The Tragedy of 'Nothing' (Paperback)

Plato defined language as a way to express positive and negative desires. This discipline evolved through Richard Weaver, who continued this alignment of language and behavior using The Phaedrus. Weaver defines character language and behavior as 'good, neutral and evil lovers'. Using these same categories and definitions, we can trace all three rhetorical transitions in King Lear: starting as the Evil- lover, selfish and egotistical; morphing into a neutral stage; and ultimately developing into the Noble-lover. Lear displays new language with the onset of each role shift, and ending in a completely new paradigm. All of this chaos mirrors Shakespeare's own reality, as the Renaissance era was indeed, a time of great change.