“DOTH ANY HERE KNOW ME? WHO IS IT THAT CAN TELL ME WHO I AM?” LOSS OF IDENTITY – A RECURRENT TOPIC IN KING LEAR AND THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
“DOTH ANY HERE KNOW ME? WHO IS IT THAT CAN TELL ME WHO I AM?” LOSS OF IDENTITY – A RECURRENT TOPIC IN KING LEAR AND THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

Summary/Abstract: Though written in a period when society was still governed by the belief in God, King Lear encompasses certain themes, motifs and ideas that are characteristic and anticipatory features for the Theatre of the Absurd. From the very beginning of the play, in King Lear the plan of normality is reversed with the one of the unnatural and absurd: honesty and genuine love are harshly punished, while paradoxically, hypocrisy and flattery are generously rewarded. The lack of natural affection and gratitude, moral promiscuity, political treason as well as madness that appears in the play in all its forms, create the image of a chaotic world, that lacks any moral or spiritual guidance. The overwhelming feeling of identity loss reinforces the absurdity of human condition in a universe that can’t be explained by reason anymore, a world where man experiences ”an irremediable exile” (Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 18).

• Details
• Contents