선(禪)의 시각에서 본 『리어왕』

Abstract

This paper is designed to make Zen approach to Shakespeare’s King Lear, illuminating how Lear eventually arrives at his true self and experiences the undifferentiated sameness of ultimate reality. For this purpose the paper makes a brief survey of relevance between Zen and Shakespeare, and discloses his Zen perspective with focus on the selected four scenes of Kong-an in the play. The first Kong-an is Cordelia’s answer “Nothing” in the opening scene. Her “nothing”, at beginning and end, cricumscribes emptiness at the center of Lear’s world. The essential quality of nothing is the target center of Lear’s true eyesight. The second Kong-an is Fool’s answer “Lear’s shadow.” Like Zen masters, the Fool and Cordelia bring Lear to his awareness of nothing which enables Lear to find himself. The third Kong-an is Lear’s “unaccommodated man.” The “unaccommodated man” is the son of nothing who discards ego-self to become “the thing itself”, and speaks with the voice of reality. The last one is Lear’s cry “Look there, look there!” in the last scene. As Lear eventually immerses himself in the mute yet living nothing, his sovereign, “donative attitude of the opening scene is completely changed into the altruistic attitude with which he now gives full attention to another, even losing himself in Cordelia.