The Role of the Fool, his relationship to King Lear, and the reader's response to him
The Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear is agreed to have served the roll of relieving dramatic tension in the audience. But it is also agreed that the Fool serves the purpose of teaching important moral lessons to the King as well as the audience. He [the Fool] does exactly what Kent does for Lear. Ironically, King Lear takes a different response to this. With Kent, King Lear took offense, seeing that although Kent is the only other person besides the Fool who could address him so freely, and banished Kent from his kingdom. In the Fool's case, Lear only calls him "old boy" and doesn't take action against him. In fact, the Fool can be seen as almost a fatherly figure to Lear, and so Lear has more respect for him.
In Elizabethan courts, the Jesters must maintain relatively good relationships with the nobles in the court, so that when the Jester does make fun of them, it only seems to be in light hearted humor. Shakespeare takes this to advantage and goes beyond the plain messages of love and death that most jesters would convey in a play. In the Fool's appearance with the King, Lear dismisses his musings and almost turns a blind eye to everything that the Fool says because they maintain such a long and caring relationship. In this position, the Fool can then insinuate the wrongness and follies that King Lear has done. The Fool addresses the ineptitude in the monarchical system that society was using and still is using in Shakespeare's time with Queen Elizabeth. The Fool calls out Lear on his failure to make the right choice when he banished Cordelia.
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