The fool in literature and culture

¶ … Fool in "King Lear" is one of the complex characters that is allowed, under a veil of foolishness, to say anything in front of the King, because he is considered to be partially irresponsible and, as such, cannot be punished for the things he says. The result is a confusing set of remarks, but many of these have underlying significance and effect on the play itself. The fact that he is able to speak his mind freely allows the author to sometimes put in his own remarks and observations as to the way the action of the play is constructed, without actually being one of the characters of the plays.

The Fool starts his speeches in Act I, Scene 4, where one can identify two types of speeches. In one type, he is making comments on the actions of the King, notably on the way he banished his daughter. However, the way he expresses this does not seem necessarily to reflect the entire reality of things. A line such as "Why, this fellow hath banish'd two on's daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will" is not a real one: the King has banished one of his daughters and, apparently, did a blessing to the other two. The nonsense part of The Fool's speeches seems to be usually built upon these lines in which he reverses the actual reality.

In my opinion, most of his speeches and interventions in the dialogue bear some sort of meaning, despite some of these appearing to be out of place or with no relation to what is going on. The fact that occasionally the Fool speaks in rhymes usually puts the reader in guard that this might be something that does not make sense, such as the lines in Act III, Scene 6 "Her boat hath a leak, And she must not speak Why she dares not come over to thee." While the actual conclusion is preceded by several useless lines, the conclusion is, in fact, that the character is afraid to come next to Edgar. This is noticeable across some of the other interventions that the Fool says: he usually speaks several lines that have no actual impact on the action before coming out with the one that has meaning for the course of the action.

On the other hand, the previously mentioned scene also contains interesting general reflections on life. Under the mask of foolishness, the Fool is able to point out that "Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, Ride more than thou goest." There are two elements worth pointing out about this speech. First of all, it contains recommendations as to how one can achieve good things in life. What may look like distorted elements are, in fact, wise reflections on life. However, even more than that, the use of a backward approach, similar to the one previously presented, can again be noticed. Instead of saying that it is better to know more than one knows, the Fool reverts this into "speak less than thou knowest." It is similar for the other three elements in his speech. As such, a speech that seems to make no sense at first becomes, at closer reading, a testimony of the Fool's wise perspectives on life.

Further along in this scene, the reader can identify his ability to speak truthful things under the apparent shadow of his madness. The couple of lines in which he explains that King Lear is a fool are an excellent reflection of the use that Shakespeare has for this character. As such, "That lord that counsell'd thee, To give away thy land,

Come place him here by me- Do thou for him stand. The sweet and bitter fool Will presently appear." In a couple of lines, the Fool was able to present and properly resume the entire existing situation: the King listens to advisers who do not offer him the proper advices, and because of that, as well as because of his actions related to that, he is a fool.