King Lear: Act III

I decided to do an Anti-Blog post for Act Three but instead of comparing a character to a celebrity, I chose a movie character. When I began to focus on the Fool’s character, there was a particular movie character that I was reminded of, and I feel that both the Fool and this character share similar qualities. In the movie, “Drop Dead Fred”, (which was a childhood favorite of mine), Fred shares many characteristics as the Fool in King Lear. Fred is an imaginary friend to a young girl Lizzie. Many of his actions and speech was erratic, his humor was quite dark and he often caused trouble but he still managed to provide somewhat sound advice for Lizzie, who was suffering from an overbearing, controlling mother. Besides the fact that Fred wore eccentric clothing that could even be compared to that of a fool or jester, it is particularly the dark humor that I found very similar. He would often speak satirically such as the fool, and sometimes downright insulting but deep down he cared about the well-being of Lizzie. This exact sort of sentiment is expressed in Act three between the Fool and King Lear. The Fool advises him to make amends with his daughters so that he is spared a night full of rain but King Lear refuses. Directly afterwards, the Fool insults the King by implying that it is he that is foolish, in lines 40-41, “Marry, here’s grace and a cod-piece; that’s a wise man and a fool”. I also think that this comparison between the Fool and Fred is ironic because similarly to Lizzie who wishes to escape the brutal emotional treatment from her mother, King Lear escaped from his abusive daughters. It is in both this situations in which the Fool and Fred gives advice, even if it is in a skewed manner.

Fred

Lizzie & Fred