INTRODUCTION

King Lear is one of William Shakespeare’s masterpice which is for many critics regarded as the

greatest of his play and the most tragic play ever written. The story of King Lear and his three

daughters is actually an old tale that well-known in England before Shakespeare wrote it, but

Lear’s madness was not a part of the chronicle history. It’s just a plot added by Shakespeare

giving the effects of tragic to his play. It is written between Othello and Macbeth and first

performed for James I ( after Elizabeth I ). We know that Shakespeare wrote a lot of tragedies

that makes his works leave us in a deep impression and stir emotions of the audience.

In analyzing “King Lear” psychoanalyticly, we should focus on the inner sides of the characters.

What we will examine including characters, conflicts, symbols, theme, motifs, and dreams if

there any. We consider about Oedipus complex as well. Psychoanalytic theory believes that

someone’s desires that are unable being expressed or reached in reality, they will emerge in a

dream.

The conflicts in King Lear’s play are the battles of good and evil that will bring disaster for the

main characters. Using an Aristotelian definition of tragedy, the tragic hero is a protagonist

whose hamartia brougt him to his own downfall. King Lear is viewed as a tragic hero because

he’s a miserable old man, arrogance, vain, foolish, and incapable in controlling his emotion. His

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hamartia causes him not only lost his good daughter, Cordelia who has sincere love but he also

betrayed by his deceptive daughters, Regan and Goneril that lead to the decline of the kingdom.

It is typically Shakespeare to borrow tragic elements from several types of tragedies that were

popular during the Elizabethan Renaissance. Even though King Lear is classified as a chronical

play because of its elements of Senecan tragedy, it sometimes called Classical tragedy and the

morality play. The morality play provides the conflicts between Good versus Evil. Edmund,

Regan, Goneril, and Cornwall are on the Evil side that represent greed, envy, anger, and

lust.Whereas on the Good side, Cordelia, Edgar, Albany, Kent representative of faithfulness The

Senecan elements are for examples a loyal male servant ( Kent ), the themes of blood and lust

just like in Greek mythology, and Stichomythia.

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ANALYSIS

First of all, I will introduce each characters of the play. King Lear is the major character, the

protagonist, and dynamic character. He enjoys his absolute power, flatters, and pride that make

him unwise in actions. He wants to be treated as a king but he doesn’t want to fulfill his

obligation as a king. At the beginning, he blinds to the truth and gets angry at Cordelia , but

finally he realizes his faults. He inspired by the loyalty of people who risk their life for him. Lear

develops as a character and learns from mistakes and becomes a more insightful human being.

Cordelia is Lear’s youngest daughter. She’s a beautiful, mild and sincere lady with

unconditional love. She keeps loyal to King Lear even though he banished her. She forgives her

evil sisters for what they’ve done.

Goneril is Lear’s oldest daughter and the Duke of Albany’s wife. She and her sister Regan are

all the same of envious, treacherous, aggressive and amoral character that is not expected in a

female character. She wants to take over his father authority, and has an affair with Edmund.

Regan is Lear’s middle daughter and the Duke of Cornwall’s wife. She competes with her sister

Goneril for a same man, Edmund that brings destruction for the three of them.

Gloucester is a nobleman who is loyal to King Lear, the father of Edgar and Edmund. He’s fate

actually similar with Lear. He makes mistake in trusting wrong child. At the beginning, he

seems like a weak man but in the end, he shows his great bravery.

Edgar is Gloucester’s older and legitimate son. He plays several roles in this play. At the

beginning, he seems like a fool easily tricked by his brother. Then he disguise as a crazy beggar

to evade his father’s men. And finally he appears in full armor to protect Lear and Gloucester.

Edmund is Gloucester’s younger-illegitimate son. He shames of and hates his status as bastard

and plans to take over Gloucester’s possessions he gave to Edgar. He’s a scary man and almost

succeeding in all his schemes that bring destruction to other characters.

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Kent is a nobleman of the same rank as Gloucester who is extremely loyal to King Lear. He

disguises as a peasant and continue to serve Lear even after Lear banished him.

Albany is Goneril’s husband. He’s good at heart and opposes the cruelty of Goneril, Regan, and

Cornwall. Yet his realization is quite late in the play.

Cornwall is Regan’s husband. Unlike Albany, he’s cruel and violent. He conspires with his wife

and his sister in law to persecute Lear and Gloucester.

Fool is Lear’s jester, who uses double talk and seems frivolous but sometimes he gives Lear

important advice.

Oswald is the chief servant in Goneril’s house. He obeys his lady’s commands and helps her in

her conspiracies.

The setting takes place in Ancient Britain in the castle of King lear and the Earl of Gloucester,

the Duke of Albany palace, a forest, a heath, a farm house near Gloucester’s castle, a French

camp near Dover, and fields near Dover.

The plot is opened in King Lear’s castle as two noblemen, Kent and Gloucester talk about King

Lear who will divide his kingdom. King Lear is the ruler of Britain announces his plan to divide

the kingdom among his three daughters. It depends on who loves him the most to be given the

greatest share. Goneril and Regan, the older daughters flatter him by telling that they love him

more than anything else. But, Cordelia the youngest and favorite daughter refuses to flatter and

says that she loves him as much as a daughter should love her father. If her sisters love their

father as much as they say, they wouldn’t have love for husbands. Kent disagrees with the king

telling that it is insane to reward the flattery of his older daughters and disown Cordelia. Lear

gets angry at Kent and tells he must be gone from the kingdom within six days. The king of

France and duke of Burgundy wait for his decision which of them who will marry Cordelia. Lear

tells that Cordelia doesn’t have any title or land anymore. Burgundy withdraws his proposal, but

France is impressed by Cordelia’s honesty and decides to make her his queen. Lear sends her

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away to France without his blessing .Although now Goneril and Regan have power over the

kingdom, they still want their father’s remaining authority.

Meanwhile a nobleman named Gloucester also experience family problems just like Lear.

Edmund resents his status as bastard or illegitimate son. He is also being jealous with Edgar, the

legitimate son who is inherited their father’s wealth. Edmund tried to discredit Edgar by create a

plot in which Edgar tried to kill his father. Edgar flees to the heath when they pursue him and

disguises as a crazy beggar and calls himself “Tom O-bedlam”.Lear’s realizes that he made a bad

decision. Lear couldn’t believe that his beloved daughters have betrayed him. It makes him gone

insane. He flees from his daughters’ houses wandering on a heath during a great thunderstorm,

accompanies by his Fool and Kent.When Gloucester realizes that Lear’s daughters have turned

against their father, he decides to help Lear. Regan and her husband, Cornwall discover him who

plans to help Lear. They accuse him of betrayal and make him blind. His son Edgar who is in

disguise accompanies his father until they reach the city of Dover where Lear has also been

brought.

In Dover, Cordelia tries to save her father. Meanwhile, Edmund have affairs with both Regan

and Goneril. Goneril and Edmund conspire to kill Albany who is sympathetic to Lear. Gloucester

in desperation and tries to commit suicide, but Edgar comes to save him. Meanwhile, the English

troops lead by Edmund reach Dover defeat the French troops lead by Cordelia. Lear and Cordelia

are captured. In the climax, before duels with Edmund Edgar reveals his identity to his father.

Gloucester is in between joy and grief and then he died. Goneril poisons Regan because of

jealousy over Edmund before kill herself when Albany reveals her treachery. Edmund’s betrayal

of Cordelia leads her execution, she’s being hanged. Lear is out of sanity to see her died. Kent

speaks to him but he doesn’t recognize him because of insanity. Lear thinks that he sees her

beginning to breathe again, then he dies. Albany gives Edgar and Kent their power and titles

back ask them to rule with him. Kent feels himself near death, refuses but Edgar accepts. As a

funeral march plays, the few survivors exit sadly.

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There are some motifs that trigger King Lear’s tragedy. First is Madness. From madness Lear

learns humility that makes him more human and wise. The second is Betrayal. There are so

many betrayals and there’s lesson within it such as the betrayals of daughters to father, son to

father, brother to brother, and sister to sister. The lesson we get, betrayal leads the doers into

their own destruction.

For one reason symbols are made by Shakespeare to represent his abstract ideas or concepts.

First symbol is The Storm. The Storm is symbolic of great rages. It is reflection of internal

confusion. At the same time, it gives the power of nature for human to realize human mortality

and frailty and civilize human for a sense of humility. At a time, the Storm echoes Lear’s inner

turmoil and insanity. The second symbol is Blindness. Blindness symbolizes blind to the truth.

Blind to see what’s right and wrong. The lesson we get from blindness is, when you can’t see the

truth, no matter what, time will find the truth. Perhaps through another sense such as the feeling

that is as much valuable as the sight which guides human back to humanity.

The themes of the play are false-seeming, mercy, and justice. False-seeming can make

someone lost in ways. But it will make a person learns, transforms into a good person and create

a new self-awareness. King Lear’s wisdom grows because he comes to realize his errors. It

brings suffer to him and he learns much from it.

The conflicts in Shakespeare’s King Lear are rich of psychological issues. Since the beginning of

the play, the madness is started. Lear divides his kingdom to his two eldest evil daughters,

Goneril and Regan and banishes his good daughter Cordelia that he loves most. Consequently, an

arrogance king with absolute power has to experience suffer and his pride falls to a very low

place. The chaos is triggered by his corrupt personal relationship and the need of love. The

absence of a wife is one of the motives. He foolishly asks his daughters the amount of love they

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have for him and swaps his kingdom for that. Cordelia who refuses to put a price on her love has

to receive the punishment.

In Act 1 it reveals Lear desire of mental disorder what is called Oedipus complex by Freud. He

tried to keep his daughter away from marriage. This Oedipus complex damages not only his

daughter life but also his own life. Cordelia loves Lear like a daughter that half of her love must

go for a husband. Her words become hurtful to Lear when she says that:

You have begot me, bred me, lov’d me: I

Return those duties back as are right fit,

Obey you, love you, and most honor you.

Why have my sisters husbands, if they say

They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,

That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry

Half my love with him, half my care and duty:

Sure I shall never marry like my sisters,

To love my father all.

Lear is clouded by rage since then. He sabotages Cordelia’s chance of marriage by giving her

nothing causes Duke of Burgundy cancels his proposal. Yet, the King of France accepts Cordelia

because he impressed by her honesty. Lear’s madness gets worse and worse in Act 5 scene 3:

Come, let’s away to prison;

We two alone will sing like birds I’ the cage:

…So we’ll live,

and pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh

At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues

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King Lear’s words reveals his happiness to be with his daughter and shows his strong love, if he

can be with her it doesn’t matter live even in prison. These emotions supposed to more

appropriate to a lover than to a father. Perhaps, Lear’s Oedipal inclination of a father’s sexual

interest in his daughter triggered by the absent of wife. The abundance of Lear’s desires and

emotions he tries to hold causes his madness. King Lear is a tragic figure who fails to understand

himself that through Freudian theory psychologically it can be understood. Freud’s psychological

components of the Id, the Ego, and, the Superego can be used to analyze King Lear’s psychology

that leads to his downfall and madness.

In Freud’s Psychoanalysis there is tripartite idea which is divided into the Id, the Ego, and the

Superego. Sometimes in conflict, these three forces interact with one another. These three parts

of the Unconscious triggers the hungry feeling, thoughts, images, and desires of human nature.

Freud theorizes that unconscious thoughts are consciously revealed, in unexpected way. Through

King Lear, Shakespeare successfully reveals Lear’s unconscious thought. The oldest and the

most primitive part is the Id. We are all born with the Id which is by Freud called the pleasure

principle. It is selfish desires that need to be satisfied and triggers to seek the pleasure and take

no account of logic or reason, reality or morality. The hard repression of the Id causes neurotic

symptoms and Freudian slips that could lead to the insanity. King Lear’s selfish behavior

demonstrates the Id. In this situation it is provoked by the situation especially by his evil

daughters in Act I scene III: “Put on what weary negligence you please…If he distate it, let him

to our sister…And let his knights have colder looks among you;”

When Goneril instructs Oswald to treat Lear and his men poorly, Lear satisfies his Id’s desire for

drinking, lust, and disorderly conduct. He pays back with disrespectful behavior and in verbal

aggression. He curses Goneril:

Dry up in her the organs of increase,

And from her derogate body never spring

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A babe to honor her! If she must teem,

Create her child of spleen, that it may live

And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!

Lear’s irrational behavior and aggressiveness emerges because of the Id stimulus. Usually, The

Ego will hold aggressive behavior and redirect towards something more acceptable or

appropriate. Since Lear’s ego fails to redirect his inappropriate and aggressive behavior,

consequently he has to experience the unpleasant effects of his actions. Later we see, Lear learns

from his previous experience with Goneril and his Id becomes a little bit in control, it showed

when he talks to Regan: “Tis not in thee to grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train…”

The second part of Freud’s tripartite is the Ego, the rational part of the mind. The Ego describes

the conscious and logical part of the psyche which is in accordance with the reality to control the

Id and keep it in the right track, in a safe and nondestructive way and mediates between the Id

and the Superego. When King Lear’s asks, “which of you shall we say doth love us most” and he

gets unexpected answer from Cordelia, his Ego seems struggle hard to control the Id, Cordelia

has to pay her honesty. As Kent advises Lear to reconsider his hasty decision, Kent has to

receive punishment as well because of uncontrollable Lear’s Id:

When Lear is mad. What would’st thou do, old man?

Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak

When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour’s bound

When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state;

And in thy best consideration, check

This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgement,

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As the Id overwhelms and the Ego becomes weak, it triggers his madness. But at a time, Lear

comes to realize his errors little by little, and his Ego can control the Id. In the beginning of Act

III, Lear’s ego tries to hold his Id by crying against it: “You heavens, give me that patience,

patience I need! You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, as full of grief as age; wretched in

both!”

At the end of Act III, once again Lear becomes completely mad and the Ego tends to distort.

There are violent battles inside him because of repression, denial, rationalization, regression, and

isolation. At the end of the play, Lear denies Cordelia’s death. He has to face what he can’t face.

Lear fantasizes that he sees her beginning to breathe again. He dies because of a lot of shocks in

his mind.

The third part of Freud’s model is the Superego that Freud called ‘primary narcissism’ or self-

centredness. The Super-ego represents the society and demands perfection of the ego and the

ideals of thought and behavior. It is the human conscience that causes us to make moral

judgments of what is right and what is wrong. We try to behave in ways that acceptable to

society than our own individual will. It appears such feelings of shame, guilt, and pride. The

moral standards of Elizabethan society are certainly different from our own where the divine

right of kings, as a ruler is moral obligation. There is a clash between Lear’s moral duties as a

father and as a king. He thinks that he can separate these roles, but he cannot. Lear’s decisions

concerning love, family, and justice are the right things according to him but it is foolish in our

perspective. Lear’s ego tried to balance out the Id’s desire gratification and the Superego’s moral

gratification. If the ego is forced to work harder more than it could bear, it will cause disorder of

the neurotic system. From Psychoanalytic criticism, now we understand what makes King Lear’s

madness.

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CONCLUSION

The very important part of the organism is the nervous system which is also the most sensitive

part of the body. It translates the organism’s needs and give motivations. We usually called them

instincts or drives, or Freud’s ‘wishes’. According to Freud, all human behaviors are motivated

by the instincts or the drives that need to be satisfied and to be at peace. That’s why life can be

painful and exhausting process just to satisfy our human’s need. For the majority of people in the

world, there are more pains than pleasures in life that are just death could release human struggle

from them.

Psychoanalysis is the perfect type of literary criticism to analyze Shakespeare’s tragedy of King

Lear. We learn much from this that how hard our neurotic system works every day to balance our

life. What King Lear had been experienced explaining it’s not that easy to control our desires,

wishes, and behavior and fit them with the society. Repression and isolation are just like a time

bomb that will explode anytime that will ruin our body. And too much Provocation, denial, also

rationalization will make it even worse. In conclusion, human madness is provoked both by their

inner self and the society. So that, we are as a part of society should have concern and not

provoke one to another because a mental disorder is serious social problem that will bring

tragedy we never know it’s something we’ve done that we don’t even aware.

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GLOSSARY

Chronical play a drama of historical material that based on history.

Classical tragedy a story full of incidents that bring pity, fear and arouse emotions, which is the hero

ends in misfortune or tragic that is typically story in classical times.

Ego the rational part of the mind. The Ego describes the conscious and logical part of the psyche which

is in accordance with the reality to control the Id and keep it in the right track, in a safe and

nondestructive way and mediates between the Id and the Superego.

Hamartia errors or missteps of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall.

Id selfish desires that need to be satisfied and triggers us to seek the pleasure and take no account of

logic or reason, reality or morality

Morality play characters personified virtues ( good ) and vice (evil ).

Senecan tragedy early Renaissance tragedy borrowed the "violent and bloody plots, resounding

rhetorical speeches and sometimes the five-act structure e.g. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.

Stichomythia dramatic dialogue as in Ancient Greek play, characterized by brief exchanges between

two characters, usually one line verse with intense emotion or strong argumentation.

Super-ego self-centredness that represents the society and demands perfection of the ego and the ideals

of thought and behavior. It is the human conscience that causes us to make moral judgments of what is

right and what is wrong.

Tragic hero a person of noble birth or a great character in dramatic tragedy ended suffering and loss of

throne or position or power.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Craig, W. J, ed. (1905) The Works of Shakespeare: The Tragedy of King Lear. Indianapolis:

Bowen-Merrill Company.

Matthews, Honor. (2009) Character and Symbol in Shakespeare’s Play. New York: Cambridge

University Press.

Rennison, Nick. (2001) Freud & Psychoanalysis. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials.

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