King Lear

While I found Shakespeare's King Lear to be a rather depressing play (enjoyable nonetheless) it actually advocates the potential for individualism. Through madness King Lear becomes an individual, stripping off social norms and outside influences. When Gloucester asks Lear to kiss his hand Lear replies "Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality," (Shakespeare Act 4 Sc. 6,148), Lear has shucked off all traces of other's influence and has come to know himself so well that he can predict his own inevitable death. He is entirely his own person and the course of his life is not a mystery to him. While in a state of sanity, Lear is not aware of his impending doom. He is not truly himself and therefore his life is not his own. While madly raging into the storm Lear turns to his fool and says "Come on, my good boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself... come your hovel," (Act 3 Sc.2 74-78). Through insanity Lear has regained the compassion that once came naturally to him but was lost to the power and responsibility that comes with being king.