The Rich King's Poor Dementia

William Shakespeare once retorted in insult that “you speak an infinite deal of nothing,” (Goodreads 1). Even though his insults may not have been paramount, his writings have become a cherished heirloom passed down from generations and generations of readers. Shakespeare is commonly described in modern times as “an actor, poet, playwright, and sharer…a country boy [who] gained work as an actor and a reputation as a playwright” (Smout 175). When baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon (the name of the town in which he was born, in 1564) Shakespeare was assimilated into English society. In 1616, on the verge of his death, Shakespeare was still consistently writing plays, sonnets, and other works of tremendous English merit. Yet, the epitome of Shakespeare’s writing developed throughout the later Elizabethan Period and early Jacobean Period (circa 1588-1625). This prolonged transitional shift between two profound periods of artistic development “illustrates the development from the early Shakespeare to the later Shakespeare or from the Elizabethan Shakespeare to the Jacobean Shakespeare” (Wilson 2). In essence, his writing transitioned from a High Renaissance style to a mannerist style, full of metaphysical and devotional poems. If that drastic change was not enough, Shakespeare also began his writing career in an age where the state battled God for influence, wealth, and power. Authors such as Shakespeare, deviated from religion to science and vice versa, resulting in writings that portrayed a profound mix of the two aspects that governed daily life. For example, Shakespeare’s King Lear, written between 1603 and 1606 (between Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Secular transitions), showcases a multiplicity of these influences within each statement and each message. Conclusively, Shakespeare wrote at the turning point of society as the world began to deviate from unification with the Church to secularism, transmogrified from a structured style to a nonchalant form, but above all, relinquished the values of a symbiotic society to create a unique style of living for each individual.

  As an avid writer, Shakespeare had an ample amount of passion when he developed thirty-seven plays and a plethora of sonnets. However, besides the fact that Shakespeare influenced linguistics tremendously, he also drew much of his influence in writing from the field of medicine. Shakespeare’s interest in physiology has been subject to debate by scholars, but many people today believe that:

  “William Shakespeare's plays and poetry contain many references of interest for almost all of the medical specialties. To support that the Bard could be considered a Renaissance neurologist, the following important neurological phenomena have been selected from his repertoire for discussion: tremors, paralysis and stroke, sleep disturbances, epilepsy, dementia, encephalopathies, and the neurology of syphilis” (Fogan 900).

  As Shakespeare expanded his thirst for writing, a greater use of neurological happenings emerged among a varying degree of his writings. From Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Henry VIII to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare demonstrates his fascination with medicine and the motivation behind the behaviorism of a human. Without a doubt, a primary example of William Shakespeare’s fascination of medicine is through his own, King Lear. Published in 1608, King Lear was a widely extolled tragedy by the people of England, as were many of Shakespeare’s previous plays. However, King Lear focused on a king who ruled a vast kingdom, scrutinizing the reaction to each setting, action, and manner. To do so, Shakespeare employed immense characterization for the reader to divulge into, allowing the reader to analyze the neurological basis for the demeanor of each character, specifically King Lear. Despite William Shakespeare’s former connections to an intensive study of medicine in prior plays, his interest in the physiology of the human consciousness and the emotional lexicon of the brain is most manifested within his tragedy, King Lear. Within the tragic play rests a striking parallelism between fiction and fact through Shakespeare’s conveyance of the notion that emotions and age truly do intrude and hinder the enhancement of proper decision making, altogether supported through the performance and characterization of the central character in the tragedy – King Lear himself.

  Primarily, Shakespeare conveys the methodology of medicine by demonstrating King Lear’s dementia that has accompanied the old age of the heartbroken king. But prior to this, Shakespeare’s knowledge of medicine and the basis for the pure characterization of King Lear must be understood in order to analyze the impact of dementia on judgment. Shakespeare's fascination with the functionality of the brain is unmatched by anyone at that time. In essence, he was characterizing people with dementia and other mental disorders before modern science had even discovered the very existence of the disorder. The flaws and regularity of human life, such as in both sickness and health, are portrayed in relatively all of Shakespeare's novels. This author found a way to comprehend human physiology and the impact of this physiology on the psychological traits of a person – long before modern scientists realized the factual nature of Shakespeare's writings. One of the neurological phenomena that fascinated Shakespeare the most was dementia as a whole. Scientifically known as Dementia Praecox, dementia is defined as “a usually progressive condition (as Alzheimer's disease) marked by deteriorated cognitive functioning often with emotional apathy” (Webster 1). Basically, a person diagnosed with dementia is most likely to obey a period of deterioration in thinking, memory, and functionality, often followed by emotional degradation. Shockingly, this horrible mental illness is one of the most common in the world today and has been for centuries of mankind’s history. Therefore, dementia must have been a common occurrence in Shakespeare’s day. Evidently, William Shakespeare had taken note of this. Shakespeare’s physiological muse for his writings may as well have been a tangible mental illness from which he observed the demeanor of those inflicted with the degenerative disease, and simply personified this notion through his characters.

  Furthermore, further examination of dementia and the link to emotional decision making is pertinent to a greater revelation of Shakespeare’s eloquence and efficiency of implementing human physique into the character of King Lear. However, prior to the examination of King Lear’s specific dementia and the characterization used to prove this notion, the causation and implication of dementia must be established soundly. One of the key affiliations associated with dementia is an alteration in behavior and emotion. Many scientists (specifically neurologists) have noted that “behavioral changes occur before the cognitive decline and remain the major feature. A poor perception of emotion could account for some behavioral symptoms” (Linden 1). Therefore, a change in a person’s mannerism is primary, subsequently followed by intense mental degradation. King Lear is personified as a character that follows this figment of thought to the utmost detail. As Lear increases in age, his emotions become more and more negative and this effect begins to impact Lear’s own decision-making ability. Lear’s own character line follows directly with the notions that with increased dementia and age, more negative emotions emerge throughout a persona. Accompanying the negative emotion is a drastic modification in judgment. A commonly accepted fact in today’s scientific communities is that emotions influence judgment. Shakespeare captured the essence of this statement within his character, King Lear. Shakespeare essentially implemented into King Lear, what “recent research has revealed [as] the importance of examining more discrete emotions, showing that same-valence emotions (such as anger and fear) [that] differentially impact judgment and decision-making outcomes” (Kligyte 1). King Lear exemplifies a broad range of scenes in which Lear himself portrays immense outbursts of anger and fear. Coupled with emotional breakdown as well as a drastic change in behavior, dementia is apparent through King Lear himself. The use of Shakespeare’s characterization only further assists the depiction of Lear as a person who has dementia.

  Pursu
ing this point further, now that the basis of analysis has been established, the sound construction of the King Lear’s character and personality must be ascertained through thorough insight of the development of Lear’s character and the subsequent demeanor. One of the most significant statements made by King Lear showcases clearly that he has developed a case of dementia that has affected both his judgmental skills as well as his emotions. King Lear himself postulates that he “…fear[s] I am not in my perfect mind./Methinks I should know you and know this man;/Yet, I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant/What place this is; and all the skill I have/Remembers not these garments; nor I know not/Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me” (Shakespeare and Crowther 262-264). King Lear himself feels insecure about his predisposition to forgot things. Lear knows that his mind is not stable, and he has a miniscule penchant to allow his insecurity (that has developed from the dementia) to sway his emotions and judgment. Lear’s swing of emotions instigate as “Lear goes mad after he is humiliated by his two older daughters. When Cordelia learns of her father's condition, she raises an army to fight her sisters' forces. Cordelia's army is defeated, and she is imprisoned and hanged. King Lear dies soon thereafter of a broken heart over the death of his daughter” (Wickersham 1). The King becomes unboundedly angry after banishing Cordelia. This emotional swing, often a characteristic of dementia, is accompanied by a period of emotional shame and the eventual death of the King. Shakespeare’s detailed characterization of Lear’s emotional shifts also protrudes when Lear simply hands out his land to his family, dividing the land amongst his daughters. This shift in decision making is accompanied by immense emotional shifts, as Lear is characterized to be short-tempered, as well as having moments of arrogance, annoyance, and even melancholies of a large magnitude. As stated previously, dementia is a mere precursor to emotional changes that influence the judgment of people – Lear’s distribution of land, his disowning of Cordelia, as well as his undermining of power by Goneril and Regan.

  Subsequently, King Lear’s actions provide a plethora of justified interpretations upon the causation of his behaviorism, through the key contention of analysis which clearly depicts the motives behind Lear’s actions were not random, but rather cultivated from the physical state of his body. Despite this speculation, these claims are unboundedly justified by innumerable evidence of both Shakespeare’s background and through modern research. Lear claims that when he judges Edgar to be conspiring against him, that his emotions are “like the catastrophe of the old comedy; my cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam” (Shakespeare and Crowther 36). Here, his instability of judgment and emotion is characterized – a common accompaniment of dementia. Lear also misjudges his interpretation of his own daughters’ actions, not condemning their betrayal, but rather falling into sorrow and blaming himself as “you see me here, you gods, a poor old man,/As full of grief as age; wretched in both” (Shakespeare and Crowther 136). His clouded emotions fuel his wretched misjudgment of the situation. Also, after the despairing Gloucester tries to commit suicide, King Lear declares “oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that” (Shakespeare and Crowther 158). Lear both reflects upon how Gloucester has become mad, but this statement is accompanied by a rapid mood swing from anger, to fear, to a resolute solemn attitude in which people with dementia tend to follow. His judgment skills have been impaired and Lear is also on the verge of sheer emotional collapse. He is unable to prevent the “madness” from controlling him, resulting in bad decision making and a mental breakdown. Evidently, Lear has succumbed to dementia, befalling into an emotional state that has affected his judgment skills while causing the eventual demise and death of the great king himself. Because of the emotional degradation, Lear mistreats his daughters, wrongly interprets the mannerism of Edgar (swayed by his illegitimate son, Edmund), and leads to incorrect political moves with the law and with the neighboring country of France. Therefore, the impact of dementia has been depicted by the clear characterization employed by Shakespeare and the full demeanor of Lear himself.

  Shakespeare’s King Lear is the epitome of tragedies lined with betrayal, death, longing, as well as the end of a king’s emotions. While the modern field of neurology had not been soundly founded, Shakespeare employed facts of the neurological field into the characterization of his own characters. King Lear was one of these characters, personified with dementia and exhibiting the emotional dilapidation as well as judgmental fallout. King Lear was both characterized through fictional ideals of Shakespeare, and the factual ideal of traditional, vernacular lifestyles. Perhaps age truly does allow human consciousness to drive beyond our limitless capacity. However, this capability may be hindered by the humanistic emotions caused by old age and natural circumstances. Regardless, “this above all: To thine own self, be true,” (Goodreads 1) because after the mind betrays the beholder, there is no other direction besides introspection.