How King Lear Helps

Abstract How can the pile of bodies at the end of King Lear console the vulnerable reader? Vulnerable reading finds at least four sources of solace in Shakespeare’s tragedy: the play’s words, its story, the consolation of being able to go elsewhere and experience a vicarious life in that space, and what can be called transcendence, which involves the question of who the gods are in King Lear. The chapter considers each of these sources of consolation: who might be consoled by remembering which lines from the play; how the story can be retold in different words, to address different times, places, and needs; how spending time in the elsewhere of the play can enable a return that is better equipped; and King Lear as a form of secular scripture that depends on religious language and imagery, but also accepts the force of Lear’s repeated nothing.