Clothing vs Nakedness in King Lear Nakedness referenced in the storm scene.

1. Clothing vs Nakedness in King Lear Nakedness referenced in the storm scene. To become “Poor Tom”, Edgar takes off his clothes Both Edgar and Lear shed their clothes as part of a transformation. In most adaptations, the sisters are separated by the way they are dressed, Goneril and Regan are dressed similarly but Cordelia does not share this. In this 2009 adaptation of Lear (pictured above), the elder sisters are dressed in darker colours and are more covered up whereas Cordelia is more exposed and dressed in white.

2. “Poor naked wretches...Your loop’d and window’d raggedness” Act III, scene IV. Lear on Edgar’s appearance • “Edgar I nothing am” Edgar removes all his clothes to be “nothing” and to disguise himself in his monologue scene. • “And with presented nakedness outface the winds and persecutions of the sky” Edgar says this as he is turning into “Poor Tom”, nakedness represents that he has nothing and that he will willingly be exploited by nature. • Kent disguises himself, the sisters also disguise their true intentions by dressing up the truth to impress their father. • The Fool wears a coxcomb which he offers to Lear, the coxcomb represents his status. In offering it to Lear, this suggests that The Fool is mocking or degrading Lear.

3. A feminist reader might take Cordelia wearing armour in later scenes as her taking on masculine qualities and taking on a leadership role to help her father. As seen in the Richard Eyre’s film version of King Lear. A03

4. Context: • The clothing worn in Elizabethan England often related to the person’s status which would also relate to the strict hierarchal system in society. • Much of the audience would have seen Lear’s nakedness and suffering as a natural consequence of a monarch who in dividing his kingdom created disunity. The theme of nakedness would also highlight how fragile Elizabethan society was.