Reflect on the events of Act III and the question posted in class: What/who are we when we are nothing?
Specifically comment on the quote in the heading as well as the revelation Lear exclaims to Edgar and the Fool in Act III.iv: "Is man no more than this?...Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as though art" (64).
When we are nothing, though we are not who we previously deemed our self, we are still a human being. As Lear spirals into nothingness, he reflects on the actuality of the unaccommodated man. As he questions “Is man no more than this?,” Lear further speculates if the human is just a “forked animal”. He seems to be distancing himself from reality and starting to see things for how they really are.
ReplyDeleteLear does not just question man itself, he questions who he has been in a moral kind of way. He feels he is “more sinned against than sinning,” and that the sinners (of course not him) should “rive [their] concealing continents and cry”. At this point it seems that Lear wishes powerful men, like he had previously been, could see the real world around them. It is when we are nothing we are able to see through all nature’s accommodations. As Lear discovers his shortcomings as King and realizes he has “ta'en Too little care of this,” referring to the homeless, and gains sympathy in recognizing his old self compared to how the world actually is. Though there is a slight “you don’t know what you have until it is gone” moral in this act, the dominant message seems to be “you don’t know what you really have until you are nothing”. Similarly, when Glocester changes to nothing, he becomes blind because that is all he has really ever been.
I agree with Lizzie's overarching analysis of the quote. Lear finally has a revelation which forces him to recognize the reality that his life has become. After denying the fact that he no longer is the leader of a kingdom, he finally realizes the truth behind his foolish actions. This epiphany also helps Lear to sympathize and identify with others that do not have the power that he once had. He clearly finds this life pitiful and without purpose displayed when he says "unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal." He feels that a life without being king is a life without purpose and therefore comparable to that of an animal's.
DeleteGoing off of Lizzie's point, Lear finally understands who he truly he when he is stripped of his identity, bringing up the question of how labels play a role in society. Interestingly so, the Fool does comment on the usage of socially constructed identities in Act 3:
DeleteWhen priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion"
Labels provide people a sense of identity and purpose within the world. When one is stripped of all labels, it is difficult to come to terms with your role in society when you have nothing. The storm in King Lear symbolizes the washing away of all of Lear's labels. Within this vulnerable state, we are able to see the true Lear shine through. We can see his compassion towards the Fool and how he sympathizes with him, which allows us to see why Kent is so loyal to Lear.
Going off of Lizzie's point, Lear finally understands who he truly he when he is stripped of his identity, bringing up the question of how labels play a role in society. Interestingly so, the Fool does comment on the usage of socially constructed identities in Act 3:
DeleteWhen priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion"
Labels provide people a sense of identity and purpose within the world. When one is stripped of all labels, it is difficult to come to terms with your role in society when you have nothing. The storm in King Lear symbolizes the washing away of all of Lear's labels. Within this vulnerable state, we are able to see the true Lear shine through. We can see his compassion towards the Fool and how he sympathizes with him, which allows us to see why Kent is so loyal to Lear.
Going off of Lizzie's point, Lear finally understands who he truly he when he is stripped of his identity, bringing up the question of how labels play a role in society. Interestingly so, the Fool does comment on the usage of socially constructed identities in Act 3:
DeleteWhen priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion"
Labels provide people a sense of identity and purpose within the world. When one is stripped of all labels, it is difficult to come to terms with your role in society when you have nothing. The storm in King Lear symbolizes the washing away of all of Lear's labels. Within this vulnerable state, we are able to see the true Lear shine through. We can see his compassion towards the Fool and how he sympathizes with him, which allows us to see why Kent is so loyal to Lear.
Lear is going through a very extreme status change. He is going from the highest position a man can possibly be in his society, a king, and in a very short time he becomes worthless. Everything that he has had that he has come to identify as part of who he is is taken from him and he is left but nothing but himself. He sees himself as being "more sinned against then sinning" because he has lost so much, and it has been taken from the people that he trusted and kept the closest. And once he is reduced to nothing he identifies with a "forked animal" because everything that makes a human a human is removed from him. Power, love, society, morality. All of that is gone for Lear. He was built up so high that the power deluded and corrupted him, and now that it is gone he is once again forced to recognize himself for who he is. This is where Lear has some what of an epiphany at his most heightened state of madness.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with what Kate and everyone else is saying. Lear has completely lost everything and feels sorry for himself, but he is now able to discover who he really is.
DeleteI think there is also another aspect to his newfound nothingness. Although he is feeling sorry for himself and is going crazy over his daughters' betrayal, we see glimpses of Lear starting to think of people other than himself. When he is out in the storm, he wonders how all the homeless people in his kingdom have survived in these conditions for so long. He realizes he hasn't really done anything to help. I think that Lear is definitely discovering more about himself, but he is also learning how to show empathy for others. He is able to relate to the people who have no royal status, no servants, no luxuries. He is able to see what being human really is. I don't necessarily think Lear is the most likable character, but as he becomes more human and less king, he definitely grows more likable.
I agree completely with what Kate and Allie both said. In the Act iii paper I chose to write about the topic of losing power which I think is really evident at this point of the book. What I noticed the most about him being banished and losing everything that he has, and has once known is that he starts to become more sympathetic and understands the error in his ways. He can finally realize that the loss that he has endured didn't make him a stronger person, it only had him more accessible to succumb to the powerful forces of human nature. With the loss of his power he has also been able to come to terms with the chaos of the political power that is present in the realm of his kingdom at the moment. He's not really sure how to react to his identity being stripped from him so that is why he is acting the way he is, and the storm helps to represent what he is going through at the moment.
DeleteI agree with Kate because is stripped of everything that he has ever known and consequently, he has no way of knowing how to act in this situation. When he denotes the idea that he is "a man more sinned against than sinning" he provokes pity on himself, a similar feeling that others have on those lower in the social heirarchy because they do not have as much. I noticed that throughout Act III Lear initiates the definition of "nothing" when describing homelessness and invokes a very negative attitude towards those in that situation. Through this, he also creates a negative attitude towards the "unaccommodated man". This whole situation is important because he is now that unaccommodated man with nothing and his new lack of title is compromising his mental stability. By relating himself to a forked animal he depicts himself as basic and unimportant again. This all is connected to the whole idea that when Lear has no self esteem and feeling of belonging, he begins to self actualize.
DeleteI think this is a classic example of not realizing what you have until it is gone. As King Lear is reduced to nothing, he realizes everything that he has lost. Although Lear was aware of his power at the beginning of the play, I don’t think he took advantage of all the good he could do with his power, and he is starting to realize this. In Act III, scene iv, Lear pauses to reflect on his reign as King. He realizes that he spent too little time thinking about his poor subjects who were regularly exposed to hardships. If powerful people spent more time thinking about such matters, he concludes, they would be more generous with what they have, making the heavens more just. Unfortunately for Lear, he had to undergo such extreme circumstances to come to this realization, and quite franking, this realization came too late.
DeleteIn nothing we often find an infinite amount of truth and life that can only lead to discovering who we truly are. Lear after living a life of a sheltered identity where who he is was never in question. He, perhaps not by his own doing but by what society told him, became compulsively obsessed with him and all of the titles and things that he had. He for his whole life defined himself by all of these things for that reason he has never known who he truly is. However, he is finally awakening from this dream like state. He is coming to the realizing what it feels like with nothing and I think that the storm foreshadows more than a coming tragedy but a time of beautiful discovery because what comes after a storm a beautiful ray of light. While Lear is awestruck and without any meaning to live as of right now he will soon, like Lizzie said, realize the infinity in life and in nature and that there is no reason for any sort of identity as it cuts us off from our true self. Yet without his identity he will be forced to the realization of who he really is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Max. At the beginning of the play Lear is way too caught up in labels and what he feels is the respect that should be attached to these labels. To his daughters at first he was a father, and he demanded that they show the proper respect and love that a daughter should have for a father by encouraging each of his daughters to sing his praises in order to be given a piece of his kingdom. When Cordila refuses to do so, he feels that she is rejecting his title as a father. Later he feels that his daughters should allow him to keeps his knights based on the fact that he was formerly king. To Lear, titles were his entire life. Yet these titles are not concrete. Relationships change constantly. Lear has based his entire sense of self on these fragile relationships. Now, as Olinah mentioned earlier, the storm has washed away all of Lear's titles and Lear has to begin to base his identity upon his virtues rather than his relationships and authority over others.
DeleteMax, I really like your opening sentence about how much can be learned from experiencing nothing. I am not sure if this is necessarily true in Lear's situation. Lear's nothingness is due to and created by his spiraling into insanity, and I am not sure if he is lucid enough to discover who he truly is. However, I think your statement is completely true in Gloucester's situation. Upon losing his eyes, Gloucester gains a lot of insight into his life and everything that has been going on around him. He discovers the truth through this very literal nothingness.
DeleteI also agree with Nicole that Lear has been excessively caught up in labels and he does not know how to cope with the absence of these labels. This is interesting because Lear is not the only character who is enthralled in labels and titles. This desire for recognition and power fuels many characters in the play such as Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and Cornwall. It is interesting that all of these selfish and malevolent characters have been successful up through the end of act three while the benevolent characters like the Fool, Cordelia, and Gloucester have not been so successful.
In act III, Lear really begins to feel as though he is nothing because he is completely stripped of what he once thought was his entire identity: his title as king. Without a title Lear does not understand what life is or who he is. Lear’s comment, "Is man no more than this?...Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as though art" (64) expresses his dislike of life without his title. He is disappointed in life after being king. However, even when we are nothing, when we are stripped of everything we once knew…we are still people with identities. We are ourselves in our most raw form. Lear will begin to understand this and find out who he is without his title as king.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Grace. I think act 3 focuses a lot of Lear and his lack of identity, as it says that Lear's "wits begin to turn" in this act. In this act, “here [he] stands” as nature’s “slave— A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man,” (58). Lear is no more a powerful man, as he's completely been stripped of everything he was. He's lost everything important in his life and that's caused him to lose sight of himself. The quote "What/who are we when we are nothing?" highlights how Lear feels in this act, as Lear literally has nothing, and feels as if he has nothing to live for. All he knows is how to be King and he's lost that. He's also lost his three daughters. In act 3, Lear reaches a point in his life where there is very little hope for him, as represented by the storm that symbolizes the internal conflict inside of Lear.
DeleteI agree with you both in that Act III focuses on Lear's increasing insanity. In my Act III response I talked a lot about this and I connected it to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I think as Lear continues to lose everything he has-- power, status, family, and eventually safety when he is out in the storm-- he grows even crazier. When Lear states "Is man no more than this?...Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as though art" (64) and tears off his clothes he reaches the peak of his insanity and confusion with his identity. Lear has never experienced a life without all his needs handed to him, and as one by one everything Lear has is taken, he grows more insane and struggles with who he is. What are we when we are stripped of everything we know and cherish?
DeleteSuch thoughtful responses so far...very good thinking here! Keep up the good work!!
ReplyDeleteAs people have said before, I think as Lear comes to terms with his nothingness, he starts to feel compassion for others who have nothing too.
ReplyDeleteIn the hovel Edgar (disguised as poor Tom) says, " Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind. Humh! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee." And Lear replies, "Hast thou given all to thy two daughters, and art thou come to this?"
This is a tricky statement because of course Edgar hasn't given anything to his daughters, Lear has, but it shows that Lear recognizes Edgar's situation to be similarly awful to his own.
Lear isn't familiar with the conditions of the poor, so he thinks that the only way somebody could get into his situation (in the cold hovel) is by giving land away to daughters like he has.
I think it's an important step for Lear into understanding the plight of the poor, unfortunately (ironically?) he is no longer king, so his understanding won't actually help the poor as he might have been able to before.
But anyway, it's great character development.
In Act III the storm acts as a symbolic disaster to represent King Lear’s realization of his insignificance. This part of Shakespeare’s work has remained relevant throughout the evolution of life. An unaccommodated man is not nothing; an unaccommodated man has the ability to identify and observe the life around him and appreciate the value of human life itself. Lear’s discomfort with just accepting pure human life is translated into anger and stubbornness: “Here I am, your slave— a poor, sick, weak, hated old man”. Without his title as King, or a father he feels that he has failed at life and perceives this downfall as a brutal reality. Soon he begins to sympathize the actuality of the simplicity of life when he himself has become powerless. I believe this can teach the audience that having power is not the essence of human life, and that “having nothing” does not characterize a human as “nothing”.
ReplyDeleteTo go off of Caroline's point about accepting pure human life, in many religions and spiritual works, a life is often in balance when it is unaccommodated. Islam is originated from the arabic word for submission, and enlightenment is often achieved by the realization that one is nothing. So when King Lear is left in the storm with Poor Tom and the fool, his ego does not allow him to surrender his title. He wants to remain king. However, as the act develops, Lear begins to see purity and simplicity of life. He also begins to see the harm he has done for his lower class citizens, and he feels a sense of regret. Even though he is portrayed as very insane in this act, this might actually be his sanest act so far.
DeleteTo go off Caroline’s point on the setting I noticed that the weather really paralleled his mood. In Act 3, I feel as though the real downfall of Lear is apparent. Starting off with the setting, as the wind blows and Lear tells the thunder to “Smite flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,” it is clear that the actual weather and his attitude towards the weather reflect his personal struggles at the moment. He is asking the thunder and lightening to flatten the world and destroy the place where human beings are created. He emphasizes this because he is so frustrated and irritated at the world because of his own personal downfall. It is clear that without his title he is nothing and all his pride and accomplishments were completely stripped from his being when his title was removed.
DeleteAct III really calls into question the concept of feeling a sense of nothingness as a humans. King Lear, being rid of his life’s title as King is forced to face a period of an identity crisis of sorts that leads to him feeling as though he is nothing in the grand scheme of things. He starts to see life as meaningless without his title because he feels irrelevant. “Is man no more than this?…Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as though art” captures his inability to value life without his desired identity. Through Lear’s contemplation we can examine all of people’s experiences with trying to understand who they are and the inevitable feelings of nothingness we all experience. Like Lear, being stripped of one’s identity can only lead to deeper self realization and understanding of one’s true identity without titles and labels.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danielle and I was going to use the same quote to support my reasoning. There are many examples of paradox in this play and the way Lear views himself is yet another example. The idea of nothing is a paradox in itself. Nothing comes from nothing, yet everything in this play came from nothing. Act III is a definite turning point for Lear, kind of like a mid-life crisis. From this crisis of sorts he is left with nothing, but in fact is left with something. He is left with that self realization that Danielle mentioned. The whole ordeal I find somewhat confusing but rather interesting. It is interesting going back to look at this act after already reading ahead. This act focuses on the idea of nothing, yet everything happens.
DeleteI generally agree with everybody's comments about Lear's reform being enabled by his inability to see or have anything else. A note I find interesting is how he is surrounded by those who possess blatantly false identities: Kent as the wretched knave, Edgar as the insane Poor Tom, and even the Fool as one less wise than one is. Kent and Tom in particular provide relatively effective examples of how they can maintain their identities as virtuous people. Both are forced to masquerade as essentially crazed individuals, and both have some arguable choice in the matter (staying in England, although Edgar is more tenuous). However, unlike the actually insane (at points) Lear, they have a preexisting value they retain. Kent maintains his loyalty to Lear, and Edgar, although we see little of him before, demonstrates a nobility in his own support for the fallen king; they can be nothing yet be something great. Lear, by contrast, is once completely dominated by his kingship and fatherhood (at least, at the start of the play... especially as he argues with Regan and Goneril over these factors rather than anything moral). Losing everything and becoming nothing forces him to adopt new perspective to circumvent a total collapse. He is nothing, but is forced into more because of it.
ReplyDeleteHumans are incapable of fathoming a true nothing, and Lear is no exception to this. To us, nothing is the absence of everything, but in it's own way, absence qualifies as something. Act III grapples with the concept of the void. Lear struggles to comprehend the idea that "Is man no more than this?". Bereft of everything he used to identify himself with: his kingship, his royal accoutrements, his daughters; he is, in his own mind, nothing. And while he has fallen quite, far, he has come nowhere close to the rock bottom of humanity. Now, at this crossroads, he must choose: while nothing arise of more nothing? Will he continue on his path of self inflicted hardship and suffering? Or will everything happen of nothing? Will he rebuild himself?
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Henry's point that human's are "incapable of fathoming a true nothing". Even when Lear feels as though he has lost nothing and we seem him as truly having nothing not even his sanity; we forget that he still posses something which is insanity. It is impossible for him to be completely nothing. Our world is set up to see someone without possessions as "nothing" for example the way we look at homeless people. But the issue with that is that maybe in this "nothingness" there is something. Some sort of eternal hope that we have engraved into our minds. Even death consists of something. Everyone at one point has to "exist" and to exist at one point that means they were something. Lear still has what he once was. And this hope to continue on as a person.
DeleteIt is not possible to be nothing, as energy cannot be created or destroyed. However, Lear is stripped of his identity down to what he considers nothing. Lear realizes that the base of the human condition is a bare creature, alone and possessing nothing. But what makes us human is what surrounds us, such as our job, and our family and friends. Lear now has nothing, so while he is not literally nothing, his identity has been sucked away, leaving a void. And without identity, a human is just another creature, an animal. Lear experiences this, and once having everything, the nothingness that surrounds him eats into him, eventually driving him into insanity.
ReplyDeleteIt is not possible to be nothing, as energy cannot be created or destroyed. However, Lear is stripped of his identity down to what he considers nothing. Lear realizes that the base of the human condition is a bare creature, alone and possessing nothing. But what makes us human is what surrounds us, such as our job, and our family and friends. Lear now has nothing, so while he is not literally nothing, his identity has been sucked away, leaving a void. And without identity, a human is just another creature, an animal. Lear experiences this, and once having everything, the nothingness that surrounds him eats into him, eventually driving him into insanity.
ReplyDeleteWhat/who are we when we are nothing?
ReplyDeleteLear was struggling, as urged in my paper, with an identity crisis in Act 3. He was everything, a father to his daughters, a king to his subjects and an enigma of power and wealth to his time. But as much of a person he once was, he effectively became a mute point. He was so rapidly turned into nothing (in his mind at least), that it left his head spinning.
However the thing is, he is not nothing. He is merely a man sure, but that doesn't mean he doesn't possess the power to right his wrongs. He may exclaim that he is a man sinned against, "Is man no more than this?...". He comes to terms with his nothingness and may even begin to see that he can turn it around.
At this point, Lear is standing in the storm, and completely exposing himself to nature and to fate. Lear has been abandoned and betrayed by his daughters, and left without possessions, knights, and the crown. He has nothing left except himself, and realizing this he somewhat deliriously casts off his clothes saying “Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide”, meaning that he is now literally nothing but himself. Throughout the play, and in this act in particular, Lear’s crisis is mainly self-centered. It begins out of vanity, when he asks his daughters to flatter him, and later, pity for himself when his two eldest daughters treat him cruelly.
ReplyDeleteEventually, Lear comes to some sort of resolution to his identity crisis by redefining himself in the same capacities as king and as father, but based on the needs of others rather than himself. When he is in the outside world he feels pity for the “Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm”(III.iv) and expresses regret that he had “ta’en Too little care of this!”(III.iv). He feels that he has or had a duty to his people to take care of them as king. Later, Lear also makes amends as a father to Cordelia, as he realized throughout that though her sisters “have, as I do remember, done [Lear] wrong”, Cordelia has only loved him and tried to act in his best interests.
Lear ultimately is able to make something of himself out of nothing by making amends and focusing on his duty towards others rather than on himself.