old man,” implying that the fool and himself are one again, no longer two separate entities (4.6, Line 57). He no longer needs a figment of his imagination to distinguish right from wrong.
In conclusion, the Fool is simply a figment of King Lear’s imagination, functioning as his voice of reason when it seems like madness is the only path to follow. Most of the characters, excluding Lear, hardly ever acknowledge the Fool, and not one of the king’s friends, comrades, or enemies comments on the disappearance of the Fool after Scene 3. This is because, to them, the Fool never existed at all.

King Lear's Fool

King Lear’s fool disappears after Act 3 because the fool’s common sense and sound advice so contrast the newfound madness of the king. Because the king somewhat took on the fool as a mentor, he would not want the fool to witness him in such a state; the fool’s presence as well as his advice would cease to help the king at this point in the play. Furthermore, since the king has, in essence, become a fool, the actual Fool’s presence would be contradictory. The juxtaposition of the knowledge of the Fool and the insanity of the king as a fool highlight the turn of events after the third act of the play. The reader recognizes that even the king defines himself as the newfound fool not only through his actions but also his speech after this turning point.

· He himself recognizes that “I am not in my perfect mind.” (355)

· “You must bear with me. Pray you now, forget and forgive; I am old and foolish” (356)

· “When we are born we cry that we are come/ To this great stage of fools” (340)

· “I am even/ The natural fool of fortune”

· “I am a very foolish, fond old man” (354)

· Gloucester “The King is mad” (348)