Pity & Fear for Lear

“O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven 

Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!”

“Let me have surgeons;

I am cut to the brains.”

Lear’s madness makes him more human and vulnerable to making mistakes in the eyes of the audience. 

Lear’s loss of his sense is his real tragedy.

This makes the tragedy effective as the audience feels pity for Lear.