King Lear | King Lear and Comedy
In this essay, P. Pick examines comedic elements and structure in King Lear, notwithstanding its overall status as a dark tragedy. The essay includes an overview of critical appraisals of the play, and touches on the sub-plot of Gloucester, Edmund, and Edgar.
Strangely enough, it is G. Wilson Knight, a critic famous (not to say notorious) for a vehemently Christian interpretation of Shakespeare's plays, who notes in The Wheel of Fire some of the comedic aspects of King Lear. Whether or not the harsh moral ecology of King Lear fits comfortably with the Christian ethos of forgiveness, structural elements of comedy are plainly present in the plays, quite apart from the sardonic humour of the Fool. Indeed, a "happy ending" involving the marriage of Cordelia and Edgar was part of Nahum Tate's revision of the play which was the...
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