So as we've been reading King Lear, we've grown accustomed to the many references to the animalistic lifestyle of the impoverished characters, whether they be disguised or legitimately stripped of any dignity or possessions. We've also watched as Lear himself descends, particularly during the storm of Act III, into an agonized mental tempest, supporting the theme from throughout the play that mental anguish is worse than its physical counterpart.
And then we read about the Holocaust.
Um.
As captivating and disturbing as Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning is, at first I had no idea how it was going to "expand the conversation" for our understanding of Shakespeare's tragedy. I'm sure in both instances people lost eyes, but that isn't particularly profound or fun to think about; it's just gross.
However, then I arrived at this line: "At such a moment it is not physical pain which hurts the most...it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all" (Frankl 36).
Although not in Shakespearean English, it's as if the words could have come from Lear's mouth. He felt betrayed by his daughters and, stripped of any sort of power, it is the injustice he feels that gives him such mental despair, overshadowing his homelessness in the midst of a horrendous storm. Frankl, having been beaten for no reason by a guard, feels the mental destruction of a complete loss of agency and humanity more pronouncedly than he feels the physical pain of the beating.
Frankl continues to describe working conditions, and how the workers resembled "only vaguely...a human form," and how they were instructed as one might "call a domestic animal back to its job" (36). In his experience, he had been stripped down to an animal-like form and was being treated as such, and from this experience he drew the realization that "[t]he most painful part of the beatings is the insult which they imply" (36). It is the mental agony of having been stripped of all humanity and agency that is the most painful. Lear, in the storm, reaches a similar conclusion, as does Edgar, who, disguised as Poor Tom, discovers that if his mind is free of trouble, then being stripped of everything and treated as an animal is less painful than being a supposed king and having no power or respect.
All in all, Frankl's realizations about humanity, dignity, and mental struggle reflect many of the character struggles in King Lear. Now if only there was a way to tell Lear to emotionally disconnect, because that seemed to work for the members of the concentration camp. But that's someone else's discussion.
Ah, I grumbled after reading this...but only because I was ready to write a similar blogpost. Good thing I read this one! Anyway, I agree that it initially was weird to try to connect Frankl's experience in the Holocaust to King Lear, but by that same line, I recognized that the connection seemed obvious. The comparison can also be drawn further to The Stranger in which emotional pain is neglected by focusing on physical pain which does not ail the mind as profoundly.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting how you connected the mental agony the characters face to those who faced the mental horrors of the Holocaust. I didn't see the connection right away between the two, but it brings up the point of whether one's mental suffering is more profound than anthers.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you connected the article to King Lear because I think that it is more pertinent to King Lear than it is to The Stranger.
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