King Lear | All of Shakespeare

In this excerpt, Maurice Charney probes King Lear's transformation, from his justice-centered madness to the recognition of his own fallibility. The excerpt touches upon some of the most important scenes in Lear, including the storm on the heath.

(From All of Shakespeare by Maurice Charney. ©1993 Columbia University Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Shut out on the heath during a wild storm, the mad Lear is preoccupied with justice:

Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes
Unwhipped of justice.
(3.2.51-53)

He is exploring one of the fundamental themes of Shakespearean tragedy. In the moral audit he is "a man/ More sinned against than sinning" (59-60). Fundamental to his vision of a more just society is his invocation of...




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