From Order to Chaos: An Exploration of the World Order in Shakespeare's King Lear

King Lear is commonly regarded as one of Shakespeare's most complex plays. Said complexity manifests itself in a web of factors, a central strand of which is concerned with the destabilisation of the play's world order. Hence, this essay investigates the question of the order of the world and the potential for restoration thereof in King Lear. Beginning with a discussion on the responsibility of the king-drawing on the Basilicon Doron by King James I as a contemporary context-I examine how the world is spun out of order through the merging of the private and the public in Lear's decision to divide his kingdom. Subsequently, the analysis focuses on the theme of recognition, set up as anagnorisis to counter Lear's hamartia, but resulting in a failure that emphasises disorder and is transposed via a mise en abyme onto the reception process. Lear's nakedness and the clothing symbolism are shown to undermine the readability of the world and mirror the descent into disorder by enhancing the play's tragic aspects and leaving Lear paralysed. Justice and a transcendental sphere are rejected as ordering systems through the unsystematic distribution of justice, the unsuccessful evocation of gods, and the specific realisation of the trial by combat between Edgar and Edmund. Finally, Edgar's ascension to the throne proves inadequate in restoring the world to order as it is surrounded by Iserian Leerstellen that point toward a prolonged state of disorder, and because it remains a footnote next to Lear's personal tragedy.