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almost loses his life because he fails to assume a disguise.Those who assume actual disguises-Viola and Feste-do not confusethe mask with the
person. Both are knowledgeableabout themselvesand penetratethe appearancesof the others.Viola, Summers writes,differs"from Orsino and
to blindnessand passion,but in the clarity
Olivia not in any invulnerability
and accepts her state.Reason is
she
recognizes
and simplicitywith which
The disguisedhere
irrationality.'0
her
admits
rationally
not abandoned: she
are like Sartre'sliar who is in fact "in completepassessionof the truth
whichhe is hiding."
been recognizedthat Kent and Edgar-the two characIt has frequently
in the sense which
tersin Lear who don actual masks-are self-transcending
Sartreintends.They do in factnegatetheirbeingsand become transcendent.
They achievethe greatnessof soul examinedin Shakespeare'sSonnetXCIV.1"
Kent and Edgar do not need mediatorsto become identicalwith theirtotalities. They are able to disguisethemselvesto othersbecause theythemselves
know exactlywho theyare; theyalso understandtheirunitywith natureand
Edgar knows intuitively,
remainconstantto the purposestheyset themselves.
or immediately(i.e., withoutthe need fora "mediator"in Sartre'sterms),that
Menmustendure
Theirgoinghence,evenas theircominghither:
Ripenessis all: comeon.
(V. ii. 9_-II)
Works(Chicago,196i).
175
Butthenthemindmuchsufferance
dotho'erskip,
Whengriefhathmates,andbearingfellowship.
How lightandportable
mypainseemsnow,
Whenthatwhichmakesmebendmakesthekingbow,
He childedas I father'd!
Tom,away!
Markthehighnoises;andthyself
bewray,
Whenfalseopinion,whosewrongthought
defilesthee,
In thyjustproof,
repealsand reconciles
thee.
Whatwillhapmoreto-night,
safe'scapetheking!
(III. Vi. 109-21)
the anguish of mental suffering,
Afterconfronting
Edgar negates himself
forthetimebeingand devoteshiscompassionto theKing.
Like Edgar, Kent is undeceivedabout himselfand his motives.He exfromthefirstscene,tellingLear:
hibitsforesight
Think'stthouthatdutyshallhavedreadtospeak,
bows?To plainnesshonour'sbound,
Whenpowerto flattery
Reversethydoom;
Whenmajesty
stoopstofolly.
check
And,in thybestconsideration,
Thishideousrashness:
answermylifemyjudgement,
doesnotlovetheeleast;
Thyyoungest
daughter
Norarethoseempty-hearted
whoselowsound
nohollowness.
Reverbs
(L. i. 149-56)
and
Kill thyphysician,
andthefeebestow
Uponthyfouldisease.Revokethydoom;
Or,whilstI canventclamourfrommythroat,
I'll telltheethoudostevil.
(I. i. i67-70)
Edgar dons his disguise for the stated purpose of self-preservation,
but
in the same soliloquyin which he gives his reasonhe makes it evidentthat
he is temporarily
negatinghimself(the firststep toward Being in Sartre's
philosophy):
I heardmyself
proclaim'd;
Andbythehappyhollowofa tree
Escapedthehunt.No portis free;no place,
Thatguard,andmostunusualvigilance,
Does notattendmytaking.WhilesI may'scape,
I willpreserve
andam bethought
myself:
To takethebasestandmostpoorest
shape
Thateverpenury,
incontempt
ofman,
Brought
nearto beast:myfaceI'll grimewithfilth;
Blanketmyloins;elfall myhairinknots;
Andwithpresented
nakedness
out-face
The windsandpersecutions
ofthesky.
poorTom!
... PoorTurlygod!
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That'ssomething
yet:EdgarI nothing
am.
(II.
iii. I-I2,
20-2I)
(I. iv.1-4)
He becomesthe disguisedprotector,
a role whose implications,
as well as its
are pointed out by M. C. Bradbrook: "the father who
conventionality,
pitieshis children,like the husbandwho pitiesand succourshis erringwife,
must have had a Biblical origin,and Shakespearerecalledthis old tradition
to its firstsignificance."'3In the same essay, Bradbrookpoints out that
"therecould be no such thingas a merephysicaltransformation.
As the body
revealedthe soul, so appearanceshould reveal the truthof identity.A character could be really changed by the assumptionof a disguise" (p. i66).
Thus Kent, as well as Edgar, becomes transcendent
and in harmonywith
himselfwhenhe putson hisdisguise.
Horowitz notesanotherimportantaspectof identitywith respectto The
Tempest: "The sourceof the transformation
of affections
lies in the factof
common humanity,a sense of identitybetween judge and judged, executionerand victim,and a tendernessspringingfromit.""4 His remarkson
The Tempest are equally applicableto Lear. Horowitz notes that Prospero
shares his "kind-ness,"feels afflictions
as othersdo as well as the compassion which he calls a "noblerreason."The compassionjoins with "a grace
of control,subduing flesh,nurturingnature,refiningits savageryand tuning its sense to harmonizewith reason; and thereis a grace of compassion,
an attunementto the passion of others,abandoningvengeancein the face
of atonementand for the sake of at-onement[atone, Horowitz writes,
equals at-one,'to achieveunityor concord'],a gracewhichtunesthe harmony
by which men can prosper"(p. 88.). Both Edgar and Kent achievethis "atonement": the formerwithin the natural order of heredity,the latterin
thesocio-political
orderby beingunitedwithhis King. Kent's King, however,
has committedtoo grave an errorto reach atonement."Amid the turbulence of Lear's last days, Shakespeareso contraststhe substanceof what
Lear actuallywas with the fitfulshadows of what Lear or any man, any
father,any king should be, his almostwillfulmutilationof his identityas a
personis conspicuous."'5
Kent's commentto Lear, "sith thus thou wilt appear" (I. i. i83), is revealing.Lear's "appearing"is part of the King's self-deception,
since he attemptsto be unawareof his appearing.Throughoutthe play,one has the feel13
II (April1952),
Criticism,
14
15
i63.
Horowitz,p. 87.
WarrenTaylor,"Lear and theLostSelf,"CollegeEnglish,XXV (April i964),
513.
I77
ing that Lear is aware of his attemptto deceive himselfand that his selfbecausehe actsin bad faith:
deceptionis successful
can notbe thesameforbad faithif this,as we havesaid,is
The situation
bad faithis hidindeeda lie to oneself.To be sure,theone who practices
Bad faith
as trutha pleasinguntruth.
truthor presenting
ing displeasing
of falsehood.Only what changes
thenhas in appearancethe structure
thatI am hiding
is thefactthatin bad faithit is frommyself
everything
the truth.Thus the dualityof the deceiverand the deceiveddoes not
impliesin essencethe unityof a
existhere.Bad faithon the contrary
This does not mean thatit can not be conditioned
singleconsciousness.
of humanrelike all otherphenomena
by theMit-sein[i.e., being-with]
itself
ality,but the Mit-seincan call forthbad faithonlyby presenting
bad faithdoes notcome
surpassing;
whichbad faithpermits
as a situation
One does notundergohis bad faith;one is
fromoutsideto humanreality.
withit;itis nota state.16
notinfected
enableshimto maintainhis sanity.He
ofLear's self-deception
The constancy
becomesmad only afterhe is no longer able to act in bad faith,afterhe
admitsthatif anythingwere to "cracknature'smoulds,all germens[would]
spill at once" (III. ii. 8), and afterhe giveshimselfup-not to transcendencenorthefear"(III. ii.
but to despair:"man's naturecannotcarry/ The affliction
and thisescapeproorder
to
responsibility,
in
escape
lies
to
himself
He
48-49).
vokes his tragedy.Lear's firstspeech is indicativeof the King's deliberate
After Gloucester and Edmund leave to attend Burgundy
self-deception.
and France,Lear says:
ourdarkerpurpose.
we shallexpress
Meantime
... 'tisourfastintent
fromourage;
To shakeall caresandbusiness
whilewe
themon youngerstrengths,
Conferring
crawltowarddeath.
Unburthen'd
(I. i. 37,39-42)
From the startof the play,Lear's intentionis to escape the full meaning
of Being, which is central to Sartre's concept of bad faith. Lear exists
withinthe play as a being in his own right.Althoughthe audiencegains init sees him also as he revealshimsightsinto him throughothercharacters,
selfthroughhis own acts. This point would be irrelevantif it were not for
psychologywith which we are dealing
the fact that the Shakespeare-Sartre
writersadhere.A second
is not the only psychologyto which contemporary
world view is one which Nabokov summarizessuccinctlyin his i965 fore. . . may distinguishthroughmy
word to The Eye: "A seriouspsychologist
soul
dissolutionwhere poor Smurov
a
world
of
crystograms
rain-sparkling
other
in
brains,which in theirturn are
only existsinsofaras he is reflected
placed in the same strange,specularpredicamentas his.""7
in the chaos of his world: a world as
The dissolutionof Lear is reflected
irrationaland upside down as thatof Jonesco'sBald Soprano, for example.
16Sartre,Beingand Nothingness,
p. 49.
Nabokov,The Eye (NewYork,i966), pp. ix-x.
Vladimir
17
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p. i6o.
Bradbrook,
19 Whitaker,
p.
2I2.
I79
i964),
i8o
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might
mostof theplay.Psychology
who assumesan actualdisguisethrough
betweendisguiseand dehelpexplain,justas thenotionof therelationship
but
of themeand structure;
theconjunction
ceptionmighthelpilluminate,
the tragedyof man'sfragmendramatized
thatShakespeare
it is sufficient
whichleads to personaland social
and renunciation
tation,self-deception,
of our
witnessto theconsequences
chaos.King Lear is indeeda trustworthy
moralchoices.
College
Quinnnipiac