ABSTRACT
The King Lear, writes Maynard Mack, is 'the most remarkable compound of realism and artifice that Shakespearean dramaturgy ever achieved'. Mack is correct in stressing King Lear's combination of artifice and realism, but wrong in denying its affinity with psychological drama. From a thematic point of view, King Lear seems to be a story of moral growth through suffering. King Lear is not only a great character study but is also the most thematically complex of Shakespeare's tragedies. Most critics maintain that it is inappropriate to try to explain the motivation behind Lear's behavior in the opening scene. Lear is, like Richard II, a predominantly narcissistic person whose psychology has been profoundly affected by the experience of being a king. Lear's reaction to Cordelia is so extreme as to seem unintelligible to many critics. Lear's fantasy has been unfolding as he had dreamed it would until he encounters Cordelia's 'Nothing'.
