「お前も娘達にすべてを譲ってしまったのか」 : リアの自己投影をめぐって

抄録

Lear's encounter with Edgar disguised as "Poor Tom" marks one of the climactic scenes in King Lear. On meeting Edgar, Lear loses his sanity and feels unreasonably close affinity to "Poor Tom." When he says, "Have his [Edgar's] daughters brought him to this pass?" Lear projects his own distressing predicament into Edgar. For him Edgar is not an autonomous individual but just the reflection of his self-image. Lear also sees in Edgar not wearing any clothes a genuine aspect of human condition and, imitating his nakedness, tries to take off his own clothes in the middle of the fierce storm. Throughout the scene Lear desperately tries to identify and assimilate himself with Edgar. This is also an earnest attempt to recover his lost identity. Disgraced and humiliated by his wicked daughters, King Lear is not only provoked to ungovernable rage but also begins a fundamental questioning about who he is. In this scene, Lear avoids confrontation with his own intolerable reality and tries to establish his new identity by assimilating himself with Edgar. King Lear is sometimes interpreted from the point of view of Lear's self-discovery. My focus is on Lear's escape from self-discovery through assimilation with Edgar and others.