I found a video of the world-known actor talking about
the character he played and I must say he makes some interesting points.
The first one is about religion. He sees Lear as a
”priest-like king”. He says that all character have some sort of relationship
with the gods, especially Lear. But as the play goes on, he starts losing his faith
in the gods because of all that happens to him. It is during this process of
losing faith in the gods that he discovers his humanity. Although he dies, he
is able to find some redemption from his previous actions. We must keep in mind
that there is a close relationship between kings and religions, as kings are
thought to be ruling by divine right.
McKellen also makes a fair point when referring to Lear’s
decision to divide his kingdom before dying. Lear feels he is growing old and
he wants to retire, but he had such an enormous power that he does not want to
resign to it. He divides the land between his daughters but he is still the
King, or at least he feels like that. As he visits his daughters and they
mistreat him, he begins to realize that his decision was not a wise one and
that he has lost most of his power.
As I said at the beginning, McKellen’s ideas on the
character Lear are quite interesting, and I invite you all to take some time
and listen to him.
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