SOURCE: "'My Poor Fool is Hanged': Cordelia, the Fool, Silence and Irresolution in King Lear," in Reclamations of Shakespeare, Editions Rodopi B. V., 1994, pp. 211-22.

In the following essay, originally written in 1992, Berge maintains that the theme of dramatic irresolution is represented in the play first by Cordelia, then by the Fool, and finally by Lear himself Berge observes that Cordelia serves as Lear's model of truth and self-knowledge.

In the chaotic world of King Lear, resolution of character seems remote and veiled from an aged king bent on denying the unspoken truth. Dramatically speaking, his enemies fare conventionally better. Philip McGuire concludes that when the mortally wounded Edmund declares that "The wheel is come full circle", his words serve as an explicit statement of dramatic fulfilment.¹ Accordingly, Edmund, Goneril, and Regan move towards a dramatic consummation in which their deaths bond them in malevolence. However, Lear, Cordelia...