Mirror of Lear: A Comparative Study of The Fool in King Lear and The Gravedigger’s Boy in Lear

Abstract

Adaptations of Shakespeare’s King Lear have always been extensively explored, especially Edward Bond’s Lear. Many researchers about Lear focus on its rewriting of the political and social themes, however, they seldom of them paid attention to the small roles in the two works. Although scholars such as Michael Patterson once mentioned Bond’s rewriting of Shakespeare’s original characters, they focused on the lack of perfect characters such as Cordelia and did not make a detailed comparative study of small roles such as the Fool in King Lear and gravedigger’s boy in Lear. This paper aims to analyze small roles in the two dramas, especially the fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear and the Gravedigger’s Boy in Bond’s Lear, and explore Bond’s rewriting of Shakespeare’s image of these two small roles.