Modern Age - Winter 2018 - 138

Modern Age

*

Winter 2018

depression, a dogged belief that he must write or die. We see this
relentless forward motion in Dunbar's voyage, a similar resolve
never to stop advancing.
Nonetheless, Lear's journey loses some of its potency when it
is divorced from the companionship of fellow sufferers. We miss
the fool for large portions of Dunbar's journey, along with Edgar,
Kent, and Gloucester. In Shakespeare's play, these characters
accompany Lear through his fateful exile. Each plays a role in pulling Lear out of his madness, bringing him to the solace and peace
of Cordelia's forgiveness. Each offers respite to the care-fraught
king. Here Dunbar-like a good capitalist, perhaps-must make
his journey alone.
Although St. Aubyn chisels the play down to its basic parts, cutting or condensing characters, he spends a good portion of the
story delving into Dunbar's childhood, offering an almost clinical
diagnosis for his selfishness and power lust, along with that of his
daughters. Americans today don't like mysterious vice; we want
things explained to us, want to see the circumstantial reasons
behind flawed or evil characters. Every petty or vicious act must
be explained, every grievance or grudge extrapolated from some
childhood hurt or horror. Perhaps St. Aubyn is better suited than
most to imagine and explain such motivations.
But therapeutic explanation dulls Shakespeare's horror and
tragedy. In both Lear's and Shakespeare's respective eras, there
was no explanation for betrayal or parricide-no circumstantial
burden or trauma that could explain away evil and injustice. Just
as Dante placed Judas in the deepest circle of hell in his Inferno,
so Shakespeare's compatriots would look upon Goneril's and
Regan's actions with abject horror. In Dunbar, by contrast, we have
betrayal without allegiance, ingratitude in a culture of discontent.
138

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Modern Age - Winter 2018

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