King Lear

"Nothing will come of nothing." And with it everything.

This play breaks the preconceived bias towards insanity. People often believe lunacy to be a sign of deterioration, and whilst Shakespeare supports that it can be he says so non-absolutely. For, the madman, in a sense, has transcended beyond his humanity, embodying a man-like physique in which he alone may highlight the corruption of good and the majesty in evil, alone he may examine the world with an other-worldly eye. To exclaim that there exists “reason in madness” seems contradictory and quite mad itself. However, those that society deem as “crazy” often simply lack the social awareness that constricts man and enforces moral lies and obligations. It is the mad who no longer worries about his own status that can often observe the lunacy in structure and state an undiluted truth (if that exists).

One of the lesser acknowledged messages in King Lear is that of absolutism.
What in this play is absolute?
Power? no...
Not pride, not love, not lust. Neither understanding nor ignorance.
Even sanity remains far from absolute. The only object that appears to obtain an absolute image is the concept of “nothing.” But even “nothing,” itself practically personified in the play, consists of a complex riddle of understanding. Nothing can, and does, speak volumes. But sometimes it tells of the truth, and other times: the truth one desires heard. Nothing is absolute only because it is undeniable, unalterable. However, it remains absolute only in onset, the composition and influence are far from non-variable. So maybe nothing exists as a moment of always, absolute in its silence, but flexible in its interpretation.