All of this is what drives Lear to the brink of insanity, with the storm being a physical rendition of what is going on inside his head. He is unable to accept that he has made mistakes and that through his actions at the beginning of the play, all this has been the result. .
The extract provided however, examines not only the madness of Lear, but also another prominent figure, Poor Tom (Edgar in disguise). There are many similarities between these 2 characters, such as the reason of their insanity, their transformation from sane to insane, and also the experiences of betrayal they have both been forced to endure. Both Tom and Lear have been deceived by those whom they thought loved them most (Edgar by his half brother Edmund, and Lear by his 2 daughters), and both, at the beginning of the play, appear to be 2 pretty normal men. They each go through the same steps of madness (sane-insane-sane), and are both men who, for a while, feel very lost in the world. .
But though there are similarities present, there is also a lot of contrast between the 2 characters. The most distinct feature being the extent to which each of them is truly mad, and the form of madness in which they portray. Lear appears to be a man driven mad by insecurity and a broken heart due to the filial ingratitude of his 2 daughters, whereas Tom (who is really Edgar, son to Gloucester) is only pretending to be mad, with an approach that leans more towards the lunatic, then the emotionally unstable. He spends much of his time ranting and raving about things that make absolutely no sense, such as "who gives anything to poor tom and there, and there again" (act III scene 4), and also making the continual reference to an imaginary creature "the fiend" ("Whom the foul fiend has led-, "how to prevent the fiend-). Lear on the other hand, relates all the madness in the world to the betrayal of his daughters, even suggesting that Tom has suffered the same fate ("Didst thou give all to come to this" Lear says in Act III scene 4), as he believes that only the betrayal of offspring can result in such human lunacy.
