Sunday, October 11, 2015
Kent
I was thinking again about what to blog about and I was really just impressed by Kent and his character. He is so incredibly loyal to King Lear throughout everything. Literally everything that he does throughout the play (to my recollection, anyway) is done with King Lear in mind. And while I do think this (that loyalty) is incredibly admirable in any character, it is also rather unrealistic. So I started to wonder why Kent was displayed that way. The first thing that came to mind was that he was a direct foil for Goneril and Reagan and their ingratitude and lack of loyalty to Lear. Secondly, I also thought that Shakespeare uses Kent throughout the play to move it along - one of Lear's first acts of madness is to banish him, Kent in the stocks caused the first confrontation with Regan, and Lear might never even have started on his way to Dover and Cordelia without Kent. He really is one of the key characters in helping to develop the plot. Of all of these things, put together, really interested me in Kent and his purpose in the play.
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I do find Kent to be an interesting character as well. The fact that he verbally demolished and then attacked Oswald just because he was rude to Lear was certainly extreme. I would have to agree with you about his unrealistic levels of loyalty to Lear.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to think about his loyalty. It almost seems like he is the character that any king would want or expect in his subjects. Yet, in displaying that person, we see how unrealistic it is and how, even though he is so loyal, he is mistreated. I think this somewhat reflects political expectations and how realistically those expectations never worked for king or subject.
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