King Lear, Act II

1. Passio: womanish pain. -Text definition.

Act II, Scene IV, Page 49: "KING LEAR: O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element's below! Where is this daughter?"


2. Edgar, on the run because of the lies planted by his brother, decides to disguise himself. He covers himself in dirt and dresses in rags, creating the "Poor Tom" persona. He plans to act like a madman escaped from an insane asylum as he wanders the land. Lear arrives at Gloucester's castle and asked to speak to Regan and Cornwall, who refuse. Eventually they comply and Lear complains to Regan about her sister's unfairness, but Regan sides with Goneril, telling Lear that he is going mad with age and should apologize to his daughter. Goneril shows up, much to Lear's dismay, and the sisters strengthen their alliance. They tell Lear that they will not allow him to bring any knights to either of their homes, and in a fit of rage, he leaves the castle in the midst of a storm. Gloucester begs the girls to let him back in but they refuse, arguing that he should do what he wants.


3. This Act is where King Lear clearly begins to lose his mind. It does not come suddenly, however; his madness is a gradual process, beginning in Act I but escalating in Act II. The incident that arguably pushes him over the "edge" is the betrayal by his two daughters. When Goneril and Regan join together to undermine his remaining power, he cannot take it. By refusing to allow him his knights and declaring him senile, the girls show Lear how little they truly care for him. He quickly transitions from astonishment to anger to madness. Lear runs from the shelter of Gloucester's castle into a storm, claiming wildly that he would rather live in nature's fury than with his traitorous daughters. I'm not sure if he actually wanted to be alone in the storm or if he hoped that someone would come after him, but either way, when nobody did it must have only added to his madness. His daughters once against demonstrated their lack of feeling toward their father by telling Gloucester to leave him alone.
While at first I did not understand what Edgar was doing in disguising himself as "Poor Tom," now that I understand, my respect for him has heightened greatly. Although I believe he first disguised himself simply as a form of protection, when he came upon his father he did not flee. Most people would have found an excuse to run away because of the risk of exposure, but Edgar did not. I think this proves how much he loved his father. He would rather stay in constant danger but help his dad than be safe but have no contact. At this point in the play I started to really like Edgar, and I think he may be my favorite character in the entire work.


4. My first question is whether Lear would have gone mad had his daughters not done so much to convince him that he was. There are multiple occasions where they tell him he is becoming senile with age, and I wonder if it influenced his mental decay or if it was just a coincidence.

My second question is whether Edgar would have looked for his father or not if he had not come across him. I know it's probably not very relevant in the context of the play, but I'm curious nonetheless. Would he have ever made contact?

My third question is why Gloucester did not go after Lear. I know that the daughters told him not to, but he is a grown man. If he wanted to help Lear he could have followed him or invited him back into his castle. After all, it wasn't Goneril or Regan's house, it was Gloucester's.