Character and language …

… King Lear: The Syntax and Scansion of Insanity | Tor.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I want to take a look at a series of Lear’s speeches, five of them, one from each act of the play. All involve Lear at a moment of extreme rage or sorrow, but his rage and sorrow change dramatically from the first act to the last. The character is the language, and what we see over the course of the play, is the utter destruction of that character.