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King Lear Reversal

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All the above reversals or incongruities are to be present, in a lesser or more degree, in King Lear. To begin with, the reversal of hierarchies strikes us first and foremost in the very opening of the play: here one is met with an earlier sign of authority being loosened, when the king decides to divide his own kingdom:

Meantime , we shall express our darker purpose― Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom; and 'tis our fast intent To take all cares and business from our age, Conforring them on younger strengths, while me Unburden'd crawl toward death. (I. i. 35−40)

The reversal of roles starts right from this …show more content…

And this is, in keeping with the poetics of grotesque realism, taken to be degradation conceived here in terms of the Bakhtinian conception of the movement of the cosmic carnivaleque cartwheel. Hence, Lear desires to divide his kingdom so that he "Unburdened crawl[s] toward death" (I. i. 40), which is so central to Ronald Knowles's notion of the carnivalesque degradation as this implies going down to earth, the grave, the womb.12 But Lear's degradation or crawling back again to the womb does not necessarily mean that he is giving up the masculine monarch he is. Much to the contrary, degradation here means for him digging "a bodily grave for a new birth."13 His wish to be mothered by the three of his daughters is clearly shown in his selfish need to enjoy the parade of love he expects his daughters to perform. Again Knight has this to say about this

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