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Madness as a Way to Truth Shakespeare introduces many themes in his famous play King Lear. The most important theme of the play is the theme of madness. During the play, madness was showed in King Lear, who was a tragic hero. Ahab in Moby Dick by Melville was also tragic hero full of madness, which was driving him to revenge. In Shakespeare's play, King Lear develops madness right in the beginning. He actually reveals it in Act IV.
In this act, King Lear is at the peak of madness, but it is also shown how he came out of his madness in that situation. It is undoubtedly the most important act, because it shows all the phases King Lear has gone through, from absolute madness to him coming out of it along with realizing his mistakes, which is the point of tragic vision. The theme of madness in King Lear is first depicted in the act through Cordelia's statement to the guards concerning the condition her father was in. Cordelia says Alack, tis he!
Why, he was met even now as mad as the vexed sea, singing aloud, crowned with rank fumier and furrow-weeds, with haddocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, darnel, and all the idle weed that grow in our sustaining corn. (Act IV, 1 - 6) It precisely shows the condition of King Lears mind. Cordelia gives a description of King Lear dressed in flowers, and weeds, and she explains to the guards that he is singing aloud. All of these characteristics are unfit for a king, thus, leaving one reasonable explanation of him being mad, which Cordelia states in her speech to the guards. Further illustration of King Lears madness can be found in Act IV, scene 6. Even though King Lear had already shown the signs of madness in previous acts, the peak of his madness was showed when King Lear was completely insane, because of his garments and his speeches to Gloucester and Edgar.
One of his speeches demonstrates madness when King Lear talks about bird and mouse that are not present. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted cheese will do it O, well flown, bird! (Act IV, 88 - 91). It was the first sign and real proof of King Lear being mad. Although King Lear shows signs of being mad, he also shows signs of being sane. This is shown through him knowing the cause of him being mad.
If King Lear was completely mad he would not be able to justify the reason for his madness. In Act IV, 96 - 105 he states that his daughters have done him wrong and shows signs of insanity when he calls Gloucester Goneril. Ha! Goneril with a white beard? They flattered me like a dog, and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there.
To say Ay and no too was no good divinity Go to, they are not men o their words! They told me I was everything. Tis a lie- I am not ague-proof. This quote shows Lears sanity. Lear may have qualities in him to make him seem mad but he possesses sanity, enough to know the cause of his madness. This possession of sanity soon brings King Lear to his moment of tragic vision.
King Lears moment of tragic vision comes when he is rescued by Cordelia and wakes up in her presence. At first, King Lear shows signs of sanity through his speech to Cordelia and Kent about his recognition of him being mad. I feel I am not in my perfect mind. (Act IV, 63) King Lear than recovers enough to know that he is in the presence of his daughter Cordelia, which he did not know before. Do not laugh at me; for (as I am a man) I think this lady to be my child Cordelia. (Act IV, 67 - 69).
The phase of the end of King Lears madness is when he finally admits he was wrong and asks for forgiveness. Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish. (Act IV, 84). This is the moment of tragic vision or demonic epiphany because King Lear confesses to his mistake but it is too late because he has already lost everything. Nevertheless, in order for King Lear to admit finally his mistakes, he has to be sane. A person has to be in absolutely clear state of mind in order to come up with the notion that he has done something wrong, and being a King with such hubris, to admit that he has done a mistake.
To conclude, Act IV was an important act in King Lear. This is because it showed all three phases of madness that the King had gone through. The phase of him being mad, which was shown through his garments and hallucinations, the phase of him coming out of his madness, by knowing the means of his madness and lastly the phase of him overcoming his madness, shown through his tragic vision. Ahab experienced quite similar emotions. The main theme of Moby Dick was revenge, but it is not secret that madness causes and supports revenge. Revenge is an instinctive human characteristic.
It is an emotion and a desire that demands justice. The emotions and actions associated with revenge are neither preventable nor controllable. However, either the effects of revenge may be treated freely as an act of nature being allowed to take their course, or they may be treated and punished like a crime. Revenge may either be treated freely as an act of nature and be allowed to take its coarse, or it may be treated and punished like a crime. There was a time when revenge was the basis for many laws. Taking into consideration the very nature of revenge, it being self-enveloping and condemning, the avenger should be treated as a mental patient rather than a criminal.
In Melville's Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab becomes the embodiment of revenge itself. His maniacal pursuit of the whale who maimed him has driven him to anguish homicidal, suicidal, and decimal, all at once. Ahab's intellect has enslaved him and it sends him to his death with the whale (Moby Dick, Ch. 127). Revenge is fed by the law of balance, equality, and a mania for justice that, even if it turns on itself, must be satisfied (Moby Dick, Ch. 127). The avenger is married to his ideals. Quite often, this leads him into danger as in the example of Captain Ahab.
Along with revenge comes a calm willingness to slay the self in the attempt to free it. The avenger becomes blind to his safety. Quite often, the government steps in to put a handle on vengeful or criminal acts in order to protect the individual. In chapter 35, we encounter a scene where Starbuck, the first mate, learns of Ahab's intent to pursue the White Whale to satisfy his lust for revenge.
Starbucks reaction to this turn of events is to question his captains motives and protest. For his purpose of the journey is to make money. To Starbuck whaling is a mean of income and anything else is madness. A born and bred Nantucketer, he firmly believes in the rules of capitalism and financial motivation...
but I came here to hunt whales, not my commanders vengeance. How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou get test it, Captain Ahab? It will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market. (Moby Dick, Ch. 35). It is at this point that Ahab utters the words that issue a direct challenge, striking at the very foundation of American civilization. In essence, Ahab throws aside business and profit. Nantucket market!
Hoot! ... If moneys to be the measurer, man, and the accountants have computes their great counting-house the globe, by girdling it with guineas, one to every three parts of an inch; then, let me tell thee, that my vengeance will fetch a great premium here! (Moby Dick, Ch. 35) Free enterprise should produce goods for sale. By working for as much money as possible men made themselves and their country great, as it was their duty to do so. These were the virtues of American civilization in 1851. Arguably, these rules would apply to this very day. However, in Ahab, we are presented with a character that defies the notions, casting them aside and following his own path.
In a similar fashion, Ahab scorns other American material philosophies. As Starbuck implores the captain to repair an oil leak, suggesting that the owners of the Pequod will not be happy, Ahab angrily admonishes the rights of the owners. "Let the owners stand on Nantucket Beach and outyell the Typhoons. What cares Ahab? Owners, owners?
Thou art always prating to me, Starbuck, about those miserly owners, as if owners were my conscience. But look ye, the only real owner of anything is its commander " (Moby Dick, Ch. 108) I view Ahab not as an unstable personality, but rather as a product of the life that he lives. His rise to stardom has in turn led Ahab to personal misery. Devoting the best years of his life to work, he has isolated himself from the rest of humanity. Ahab's meals with his officers are a direct symbol of such isolation. The rigid discipline Ahab is forced to maintain as a captain severs his ties of social contact.
Furthermore, by spending only three years of his life ashore, Ahab had not been able to marry until late in life and the drive to work has separated him from his wife and son. When I think of this life I have led; the desolation of solitude it has been; walled-town of a Captains exclusiveness, which admits but small entrance to any sympathy from the green country without - oh, weariness, heaviness! Aye, I widowed that poor girl when I married her, Starbuck; and then, the madness; and then the madness, the frenzy, the boiling blood and the smoking brow - more a demon than a man! What a forty-year-old fool-fool-fool, has Ahab been! Why this strife of the chase? Why weary, and palsy the arm at the oar, and the iron, and the lance?
How the richer or better is Ahab now? (Moby Dick, Ch. 131) It is this anguish over the years spent whaling and over the bitterness of his rewards that Ahab's malcontent boils over and becomes an obsession. The loss of his limb is merely the final straw that pushes Ahab in pursuit of Moby Dick. Therefore, the actions of both heroes were full of madness. These actions accompanied by anger and madness were viewed by heroes as their way to truth and justice; however, their actions had caused tragic events. Both heroes were realizing that their actions were only hurting them, but they were so full of madness that they were not able to take a right decision. Indeed, madness was driving them to truth, but truth could not be reached in the state of madness, because it made them not ready to act accordingly to the situation.
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Research essay sample on Play King Lear Years Of His Life
