Free English Literature Dissertations - In Shakespeare’s Play Lear’s Death Instinct Brings Destruction Both To Him
In Shakespeare’s play Lear’s death instinct brings destruction both to him and his devoted daughter Cordelia. Lear’s unconscious desire for love is inseparably linked with death, because unconscious desire, permanently at odds with the demands of civilisation, is what will always wreck the ego’s attempt to forge a coherent sense of self48.
To some extent, a connection between death and desire is explained by Christian concepts that regard person’s desires as his/her gradual destruction49. Analysing Shakespeare’s obsession with death, Freud points at the fact that the death of Hamnet, Shakespeare’s son, might also influence Shakespeare’s attitude towards death issues. As Graham Frankland puts it, Shakespeare achieves not disguised wish fulfilment, but ‘eternal wisdom’, namely a full of recognition of the necessity of death50. Similar to Freud, George Bataille treats death as an integral part of person’s eroticism and sensuality; Bataille compares orgasm with little death, claiming that inevitably linked with the moment of climax, there is a minor rupture suggestive of death; and conversely the idea of death may play a part in setting sensuality in motion51. In view of this concept, Bataille stresses the importance of reproduction, pointing at the fact that it is the essence of eroticism and that reproduction implies the existence of discontinuous beings52. In other words, every person, despite the process of reproduction, differs from other individuals; thus, reproduction provides a person with an individuality, but it also contributes to his loneliness his/her birth and death occur in loneliness, creating a gulf, a discontinuity53. In this regard, Bataille’s concept is based on the idea of human destruction and annihilation as a result of his/her unconscious desires. Applying this theory to Shakespeare’s play, it is possible to understand King Lear’s wrong actions that cause his death and the death of Cordelia. According to Freud, Lear is afraid of death; however, the King is also afraid of loneliness, failing to realise that it is inevitable in the world he lives in. Simultaneously, Lear experiences unconscious sexual desires towards his daughters, the desires that Lear is not able to realise, but these desires influence his attitude towards females; when Goneril and Regan betray him, King Lear rejects their femininity by claiming:
Hear, Nature, hear! Dear goddess, hear!
Suspend they purpose, if thou didst intend
Top make this creature fruitful!
Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honor her!54
As a result, Lear’s behaviour is characterised by madness and weakness; as Regan and Goneril, the daughters of King Lear point out, You see how full of changes his age is, demonstrating that tis the infirmity of his age55.
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