King Lear Essay Lear?s descent into madness and his subsequent recognit

In the play King Lear, Madness occupies a central place and is associated with both disorder and insanity. Madness intertwines itself within the thoughts of suicide of many characters that undergo hardships. It is deep within all the characters and is shown in many ways. In Lear’s mind, madness reflects the chaos that has descended upon his kingdom. He is affected by the wheel of fortune as he is stripped of his royalty, to become nothing more than a mad commoner. Lear then learns humility as he is joined by Edgar. Edgar’s artificial insanity contains wisdom for the king to discover along the way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Madness is first introduced in Act 2, when Goneril begins her first stage in demolishing her father’s royal status. She makes him go through what Shakespeare calls the â€Å"Wheel of Fortune† by demanding Lear to cut down his knight count by half from 100 to 50. Lear then attempts to seek refuge from this problem and goes to live with his other daughter, Regan. The conniving sisters take sides with each other in attempts to ruin Lear. Regan conforms with Goneril and orders Lear to deplete his knight count to zero. This gives Lear the opportunity to foreshadow himself going mad in the future. â€Å"O fool, I shall go mad!† (II.iv.287)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The theme of madness is explored in depth in Act 3, as many forms of madness in different characters are found. King Lear in particular is driven to a mad state and is followed by others who have gone ...