Both Kenneth Muir and Enid Welsford have addressed the "reason in madness" theme in King Lear. The king's mad speeches are more than mere raving, Muir asserts. Instead they are restatements or amplifications of ideas he has expressed earlier, for example, his attacks on lechery and human justice. Welsford contends that when Lear loses his sanity, he broadens his vision of the world. In the grip of madness, she argues, Lear has a series of profound insights about human society and the way it functions.
Although Muir and Josephine Waters Bennett agree that the sudden confrontation with Edgar as Poor Tom pushes Lear over the brink of insanity, they disagree about what has led to this moment. Muir maintains that Lear is driven insane by three shocking incidents: Goneril's charge about the behavior of his knights,.....
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