"The Storm" within Storms of King Lear

Back to King Lear... Finally I have made some ground in this play. I fought through Act 2 and Act 3 to find something that brought the story full circle for me, maybe an interesting twist or a development of some sort because I was getting lost in the language. There is a scene within Act 3 that really helps me in showing the development of King Lear as a person. By this time in the story King Lear is really struggling to hold on to his sanity. He is outside during a storm with his “Fool” and Edgar who is dressed as Tom O’Bedlam. King Lear is analyzing what is going on with the man before him “… poor naked wretches, wheresoever you are… that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm…” The King sees a man who is naked standing in front of him and he is praying, asking whoever caused this man before him to experience such nakedness in the presence of a storm that is meant for destruction, why has this happened... For the first time, the King sees a simple disparity between himself and another man. Due to this realization he attempts to immediately experience that of what this nice man before him is experiencing, “… expose thyself to feel what wretches feel…” King Lear is definitely losing his mind right now because he just undressed even though there is a bad storm going on, but beyond that, there is a storm that was preexisting within his mind. He is battling the reality that with everything he had in his possession, power, money, land, respect… The only thing that separates him from anyone else is clothing. Without his KINGLY garments, he is but another helpless HUMAN stuck in the eye of a storm at the mercy of the GODS.