Shakespeare’s vision of the world in King Lear is more optimistic than pessimistic. Discuss.
One might be forgiven initially for considering this play a pessimistic drama rather than optimistic. After all, Lear dies broken-hearted at the death of the only daughter he loved, cruelly snatched from him because of a time delay on Albany’s part. His heart-rending challenges to the Gods ‘Why should a dog, a rat, a horse have life and thou no breath at all?’ is a despairing cry against a dark and meaningless universe. He who had suffered so much and lost his sanity on the heath, surely deserved some time at last with Cordelia. If she were alive he says it would ‘redeem all sorrows that ever I have borne’. There is something terribly poignant about his last efforts to see if she might yet be alive, but, the mirror does not fog, nor does the feather stir. Lear dies in the most awful, tragic, painful despair. Kent aptly sums up the situation when he says, ‘all’s cheerless, dark and deadly’.
The pessimism can be overwhelming because the play presents such a bleak, void vision of humanity. There is unremitting filial ingratitude after which an old man is cast out ‘unbonneted’ to face the ‘tyranny’ of the elements; there is Edmund’s evil ambition to displace his brother in his father’s affections and the ease with which he does so leaves us amazed. Gloucester’s readiness to believe Edmund’s account of events without consulting Edgar is depressing and frustrating. His command to ‘find out his villain’ underlines how ‘credulous’ he is. The heartlessness of the cruel and graphic eye-gouging after which Gloucester is cast out to ‘smell his way back to Dover’ is only surpassed by the stark sight of Lear himself, garlanded with flowers and conducting the mock trial of his daughters. He whose suffering transformed him from ‘tyrant’ to humble man, haunted by his past surely should have been dealt a better hand! No wonder one might be forgiven for thinking that is a play purely concerned with pessimism.
However, there is much in the play as well to assure us of its inherent optimism. Lear ultimately changes and transforms from the proud and egotistical man to being humble and self-effacing. Through suffering he comes to a new vision of himself and his fellow man. At the beginning, he is blind to the hypocrisy of his daughter’s protestations of love; blind to the true love of Cordelia; blind to the loyalty of Kent. Only when he is cast out on the heath does he begin to appreciate some of the fundamental truths of life. In his suffering he begins to appreciate humanity. His concern for the Fool is touching - ‘I have one part in my heart that’s sorry yet for thee’. The arrogant Lear of the start begins to become aware of another stratum of society when he begins to wonder how the poor will survive the violence of the tempest. The vulnerability of their ‘houseless heads and unfed sides’ is a source of new concern for him. It dawns slowly on him that he has certain responsibilities towards them. He wants to understand their predicament, to empathise with them. This is why he says, ‘expose thyself to feel what wretches feel so thou may shake the superflux to them’. Lear also begins to see through the hypocrisy of his daughters and those at court ‘they told me I was everything, tis a lie, I am not ague proof’. He confesses that for too long he has been neglectful of duty, ‘I have ta’en too little care of this’. In this sense, we are beginning to see a new, emerging, transformative Lear. Lear in his mad state begins to see the world for the first time in a clear way. He sees not only the hypocrisy, but in justice in the very fabric of society and social class. He sees the division of rich and poor - the privilege of the former and the powerlessness of the latter. ‘Through tattered clothes small vices do appear, robes and furred gowns hide all’. Lear in these stages of his growth provides the reader with a reassuring optimism about human nature.
Gloucester similarly undergoes a dramatic enlightenment. That enlightenment paradoxically begins when he is physically blinded. Then he sees the injustice he has perpetrated on his loyal son Edgar. ‘O my follies, then Edgar was abused’. He who was passive and powerless to effect any chance merely observed events as they occurred, emerges as a man who takes on moral responsibility in respect of his duty to Lear. He doesn’t consider the consequences for himself. Duty comes first. ‘We must incline to the king’ he tells Edmund. There is a courage and dignity not seen before in his resignation to the torture of his eye gouging ‘I am tied to the stake and I must stand the course’. There is a new concern like Lear, for those who are less well off than he. He is anxious for the Old Man’s safety and gives the disguised Edgar his puse in a symbolic gesture to social equality, ‘so distribution may undo excess and each man have enough’. A new sense of responsibility to his fellow man emerges here. Gloucester is nursed through despair to accept responsibility for his own life and to meet the challenges with dignity and courage. He no longer seeks an easy escape in suicide after he has fallen from the ‘cliff-top’. He faces life with a new vision, ‘henceforth I shall bear affliction’. This is a dramatically different Gloucester from the beginning of the play. Similarly to Lear, his story is one of optimism.
Another optimistic aspect of the play is the ultimate triumph of Good over Evil. Edgar finally confronts Edmund in a symbolic duel between Good and Evil. The forces of Evil implode with the poisoning of Regan by her sister, the suicide of Goneril herself and perhaps even more dramatically, the triumph of Good in Edmund’s desire to do something positive in the dying moments of his selfish life, ‘Some good I mean do despite of my own nature’. Long before this, the bravery of Cornwall’s servant in confronting his master over the cruelty to be meted out to Gloucester becomes a powerful statement of hope for all humanity. The sacrifice of his life symbolises the resurgence of the forces of Good.
Order is ultimately restored through Albany, himself undergoing a redeeming process as well, from passive, powerless husband of Goneril’s to active participant in the eventual restoration of the kingdom. Even those characters that we associate with goodness at the beginning of the place, find their voice and become more assertive throughout the course of the play. As readers, we admire this. Cordelia develops a new, fighting spirit in her return to aid her father. Love is her driving motive, ‘no blown ambition’. Edgar too, confronts his evil brother Edmund, no longer passively accepting his role. His nursing of his despairing father on the heath and caring for him until he is able to meet the challenges of life again is powerful in itself. However, we cannot forget one character - the loyal Kent. He and Cordelia are essentially beacons of hope for any reader. Banished and threatened with death, he returns in disguise to help his master. Kent is the epitome of loyalty in a world of changing values. He is a symbol of optimism.
Overall, it must be concluded that the play is much more of a drama recording the resilience of the human spirit, even in the worst of times. We are reminded of man’s continual capacity for change no matter what his limitations, no matter what his faults, no matter what the obstacles. It is a play that employs universal, timeless themes and has relevance for us at many levels today. Its message is powerfully and dramatically optimistic.