Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Madness
Insanity occupies a central place in the play
and is associated with both disorder and hidden wisdom. The Fool,
who offers Lear insight in the early sections of the play, offers
his counsel in a seemingly mad babble. Later, when Lear himself
goes mad, the turmoil in his mind mirrors the chaos that has descended
upon his kingdom. At the same time, however, it also provides him with
important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity, stripped
of all royal pretensions. Lear thus learns humility. He is joined
in his real madness by Edgar’s feigned insanity, which also contains
nuggets of wisdom for the king to mine. Meanwhile, Edgar’s time
as a supposedly insane beggar hardens him and prepares him to defeat
Edmund at the close of the play.
Betrayal
Betrayals play a critical role in the play and show the
workings of wickedness in both the familial and political realms—here,
brothers betray brothers and children betray fathers. Goneril and
Regan’s betrayal of Lear raises them to power in Britain, where
Edmund, who has betrayed both Edgar and Gloucester, joins them.
However, the play suggests that betrayers inevitably turn on one
another, showing how Goneril and Regan fall out when they both become attracted
to Edmund, and how their jealousies of one another ultimately lead
to mutual destruction. Additionally, it is important to remember
that the entire play is set in motion by Lear’s blind, foolish betrayal
of Cordelia’s love for him, which reinforces that at the heart of
every betrayal lies a skewed set of values.
