King Lear 939The foolish test of love thus sets Lear upon a painful
path of self-discovery.
Although he abandons his responsibilities as
king, Lear intends to retain the title, honors, and
privileges, as well as a train of 100 knights. However,
he soon learns that, without the authority of the
crown, he has lost his identity and has become noth-
ing more than “my lady’s father,” as Goneril’s servant
Oswald informs him. Outraged at the disrespect he
suffers in his daughter’s household, Lear asks, “Does
any here know me? . . . Who is it that can tell me
who I am?” (1.4.224, 230). Ironically, it is the Fool
who truthfully replies: “Lear’s shadow” (1.4.231). As
his daughters unite to dismiss his knights, remind
him of his weak position and advanced years, and,
finally, cast him out into the storm, Lear’s sanity
breaks. In this desperate state, however, he begins to
reassess his actions and, in doing so, finds an identity
beyond his former position. Shortly after declaring
himself “a man more sinned against than sinning”
(3.2.60), Lear repents that, as king, he neglected the
welfare of his most needy subjects. For the first time,
he looks beyond his own desires and recognizes
that he shares in the same human condition as the
shivering Fool and the mad, naked Bedlam beg-
gar. Unable to deal with his daughters’ cruelty and
his own shame, Lear retreats more deeply into the
wilderness—and madness. It is Cordelia’s uncon-
ditional love that brings him back to sanity and
allows him to see that the good in human nature can
outweigh the bad. As they are taken to prison, Lear
acknowledges that he needs none of the trappings of
royalty; his identity as a man—as a father dutifully
loved by his daughter—is sufficient.
Identity is also a significant theme for the earl of
Gloucester’s sons. Although his father has acknowl-
edged him, Edmund knows that he will always
be branded as an illegitimate son, a position that
limits his opportunities and keeps him in a lesser
place in his father’s heart. He rages against a society
that rewards men according to their birth, not their
merits, and he schemes to displace not only his
elder half brother Edgar but his father as well. By
assuming the identity of a loyal, loving son, Edmund
convinces Gloucester that Edgar conspires to mur-
der his father. Unwilling to wait for his inheritance,
he shifts his loyalties to the earl of Cornwall, turn-
ing in his father for aiding Lear and corresponding
with Cordelia. Edmund’s role-playing succeeds even
beyond his own expectations, but “the wheel is come
full circle” (5.3.175) in the end: His dying confession
reveals the extent of his evil nature and his desper-
ate need to be loved, even if only by Lear’s wicked
daughters.
Name and reputation shape Edgar’s identity.
When Gloucester issues a warrant for his arrest, he
assumes the identity of Poor Tom, a mad beggar,
which allows him to travel freely, hidden among
society’s nameless, faceless poor. As he dons the
disguise, he remarks, “Edgar I nothing am” (2.3.21).
As a man wanted for conspiring to kill his own
father, he is nothing. No longer heir to the earl of
Gloucester, he is nothing. Unable to claim his own
name, he is nothing. Yet the qualities that truly form
Edgar’s identity—his loyalty, his optimism, and his
unconditional love for his father—remain. When
he challenges Edmund in the final scene, Edgar
tells the herald that “my name is lost” (5.3.123). His
adversary defeated, he reclaims his identity: “My
name is Edgar, and thy father’s son” (5.3.170).
Kent, too, assumes a superficial disguise through-
out most of the play, but his true identity remains
intact. Having warned Lear not to reject Cordelia,
Kent is himself exiled on pain of death, but, more
concerned about the dangers that he suspects Lear
will face, he dons a disguise and offers his service
to the unthroned king as Caius. Like Kent, “Caius”
speaks his mind and proves unfailingly loyal to his
master.
In King Lear, Shakespeare explores status, name,
reputation, and appearance as the means for estab-
lishing identity. Ultimately, however, it is through
their actions and their relationships with others that
the characters define an identity that endures.
Deborah MontourireSponSIbILIty in King Lear
Responsibility has two general meanings: one’s duty
and accepting the consequences of one’s actions.
Both types of responsibility play major thematic
roles in King Lear. Perhaps the two most duty-
driven characters in the play are Cordelia and Kent.
In the opening scene, when expected to compete
with her sisters for a portion of the kingdom by