Violent World of King Lear

The world of King Lear is a violent, twisted one and throughout the play this becomes more

apparent to the audience and King Lear alike. There are a few scenes however that stand out as key

moments which perfectly represent the violent world of King Lear, from the scene depicting Lears

descent into madness in the storm, to Gloucester getting mutilated and blinded, I will discuss these

Act III scene II contains a very memorable scene showing us the violence present in the world of

King Lear. In this scene King Lear stands before a raging storm, his madness already setting in.

With violent words he curses the storm, his daughters, and God himself.

“Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!”

This line is chosen perfectly by Shakespeare as its use of alliteration and cacophony help represent

the violent nature of the storm throught the words of the maddened King

“Blow, winds, crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!”

The words present in this line are perfect as each represent a violent element in both the storm, and

in King Lears mind, the raging winds seeming all too similar to the turbulent rage present in King

Lears family life. The 'rage' of the storm seems to mirror the rage Lear is finding deep within the

people around him, the 'cracked cheeks' showing us images of people spitting hate, lies and violent

words at each other from cracked, dried mouths.

“Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never remember to have heard;

man's nature cannot carry the affliction nor the fear”

This line seems first to describe the violent nature of the present storm, however the storm is just a

representation for the violent world Lear finds himself in. In this line Lear has come to the sudden

realisation of all the violence and hate the people closest to him are capable of, there groans like

“unwhipped of justice, hide thee thou bloody hand!”

This line describes Lears shock at the violent crimes that go unpunished under his very nose, this

gives us perfect cultural context as to the violent world of King Lear.
By K.