A Divine Cause for Abandoning Reason in Shakespeare’s King Lear

Abstract

King Lear can be considered as one of the most powerful tragedies written by Shakespeare. Written nearly 400 years ago, it appeals to todays’ literary critiques, psychologists and psychiatrists. Shakespeare’s construction of madness is so deep that psychiatrists diagnose the type of madness King Lear suffers from with its various aspects, such as mental disorder, mania, and dementia. One of the elements that triggers his dementia is stress which can be found in Lear’s case due to the corrupted relationship with daughters. Lear has unsolved problems with all of his daughters. Lear does not love them as a father, he loves them as a mother would do hence, their abandonment leads to his collapse. In the father-dominant family model of Elizabethan times King Lear was written, this idea is emphasized in the play further with the exclusion of a mother. King Lear does not only maintain kingly authority but also as the only head of the family and care-giver for his daughters, he maintains both)