He uses language in a very different way, and it plays a very important role in defining the plot of Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear. Between the Lear-Fool-Edgar-Kent group and the Goneril-Regan-Corwall group, there are several notable distinctions in the manner of the two groups of ideas. It is also the main premise of the story – Cordelia’s inability to articulate her love for her father with language and expression idea Among the Lear-Fool-Edgar-Kent group, even the members in that group have different ways of communicating through language. King Lear begins the story still healthy, and plans to divide his kingdom among his three daughters. First, however, he wants to test them, and he does this by asking them in turn how much they love him. Goneril and Regan, the two eldest Daughters, both father satisfy the answers; yet Cordelia cannot put into words the love that Lear feels. This upsets him and he immediately resigns. This example shows King Lear’s use of the English language at the beginning of the play. Originally, very logical and methodical, he uses this question to his daughters as a way to see if they are fit to take over the Kingdom.
Later, however, King Lear loses the property through the abdication of one of his daughters and is abandoned by two others. There is a change in his language from the logical to the insane, and it is definitely brought on by the family drama he is experiencing. The Fool’s story is very different from King Lear’s. Most of the time he talks stupidly, and sings ridiculous songs with the intention of providing the king with an actual plan. The essay topic suggests that one group should talk more about “madness”. The Fool existing as part of that group leads to the result that the Lear-Fool-Edgar-Kent group is talking crazier. It is difficult to pick out and understand the meaning of everything he says, and the odd way of speaking makes it difficult to understand what he intends to convey to the king. He is, however, derisively called a fool, because after Lear the mad fool seems to have much more common sense and sanity than before.
The last two of the group of men who were on the side of King Lear are Edgar and Kent, in their combination. They have several similarities with each other; that is to say, that each of them transforms himself into a great part of the story. Edgar undertakes various acts, chiefly to keep him from his father’s army, and sends him in search of Gloucester. Kent is truly a nobleman, and deceives men into believing that he is a countryman; He only did this because he wanted to serve the king. Their language is not as specific as Lear’s and the Fool’s, but it nevertheless contributes to the classification of that group as those who speak “insanely.”
Because Edgar is always impersonating someone else, the reader never really gets a sense of his character, and his language does nothing to help. His language is very obscure, but at the beginning of Act 4, it is easier to understand why it is the way it is. In the opening scene of Act IV, Edgar is sitting on a bush, talking to himself with his father. In this scene, through Edgar’s language the reader understands the subtle parallels between himself and Lear. Both experience great regret about the situation. In Lear’s case he betrayed family members and in Edgar’s case he was betrayed by his half-brother, then by his father. .
When he comes to Kent, he impresses the reader with his language, how candid and ingenuous he is; often at an inopportune time. Another important role of language in the play concerns the narrator King Lear’s loss of dignity after leaving his daughter and how he begins to go mad. Lear’s descent into madness is evident in the language of the other characters. For example, the language that conveys respect for the principle of tradition is surprising as early as the first scene of the play. Lear’s decline is foreshadowed though the various comments of other characters; such is the flight of the Kentish name of the king near the end of the first scene. He refers to Lear as “King Lear” or “my law” and only begins to call him king at the end of the scene.
The Goneril-Regan-Cornwall group is a group that speaks logically. In the first place, Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall are ruthless and malicious, but still intelligent. They are all bold and fierce, and will be cruel in getting what they want. All three characters use their language to fulfill their greedy desires. Their logical nature, together with the fact that they say what they mean in reality much more than a character like a fool, makes them much more intelligible. in other Shakespearean works. The language is dense, and sometimes for the characters who speak with greater “fury” as they test the theme, the meaning of what they are trying to get lost in translation. For example, the reader finally understands that the fool is wise, but still speaks in such a confused way that it is difficult to know that he is saying something important. The place which is recreated in the play capturing Lear, foolishly, Edgar and Kent as madmen; and the other Goneril, Regan, and Cornish group as the logic leads to the family’s downfall. Eventually, the types of speech between the two groups creates such confusion and leads to such miscommunication that almost every character dies.
