The Virtue of Humour in King Lear (original) (raw)

This chapter considers how the Fool in Shakespeare's King Lear might use wit and humor to encourage more virtuous ways of relating to oneself and others. Rooted in the writings of Levinas and in recent work exploring the role of humor in Levinas's radical ethical philosophy, this chapter demonstrates that the Fool's wit is profoundly virtuous in that it invites the king to laugh: both at himself (in a self-critical act of ethical abdication) and with others (in a generative opening toward interrelation). Although the king struggles to accept these invitations, the Fool relentlessly pushes the play in virtuous directions by using humor to place himself before others in a posture of vulnerability and exposure that Levinas sees as the foundation of all ethics. In this way, Shakespeare's tragedy underscores the virtuous potentiality of wit, humor, and fooling by showing how it can interrupt our egoism, abstract us from ourselves, impel us to consider other viewpoints, and open us to a more authentic connection with others.