ABSTRACT
The most compelling image in all of Willaim Shakespeare’s several great tragedies is the aged Lear entering with his favourite daughter Cordelia dead in his arms. The imagined consequence of Lear’s rejection of Cordelia would seem to depend on how absolute is the wedge he seeks to drive between them. Later, in his developing madness, when provided with shelter from the storm, Lear sets up a mock courtroom scene, a more obvious form of a theatre of the absurd. Lear’s impassioned, emotionally-charged answer is revealing, ushering in a turning-point in the play. Lear warms to Poor Tom, whom he also regards as a wronged father. In his own madness he responds with fellow-feeling to Edgar’s pretended madness, as Poor Tom disguised as a Bedlam beggar continues to utter in his ramblings the names of devils. Lear’s desire to be with his darling Cordelia overwhelms any other possibility for them.
