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"King Lear" and ChaosAuthor(s): L. M. STOROZYNSKYSource: Critical Survey, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1991), pp. 163-169Published by: Berghahn BooksStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41555577

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King

Lear and

Chaos

L. M.

STOROZYNSKY

Mythological

and biblical stories about the creation of the world from Chaos

provide

an

informing rinciple

in

King

Lear. Such narratives familiar to Elizabethans include

Hesiod's

Theogony,

Ovid's

Metamorphoses,

and the book of Genesis.1 A character-

istic feature of these narratives s a

cyclical

pattern

of creation followed

by

destruction

and the return to a state of chaos.

Moreover,

in classical and biblical accounts of

creation,

while

harmony among

the elements that make

up

the

world is the desired

end,

it s achieved

only through

their division or

separation.

King

Lear

has

been called

'a

play

about the end of the

world,'2

but it is also a

story

of creation and

destruction,

and

especially

of

separation

and division.

But,

whereas in the earlier

myths

the

very

world is born of Chaos- of the void- of

nothing-

central

to the

play

is Lear's

assertion that

'Nothing

can

come of

nothing' (1.82)

,3

an

expression

recognisable

to

Elizabethans

as

both

a

commonplace saying,

and a controversial

doctrine,

ex nihilo

nihil

fit,

denying

creation ex nihilo 4

King

Lear

is

often

praised

for

its double

plot:

the

parallel

stories of Lear and

Gloucester add complexity,while unifying heme and action. But a second double

structure,

onsisting

of the real and

imagined

worlds of the

play,

creates

a tension that

throws the action into disorder. The real world

consists of the

tangible,

physical

features of Lear's

kingdom:

man-made

objects,

and the world

of Nature. The

imagined

is Lear's idea of the

kingdom

and his

relationship

to it.

In this

respect

also,

Lear

is

paralleled

by

Gloucester. The old men inhabit worlds created

by

the

mind and

emotions,

but which share some of the features of their

actual

surroundings:

solation,

heights

and

depths,5

enclosures,

and

open, empty places.

However,

while the

imagined

is often manifest

n

the

external,

the

two are not as

consistently

parallel

as

are the two

plots.

Neither world is of a fixed character: what seems safe

and

sheltering

may turnhostile; what is hostile may prove safe. Real as their maginingsmay be to

the old

men,

ideas are

only

insubstantial

mages.

Here,

not true reflections

f

reality,

these

images

represent

nothing.

Lear's sententious

'Nothing

can come of

nothing,'

meant to be

a

practical

observation,

intended to

prevent,

not lead to

disorder,

turns

out to be

prophetic;

the fulfilment f this accidental

prophecy

is

what the

play

examines.

Like the

mythological

and biblical

stories,

King

Lear

begins

with

a kind of creation

defined

by separation,

a

search

for order in division. Lear deconstructs

his

kingdom

and

kingship,

believing

that

he

is

creating

a

new

order. His

reason,

'To shake all

cares

and business off our

state,/

Confirming

them on

younger years'

(1.40-1),

seems

©C.Q. &S. 1991






164

Critical

Survey,

Volume

3,

Number 2

generous,

but

is

selfish. If

kingship

is such a

burden,

why

should he

impose

it

on

others? Lear

thoughtlessly

heads toward chaos

by initiating

a

process

of

inevitable

destruction. To those close to

Lear,

it s

apparent

that his mind is unstable and

that he

does not

fully

realise what he is

doing.

His

family and friends attempt either to

redirect

his

thinking

r to take

advantage

of it. GoneriPs insincere

expression

of love

for

Lear,

'Dearer

than

eyesight, space,

or

liberty' (1.51),

ironically

lists the

very

things

that

are

precious

in

the

play-

indeed,

that are

precious everywhere

and

always-

and that

by

comparison

devalue

commodities measured

by

'how

many'

or

'how much'. But Lear's

eyes

are on his

map,

a

sign

of the wealth and extent of

the

kingdom,

but

also

a

small, neat,

controllable microcosm. The

pleasant pastoral

land-

scapes

he describes are 'divided in three'

(1.38),

confined within bounds

even from

this line to this'

(1.58)-

space

without

liberty.

And in

the division of his

kingdom,

Lear restricts

his own

liberty.

He does not

see that in

breaking up

his

kingdom,

delegating

responsibility

o

others,

and

divesting

himselfof all

save 'The

name and all

the additions to a king' (1.128), he reduces his own

authority

o

nothing

meaningful.

He himself

unwittingly

redicts:

'So be

my grave my

peace' (1.117), punning

on

the

tiny

piece

of the

kingdom

that

will,

in

fact,

be his. His

very

words to his

successors

unconsciously

predict

division: 'This crownet

part

betwixt

you'

(1.131).

The

boundaries on

the

map

are

intended

to

make the land secure and

manageable,

but

boundaries,

more often than

not,

inspire greed

for

expansion, leading

to dissension

and further

ivision.

Division

between

Albany

and Cornwall is

soon rumoured

(6.6-

13,

8.18-21),

and Kent will

lament 'this scattered

kingdom' (8.22).

It is

Lear's beloved and

sincere Cordelia who

unintentionally

puts

the

word

'nothing'

into Lear's

mind

and

on his

tongue.

He mistakes her

honesty

for ack of love

and in returngives her nothing. His new 'creation' begins to go wrong when Cor-

delia's refusal

to

cooperate

in his

charade

provokes

the

headstrong

Lear

into

giving

up

not

only

power

and

position,

but the

security

of her

love as well. The

faithfulKent

is the first o call him

mad

(1.139-41),

but Lear refuses to

listen,

threatening

o kill his

'physician' (Kent,

the

voice of

reason),

and

succumbing

to his

'disease'

(madness)

(1.153-4).

Kent's

words are harsh but

true,

and so

he,

like

Cordelia,

is

'banished,

his

offence

honesty' (2.111).

Lear

orders Kent: 'turn

thy

hated

back/

Upon

our

kingdom'

(1.165);

yet

this s what he

himselfhas

done,

and the

kingdom

is no

longer

his.

Kent's

reply, Friendship

lives

hence,

and

banishment s here'

(1.171),

will

also

shortly

pply

to

Lear.

Goneril's

conversation with

Regan

demonstrates that

they

know their

father

only

too

well,

better than he knows

himself:

GONORiL You see

how fullof

changes

his

age

is. . . . He

always

oved our sister

most,

and withwhat

poor udgement

he hath

now cast her off

ppears

too

gross.

Regan

'Tis the

nfirmity

f his

age; yet

he hath

ever but

slenderly,

nownhimself.

(1.279-84)

But their

concern about Lear's

'unruly

waywardness' (1.288)

derives

only

from

worry

about

how

it

may

affect hem.

Using

their

knowledge

of

their

father,

he two

conspire

to

aggravate

his

irrational behaviour to turn t

to their

advantage.






King

Lear and

Chaos

165

Lear's

warning

that

'Nothing

can come of

nothing'

returns to haunt him in the

Fool's

taunting

words: 'Can

you

make no use of

nothing,

uncle? . . . Thou has

pared

thy

wit o' both sides and left

nothing

'th' middle. . . . Now thou

art an

О

without a

figure. . . . thou art nothing' (4.126-88). Allowed the privilege of audacity- and

honesty-

the Fool

points

out

why

Lear's

plans

miscarried: 'thou madest

thy

daughters thy

mother'

(4.165),

and warns

him,

through

the

parable

of the

hedge-

sparrow

and the

cuckoo,

of

the

inevitable

consequences

(4.210-11).

Lear still

will

not

accept

truth,

but the Fool's words

are as

predictive

as Lear's own.

While Lear

gives

away

his

kingdom,

Gloucester announces

his own

willingness

to

'unstate' himself

(2.99), although

for

a differentreason. As

short-sighted

as

Lear,

Gloucester is

easy prey

to the

power

of

suggestion,

and

Edmund

easily

plants

an idea

in his father's

mind. While Lear's mind is on

land,

Gloucester's

is on the sun and the

moon.

Edmund,

like Goneril and

Regan,

wants his father's

land,

and

Gloucester,

once

turned

against

his favourite

son,

automatically

promises

it to

his bastard

(6.83-

5).

Gloucester reacts

exactly

like Lear,

displacing

his favour onto an

unworthy

recipient,

and

significantly

he word

'nothing'

is

heard

again

here,

in

an echo

of the

earlier circumstances. Like

Cordelia,

Edmund introduces

the

word;

like

Lear,

Glou-

cester defines

it: 'The

quality

of

nothing

hath not such need to

hide itself

(2.33-4).

Edmund's

'proof'

of

Edgar's 'conspiracy'

amounts to

nothing,

in so much

as it is

false,

but

this

'nothing'

becomes

something

in Gloucester's

mind. His

superstitious

understanding

of events

triggered

by

the iate

eclipses

in the sun and moon'

suggests

a

world view

as unrealistic as Lear's

(2.103-9),

where he can

believe the incredible

about

his own child.

Edmund at firstmakes a show of

ridiculing

his father's

way

of

thinking, criticising

the

complacency,

the 'admirable evasion'

of

responsibility

of

those who 'make guilty . . . the sun, the moon, and the stars' (2.113-28). But

Edmund,

like Goneril and

Regan,

knows how to work

upon

his father's

superstitions,

offering

Gloucester

further

proof

of

Edgar's

treachery 6.37-9)

in the

language

and

imagery

that Gloucester

understands.

Addressing

his brother

in the same

vein,

Edmund is

met

with

ndifference,

f

not disbelief:

'How

long

have

you

been

a

sectary

astronomical?'

(2.145).

But

ironically

Edmund's

'predictions'

(2.138-44),

made

in

mocking

imitation of

his

father's

prophecy,

will

be fulfilled.

Again,

words

are

destined to become

action, and,

whenever this

occurs,

the

speaker

loses

control of

events he himself

puts

into

motion;

it is

only

too true

that Edmund knows not what

will

happen

(2.144)-

no more than Gloucester or Lear.

Lear soon suffers he consequences of his conduct. 'Idle old man,/That still would

manage

those authorities/ hat he hath

given away'

(3.16-18),

Lear

upsets

Goneril's

household

with

demands, criticism,

and orders:

a

great display

of

activity, highly

reminiscent of the

first

cene of the

play,

and all

to

no

purpose.

Lear now

begins

to

realise

his

self-imposed

restrictions: hat name' and 'addition of

a

king'

are no

longer

kingship.

In the face of Goneril's lack of

hospitality

and

respect,

and the Fool's

truthful

mocking,

Lear's frustration ntensifies.

As

he

begins

to

comprehend-

'O

Lear,

Lear / Beat at this

gate

that let

thy folly

in/ And

thy

dear

judgement

out '

(4.264-6)-

he

theatrically

and

embarrassingly questions

his

very identity:

Doth

any

here know me? . . . Who is it that can tell me who

I

am?'

(4.220-5);

only

the Fool






166 Critical

Survey,

Volume

3,

Number 2

replies

seriously-

'Thou wouldst make

a

good

fool'

(5.38).

Lear fears real madness

and

glimpses

the chaos of the mind:

'O,

let me not be mad ... I would not

be mad

(5.45-7).

Regan matches her sister's skill in reinforcing

and

taking advantage

of

Lear's

doubts and

growing

disillusion:

О

sir,

you

are

old

Nature

n

you

standson the

veryverge

Of his confine.You should be ruled and led

By

some discretion hatdiscerns

your

tate

Better han

you

yourself.

(7.304-8)

The sisters'

calculated

cruelty

pushes

Lear toward the

'very verge'

of

sanity. Angered

and

confused to the

point

of

incoherence,

Lear

begins

to understand

himself: I shall

go mad ' (7.445). And as he graduallydoes go mad, he is keenly aware of his state of

mind:

'My

wits

begin

to

turn'

9.68);

'O,

that

way

madness lies.

Let me shun that./No

more of that'

(11.20-1).

The

rapid disintegration

of Lear's unrealistic

(and

improvised) arrangement

of his

kingdom

forces

him

to

recognise

the

failure of

his

'creation'. Lear leaves

behind the

comfortsof

court,

renouncing

all roofs to take his

chances

with

Nature

(7.366-9):

the

final

rejection

of

the hated

kingdom.

Lear leaves of his

own

accord,

with the final

humiliation of

having

doors

slammed

shut

behind

him

(7.461-6),

a

gesture

which in

itself demarcates

space

or

place,

and reinforces division.

Gloucester,

believing

that he and Lear

suffer he abuse of

ungrateful

offspring,

s

sympathetically fflicted: I am almost mad myself. . . The griefhath crazed mywits'

(11.153-7).

Here,

at his

most

vulnerable,

he is

further

etrayed by

Edmund.

Prisoner

in his own

home,

Gloucester,

blind

to

reality

ike

Lear,

is now

physically

blinded. The

two

plots converge

at this

point:

although they

do not

perform

the task

themselves,

Goneril and

Regan

are

responsible

for Gloucester's

blinding,

and it is

Regan

who has

him thrust

ut of the

gates

of his own

home

(14.91):

the same

gates

that

closed behind

Lear.

Lear and Gloucester turn

to Nature to learn what

they

would not learn in

the

sophisticated

court

environment. Nature in

King

Lear is harsh and

indifferent,

iolent

and chaotic. In

such a

landscape

there is little to calm the

tempests

of the

mind,

and

when Lear

turns to it at its

most

hostile,

he

meets storm with

storm.

Contending

with

the fretful

lement'

(8.3),

he invokes the

storm to do his

bidding (9.1-9).

But

it is

'eyeless',

and

Lear cannot

help feeling

that in

their

cruelty,

the elements 'have

with

two

pernicious daughters .joined'

(9.22)

against

him.

Similarly,

Lear assumes

that

Edgar

suffers

because he has

evil

daughters.

But little

by

little,

n

the new

environ-

ment,

Lear's

mind rids itself

of this

self-centred

vision.

Feeling

'more sinned

against

than

sinning',

Lear finds

strength

to face the

storm,

whereas

those

with

'pent-up

guilts'

cannot

(9.58-60);

indeed,

his

daughters

have shut

themselves

indoors,

away

from the storm.

Lear

acknowledges

the

tempest

in his

mind,

considering

it

'the

greater

malady',

the storm

around

him,

'the lesser'

(11.6-14),

and it

seems that Lear






King

Lear

and

Chaos

167

would do better to remain without. He

agrees only reluctantly

o enter

Edgar's

hovel,

preferring

the wildness

of the storm which

prevents

him from

pondering

more

unpleasant

thoughts (11.23-5).

And

although

Lear makes an effort to

adapt

to

'necessities . . . That can make vile thingsprecious' (9.71-2), it is when faced withthe

hovel,

which should

provide

shelter,

that he feels

his wits

really begin

to turn. But

Lear does learn fromthe vision of

what he thinks

Edgar

to

be,

in the storm. He

grasps

from

Edgar

the selfishness and

folly

of

divesting

himself of too

much,

and of the

wrong things.

He should

have

given

away only

the

superfluous,

and

given only

to

the

right

people

for

the

right

reasons. Lear envies

Edgar's apparent affinity

ith

Nature,

comparing Edgar's

freedom and lack of debt to himself and his

sophisticated

court

companions. Finally,

he follows

Edgar's

example

and

attempts

to remove his own

clothing,

the last

trappings

of

court,

to

approach

nearer still

to Nature. But Lear can

no

longer

know that the

great

differencebetween himself and

Edgar

is that

Edgar

is,

and

always

has

been,

in

control of his own mind and actions.

Edgar

is

playing

a

role,

his nakedness is a

disguise,

his madness

deliberately

assumed.

Edgar

knows that The

low'st

and

most

dejected thing

of

fortune,/

tands still n

esperance,

lives not in fear'

(15.3-4).

Lear,

on the other

hand,

is

entirely

out of control. Even what he learns

amounts to

nothing

because he cannot

apply

it;

he cannot turn

back.

Completely

disassociated from

the

past,

no

longer appreciative

of 'lines and

bounds',

he now

prefers space

and

liberty'.

But his

well-meaning companions

lead

him

to

yet

another

'shelter' from the

storm,

and here his world turns

upside-down. Going

back

inside,

Lear remembers his

daughters

and loses all sense of

time

and

place:

'Make no

noise,

make no noise. Draw the curtains.

So, so,

so.

We'll

go

to

supper

i'th'

morning.

So,

so,

so'

(13.77-8).

Gloucester, like Lear, learns more fromEdgar than from Nature. He immediately

realises

his

own

folly

and former

'blindness',

and learns what Lear learns about

prosperity

and

adversity:

I have

no

way,

and therefore ant no

eyes.

I

stumbledwhen saw. Full oft tis

seen

Our means secure

us,

and our mere defects

Prove our commodities.

(15.16-19)

But Gloucester's initial

response

to

suffering

nd

misfortune

s

despair

and

defeat. He

makes no effortto confrontadversity as Lear does, still believing that the human

condition is out of human

control:

'As

flies to wanton

boys

are we to th'

gods;/ They

kill

us for their

sport'

(15.35-6).

Desiring only

death,

Gloucester asks to be led to

the

cliffs

f Dover

(15.71-6).

Edgar,

like

Edmund,

plays

upon

Gloucester's beliefs to

put

ideas

into his

head,

but

Edgar

hopes

to

cure

his

despair

(20.33). Painting

a verbal

picture

of an

imagined

landscape, Edgar brings

Gloucester to 'th'extreme

verge'

(20.26),

not of the

cliffs,

but

of

sanity,

n a

beneficent mitation of

Regan's

mistreat-

ment of Lear. When

Gloucester's life

is

'saved'

by

a

'miracle',

Edgar

speaks

again

within

the

scope

of the old man's

understanding:

'Think

that the clearest

gods

. . .

have

preserved

thee'

(20.73-4).

In this

argument

Gloucester finds reason

enough

to






168 Critical

Survey,

Volume

3,

Number 2

bear

affliction,

ut

his new-found comfort

s

disrupted

by

the mad Lear who

appears

'crowned

with weeds and flowers'

(20.80).

Even

Edgar

is

dismayed by

his

appearance,

'The

safer sense will ne'er accommodate/

His

master

thus'

(20.81-2),

not

recognising that Lear

has accommodated himself to suit his

circumstances, just

as

Edgar

did when he first urned to Nature

and madness. Gloucester

perceives

the ruin

of Lear as a

portent

of the

ruin

of

the world

(20.129-30).

Because

Lear,

as

king,

is

symbolic

of the world and its

ordering,

his

apparently

finaldownfall causes

Gloucester

once more

to

give

up hope,

and

Edgar's encouragement

is in vain. The tension

between

his

multiple

sorrows

and

the

oy

of

finding

himself

reunited

with

Edgar

is

too

much for

Gloucester,

and his

heart,

'Twixt two extremes of

passion,

joy

and

grief,/

Burst

smilingly'

24.193-6).

Lear meets his own end within the bounds

of the French and British

army camps,

оцсе

more

attired n his own

garments, again seeking

his

grave (21.43).

He has come

full circle and in his

remaining

moments of

lucidity

Lear

is

ready

to make

prison

his

home, looking again to enclosure for securityand peace (24.8-19). Although Lear

and

Cordelia

are

reconciled,

their reunion is so

very

brief,

and at her

death,

the

tension of

conflicting

and extreme emotions overwhelms

Lear,

as Gloucester was

overwhelmed. Over

Cordelia's

body

one last storm breaks

forth,

when

Lear

fully

realises that

nothing

has come of

nothing 24.253-7).

The

play

also comes full

circle,

Lear's final cries of 'no'

and

'never'

(24.300-4)

poignantly

echoing

the

'nothing's

of

the first cene.

Is

King

Lear 'a

play

about the end of the

world'?

Certainly

it is

about the end

of

Lear's

world,

and as

Gloucester

suggests,

Lear is a

symbol

of the world. And:

The cease ofmajesty

Dies not

alone,

but ike a

gulf

doth draw

What's

near

it

with t. It is a

massy

wheel

Fixed on

the summit f the

highest

mount,

To

whose

huge

spokes

ten thousand

esser

things

Are mortised nd

adjoined,

which

when t falls

Each small

annexment,

etty onsequence,

Attends he

boist'rousruin.

Never alone

Did

the

King sigh,

but

with

general

groan.

(

Hamlet

3.3.15-23)

Rosencrantz's

speech

illustrates the

way

events in

King Lear, once set intomotion by

Lear,

gather

momentum to

reach a

destructive,

all-encompassing

climax: a

state of

chaos. The

'massy

wheel' is

more than

made

way

for

by

the

lesser

things'

or

'Human-

ity

[which]

must

perforce

prey

on itself

(16.48).

Harry

Levin

has an

optimistic

view of

King

Lear:

'just

as

growth yields

to

decay,

so

decay

fosters

growth

. . Man

must

reconcile himself

to the fact

that

nature will

take

its

course'

(p. 183),

and

notes that

n the

play,

'Man

takes his

questionings

directly

o

nature'

(p. 181).

But is

there an

answer?

Edgar,

who

understands

Nature

better than

anyone,

is

philosophic:

'Men

must

endure/ Their

going

hence

even as

their

coming

hither'

(23.9-10).

But

he

adds,

'Ripeness

is all'

(5.2.11),

which

is not

so

optimistic,






King

Lear and

Chaos

169

for,

as

Sonnet

15 reminds

us,

'everything

that

grows/

Holds in

perfection

but a little

moment'.

If that s the best one can

hope

for,

then the

kingdom

at the end of the

play

holds little

promise

of a new and better world.

A

new

cycle

of

events,

characterised

by

division in its very beginnings, seems destined to follow the patternof the last cycle

which ended in

nothing.

And the

pattern

was

readily

at hand in the

mythological

and

biblical accounts of creation in which the

world,

born of

Chaos,

is

readily

turned

upside-down,

destroyed,

and reduced once more to

nothing.

1

T. W.

Baldwin,

n

William

hakespeare's

mall

atine

LesseGreeke

Urbana,

11.,

944)

as stablished

hat

Hesiod,

n

the

riginal,

as n the chool

urriculum

n

Shakespeare's

ay,

ndArthur

olding's

nglish

erse

translation

fOvid's

Metamorphoses

as vailable

n

1567

Baldwin

otes hatalmost

ny

nnotatedditionf

Ovid's

Metamorphoses

ould

ave alled ttention

oHesiod'sccountf

reation'

Vol.

,

652

n.

88)).

2

Frank

ermode,ntroduction,

ing

ear

TheRiverside

hakespeare,

d.

G. Blakemore

vans

Boston,

974),

p.

1,249.

3

All

Shakespeare

uotations

refrom illiam

hakespeare:

he

Complete

orks

Compact

dition,

d.

Stanley

Wells

nd

Gary aylor

Oxford,

988).

uotations

rom

ing

ear

re

romhe

Quarto

ext.

4

The

rigins

f he

ommonplace

re

iven

n

Morns

almer

illey

A

Dictionaryf

he

roverbsn

LnglandAnnArbor, i., 950). he octrineas enouncedy alvinnd thersecauset ontradictedhe otionf reationx

nihilo.

he ullestiscussionf x

nihiloihil

it

ith

pecific

eferenceo

King

ear s nWilliam

. Elton's

ing

ear

and

TheGods

San

Marino,

a.,

1966).

5

Harry

evin iscusses

everal

indsf

heights

nd

epths'

n The

Heights

nd

he

epths:

Scene

rom

ing

Lear'

Shakespeare

nd he

evolution

f

he

imes:

erspectives

ndCommentaries

New

ork,

976),

p.

162-86.

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