However, the Fool is more than just an important
and necessary companion to Lear. Since
Lear had divided his
kingdom among his
daughters his world changed
drastically. Lear trusted in the good
will of his daughters when he did this and it ended up leaving him with no one
for support. At the time, Cordelia and
the Earl of Kent were the only people wise enough to speak the plain
truth to
Lear and because of this are banished by him.
Now, Cordelia is no longer around and neither is his trusty Kent. With these two characters out of his life,
although Kent is still there in disguise, Lear has no one that he can really
trust or learn the truth from since everyone else in his world is deceiving
him. And Gloucester is of no use
because he can only tend to Lear briefly.
But the Fool remains one of the only characters that support him while
also being honest in pointing out his errors.
In Act I, Scene IV the Fool says, “e’er since thou mad’st thy daughters
thy mothers; for when thou gav’st them the rod and put’st down thine own
breeches.” The Fool is telling Lear the
mistake he made and then sings “Then they for sudden joy did weep, And I for
sorrow sung, that such a king should play bo-peep and go the fools among.” These statements are the brutal truth and
they are coming from one of the lowest people they could come from. In fact, the Fool speaks much more
intelligently in this play than many of the higher-ranking characters. Having him point these things out to King Lear
shows the importance of the Fool in this play.
Right after this exchange with Lear, the Fool further shows his dislike
of the daughters and also tells Lear that he has become less of a person than
the Fool himself.