As far as my observation goes, there are
two change of roles that occurred within the play; the one with Kent and Edgar.
Kent, the former earl, ends up
disguising himself as a low life servant for his former adversary, King Lear. After
being banished by Lear as a result from Lear’s own arrogance in not accepting
or even hearing Kent’s advice relating to his way of ruling the land. Despite
the fact of his banishment from the kingdom, Kent’s love and compassion for the
king and the kingdom is far too great to make him surrender. Thus, he decided
to try different approach in giving Lear guidance, by becoming one of his trusty
servants.
Interestingly enough, becoming Lear’s
servant does help him in approaching his king even better compared to the time
when he was only a nobleman. He is
now able to accompany Lear wherever he may be without having to set a royal
meeting only to give him advice about his ruling. And Lear is also able to
accept Kent’s presence as a mere servant better than his previous higher
position as it is shown by Lear’s willingness to follow Kent’s advice to hide
inside the hovel for his sake without giving any hint of disapproval compared
to the time when noble Kent was trying to argue with Lear about his ways of
ruling, which causes Kent to lose his position in the first place. In addition,
his cunning idea doesn’t only aid in increasing his relationship with the king but
also with Cordelia. Even though it doesn’t seem to be that much of a relationship, by doing his plan, Kent
has proven himself worth, proven his love worth, for the king, Cordelia, and
the kingdom.
On the other hand, Edgar, the legitimate
son of Gloucester, turns into a mad man, poor Tom. This commotion starts when
his illegitimate brother Edmund tried to frame him so that he will become the
only heir for Gloucester’s inheritance. Edmund tricked his illegitimate father
to think that Edgar is a villain as he tried to harm, and even murder, Edmund
for his own greedy reason. As cunning and deceptive Edmund is, he was indeed
able to deceive Gloucester to hunt Edgar for the crime that he didn’t even
intend to commit. Thus, he ends up disguising himself as a mad man, named Poor
Tom, who secluded himself inside a lonely hovel, trying to escape his misguided
father’s search party.
Yet rather than helping him to only
evade from Gloucester’s soldiers, Edgar’s disguise also acts as a stepping
stone for his triumph. Not only that he is able to stop his father for
committing suicide, but also to end Edmund’s plan from acquiring greater power
over the kingdom. His disguise ends up becoming a rite of passage not only for
him to be patient from his illegitimate brother’s plan, but also for his own
father to redeem his mistake in trusting his illegitimate offspring dubious
scheme.
Nevertheless, the play seems to portray
both disguises evenly in a way that both of which end up aiding its actor to
achieve their objectives. However, Edgar’s act of disguise seems to have a
better coincidental value in a way that his hiding place also became the hiding
place for Lear and his company, resulting Edgar’s attempt to resolve the
commotion made by his illegitimate brother and the treason committed by Lear’s
two deceitful daughters. On the contrary, even though Kent’s scheme also leads
him to his own triumph of being able to aid his king and reunite him with
Cordelia, it seems to be achieved by Kent’s own compassion and determination to
help Lear, Cordelia and the kingdom. Nonetheless, it is also interesting to see
that both of the situations are caused by misfortunes
that happened to Kent, by being banished, and Edgar, by being falsely
accused for a crime that he didn’t commit.
References:
Shakespeare, William. 1606. King Lear. Feedbooks; sourcehttp://www.feedbooks.com ; http://shakespeare.mit.edu/
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