King Lear is famous for its great storm that appears in Act 2 scene 4. The storm plays a crucial part in aiding Lear's tragic decline. To see just how Shakespeare uses the weather to carry out this function of the play, it is important to fully understand the meaning of tragedy.

According to Aristotle, a tragedy must tell of a person who is highly distinguished and successful, and who falls as a result of some mistake or frailty. This can be the result of either internal or external influences, or both. An important part of a tragedy is the action of 'reversal' or the 'growth of understanding or self knowledge', which is where the victim of tragedy becomes aware of his place in the greater scheme of things.

King Lear is a tragedy based on tyranny and rejection between parents and children. Lear hands over his imperial power to his two eldest daughters (Goneril and Regan) who express their love to him, and he banishes his youngest daughter (Cordelia) from the kingdom because she does not feel that she needs to put her love for her father into words.

At the beginning of the play, the audience see Lear as cruel, arrogant and uncompromising. But this soon changes when he starts to go insane because of the betrayal of Goneril and Regan who turn against their father.

It is in Act 2 that Lear realises that his daughters have turned against him because they were just after his power. In the anger of his treatment he goes outside where the storm is brewing. At this point, Shakespeare is using the storm as a reflection of the turmoil going on inside Lear's mind. For example, just as Lear starts to talk about crying: "I have full cause of weeping", the storm and tempest break out. Also, when the Earl of Kent asks an attendant: "Who's there, besides foul weather?" and receives the reply of: "One minded like the weather, most unquietly", the audience can deduce that Lear's mind as well as the attendant's is extremely turbulent, just like the violent storm.

In Act 3, Lear argues with the storm: "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks; rage, blow. You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks." His effort to converse with the storm implies that he has begun to lose touch with his sense of reality. Lear's behaviour gradually worsens as the storm continues, and he goes mad - the tragic fall in his character.

King Lear's madness is also the result of self-recognition, as the storm shows the power of nature, which is a force that not even a king is safe from. He realises that he is no different from a commoner and he has the same morality and frailties as the next man. This self recognition creates a reversal within Lear's character, and he learns compassion for others, which is seen in his treatment of his Fool: "How dost, my boy? Art cold?" This is a stark contrast to how we see the king at the beginning of the play.

Without the raging storm bringing on Lear's madness and self-recognition, the play would not have fulfilled its tragic purpose. Shakespeare's extensive use of the storm creates the main body of symbolism and imagery within the play, which enables the audience to assess just how high emotions were running, and allows them to get more involved with the characters of the play.

Related Links:

- Macbeth
- The Tempest
- Sonnet 18