King Lear Vs. Ebanezer Scrooge...

We have gone through three plays, and two graphic novels thus far in this course. Each one was a good story, and each one provided for some very interesting interpretations and discussions. Hamlet provided some of the best examples of complex, self reflective, human characters I have seen in literature, it is a character building masterpiece, that we still pull ideas from to this day. Macbeth provided a discussion of of destiny and the dangers of ambition that continues to this day. Of all the Shakespeare we have discussed in class, and of all the Shakespeare I have read for that matter, King Lear is the most directly moral, and most directly transformative. Lear is also has the simplest plot of all Shakespeare's plays that I have seen so far, but it is a plot that is very well executed.

King Lear, had a special connection for me. We had discussed two ways in which to view Lear, one was a morality play, with an absolute moral scale, the other was a subjective piece, with each character having valid goals and ideals. I like to view Lear as a morality play, and the reason why is that I can then compare King Lear to Dicken's a Christmas Carol, which is one of my favorite stories from when I was a child. As an aside, I have to make a mention of my bias. It was a tradition in my family to play a Christmas Carol on Christmas eve every year, and it was one of my favorite traditions. I loved the dark mysteriousness of the story, and I especially loved the transformation and redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge. I feel the same sort of connection toward Lear as I do for Scrooge. Because of this connection, which admittedly is entirely personal and subjective, I see King Lear the play as a darker more adult version of a Christmas Carol. Which is why Lear Rocks. But, there's more! I can break down this comparison further.

My favorite part of a Christmas Carol is the transformation and redemption of Scrooge, so let's break that transformation down, and compare it to Lear. I will argue that Scrooge goes through three stages of transformation. This is loose, and depending on how much psychological analysis you want to use, can be broken down further, but the four basic stages are as follows: The first stage, with Marley's ghost, is denial. Scrooge refuses to believe that there is anything amiss in way of life, even faced with the horrible image of Marley's chains. This scene is mirrored with Lear and Cordelia in the Love Auction scene. Lear flat out denies Cordelia's wisdom, though it isn't presented in such strong imagery as chains with Marley. Both Lear and Scrooge force the dissenting characters from their world.

The second stage is the 'crisis' moment. After the point of denial the character is bombarded with evidence of their 'wrongness' until they can no longer deny the error of their ways. For Scrooge, this is the first two ghosts. The ghost of Christmas past shows Scrooge his old ways, and his transformation into evil. Admittedly, Lear has no direct analogous moment to this, but through the actions and dialogue of Kent and the elder Gloucester we get a sense that in the past Lear was a good king, at least good enough to gain very strong loyalty from these high ranking men. A side note, by good, I mean politically good, as the argument the Lear molested his daughters is still viable, but would not directly affect what Kent and Gloucester saw in their king. Back to Scrooge, we move to the ghost of Christmas present, which is where Scrooge really has his "crisis" moment. The ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge the present disarray of the world around him, which is implied to be caused, at least in part, by Scrooges own evil. Presented with these images, Scrooge begins to have his "crisis" and starts the process of change. For Lear, the equivalent of this is his maltreatment by Goneril and then Regan. Lear's crisis moment is after he decides to whether the storm instead of deal with his daughters mistreatment.


The third stage is a feeling of rock bottom or "defeatism". For Scrooge this happens with the ghost of Christmas Future. At this stage he is completely overwhelmed with not only the destruction of his world, but the shear supernatural aspects of the experience. The direct comparison to this with Lear is the Storm scene, and the subsequent trial in Edgar's hovel. For scrooge, the empty funeral and thieving servants is his trial/judgment scene, for Lear it is the imaginary trial of his daughters. The difference between the scenes is the way in which the characters deal with the situation. It is arguable that Lear is still defending his old ways, but it could also be seen as Lear giving himself a sense of closure and allowing himself to complete his redemption. The grave scene had a similar effect for Scrooge's character. It was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak.

The final stage is "redemption". This is an interesting stage because for both characters it is arguable that their redemption is inexorably linked with a form of madness. It can be argued for both characters in fact, that there is no redemption, simply madness, but you cannot argue for redemption without madness to some degree. Scrooge is obviously "cured" of his miserliness, but he has swung to the opposite side of the scale. He is overly jolly and giving, to a point that it bewilders and frightens his servants and the people he interacts with. Lear has a similar interaction with the blind Gloucester in the French camp. Both characters show a new found wisdom, but both are obviously psychologically shaken from the transformative experience. Where the two stories differ is how the world these characters live in accept these transformations. For Scrooge, all is good, and a happy Hollywood, Christian ending ensues, "God bless us all, every one.", thank you, Tiny Tim. For Lear, the world is not so accepting. His transformation did arguably redeem him, he learned his lesson, but it was too little, too late, which in my opinion is far more realistic, making Lear a better story. Lear's death doesn't redeem him, his insanity does, but his death legitimizes the redemption.