King Lear: The Question of Divine Justice

Abstract

King Lear explores the relations between love—be it filial, paternal, or erotic—and justice: our sense of worthiness, not only to be loved but to rule and be ruled. The most celebrated of Shakespeare’s tragedies, it is also among the most difficult to interpret. The private affections of the king are bound up with his public rule, as are the private affections of everyone else in the play. And those affections, when unrequited or thwarted, appear to drive Lear to madness. But as Edgar notes, Lear’s madness is mixed with reason (4.6.174–175). His experiences move him, owing to his depth and toughness of soul, to question what he has always taken for granted. And one important thing he has taken for granted is the existence of justice, human and divine. Moreover, in no play is “nature” more often referred to as a standard of human conduct, over and against both law or convention and the divine. More than in any other play Shakespeare ties the question of justice, of “deserving,” to the question of the existence of gods, and it is reflection on precisely this question that drives Lear to madness, and then to an abortive recovery from it. We see political men and women act following both superficial and deep reflection on that question, and the political consequences of their doing so.