In her novel A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley takes the conflict between the natural and the unnatural in King Lear one step farther than Shakespeare. Using many of the same elements in Shakespeares tragedy, Smiley shows the deeper complexities of human relationships and experiences by expanding this theme. Shakespeares most important use of the theme of the natural and the unnatural is in reference to Edmund. Several times, Gloucester calls him an unnatural child. This is clearly derogatory, and has two important implications in this case.
First of all, Edmund is Gloucesters illegitimate son, meaning that no matter how much fun Gloucester had at his conception, he is not the child of natural wedlock, and therefore not his legal heir. Gloucester is quick to point out however, that because of his affection for Edmunds mother, he does love both of his sons, Edgar and Edmund, equally. The second implication of unnatural in Edmunds case refers to the developing relationship with his father. Edmund decides that it is not enough to have his fathers love; he wants his power as well.
He turns his father against his brother and betrays both of them to form an alliance with the kings daughters. Shakespeare uses Edmund to do all of the things a natural son wouldnt do. He lies, he manipulates, and he forms an alliance with the woman who put out his fathers eyes. We find Edmunds polar opposite in Edgar, the natural son. Edgar loves, honors, and obeys his father. He even goes so far as to disguise himself in order to follow his blind, helpless father about after Gloucester banishes him on Edmunds evidence of his brothers treason. So, we find in the two brothers Shakespeares definition of the natural and the unnatural child.
With this definition in place, it is easy to distinguish between Lears natural and unnatural daughters, although, for Lear, not as easy as it should be. The opening scene has him trading Cordelias natural, unconditional love for him for Goneril and Reagans empty promises of faithful love to hold Lear higher than anyone or anything else in their lives. Cordelia insists that she loves Lear no more and no less than his position implies. This love turns out to be much stronger than either of her sisters. Lear doesnt see this until too late however, when he has disowned Cordelia and given her inheritance to her wordier sisters.
These sisters, like Ginny and Rose, leave their aging father out in the rain, which leads Lear to exclaim, The are not men o their words; they told me I was everything. Tis a lie. I am not ague-proof. (Act4,Sc. 6,ll122-124). He finally realizes that all of their agreeing and disagreeing with everything he agrees and disagrees with does not show good judgment or moral character on their part, but merely empty flattery in place of Cordelias brave honesty. Just before this last observation, right after his two unfaithful daughters leave him out in the storm, he asks the question, Is there any cause in nature that make these hard hearts?
Shakespeare leaves this rhetorical question alone, but Smiley uses it as the starting point for her novel. She provides the motives for Goneril and Reagans behavior toward their father by exposing the hidden layers of Ginny and Roses relationship with their father. The turning point in the novel, the one that leads to all the revelations that excuse the girls behavior, is the storm scene. Smiley makes it hard to take Larrys side in this confrontation anyway just through his characters actions that lead up to this scene.
She also throws in the twist that he walks out on them, instead of having them kick him out. More importantly however, she goes on to use this scene to reveal the unnatural relationship Larry has had with his daughters. She shows that the dissension and anger in their relationship actually comes from years of sexual and physical abuse the girls suffered at Larrys hands. She turns Lears question back on Larry, thus presenting a new side to the natural verses unnatural conflict by asking what happens when its the parent who is behaving unnaturally.
The storm scene is the catalyst in both plots for a new development in the Lear/Larry character. Its the storm that leads these characters to the unnatural state of insanity. For Lear, this is a temporary affliction. He goes nuts in the storm and puts Goneril and Reagan on an imaginary trial after contending with the elements. But the storm also leads him to the realization that he has never provided for the people who are always exposed to the elements like he is on this unfortunate night, so, hes not completely lost.
After some care and rest and a reunion with Cordelia, he restored, however, which is not the case for Larrys character. Larry goes to Harold, who is Gloucesters double in the novel for rest, and care, and is reunited with Carolyn; the youngest daughter who he has disinherited like Lear has done with Cordelia, after the storm. He does not improve though, and after another confrontation with the two older girls, it becomes apparent that he may never improve. Given this fact, and the revelation of his sexual relationship with two of his daughters, it is questionable whether this state is really unnatural to him.
It seems that he has never had a very strong grip on reality outside of the world he dominates. Without this awareness of right and wrong and accountability for his own actions, it is hard to say that insanity is an unnatural state for him. Which, again, makes this issue much more complex than it appears in King Lear. It is hard to say what kind of behavior is natural and unnatural in their relationships because it is unclear whether Larry is naturally good or naturally evil, or whether he is even aware of such things extending beyond the fulfillment of his own desires.
When Rose and Ginny first see their father after the storm at the church picnic, they think he is faking insanity, exaggerating the wrong he suffered at the hands of his ungrateful daughters. This kind of deception is another way the theme of the unnatural manifests itself in these texts. Edgar pretends to be insane when they meet him in the cave, disguised as Tom O Bedlam. Kent disguises himself as a beggar after Lear banishes him from his kingdom. Deception in both these cases is motivated by loyalty and a desire to help, but it appears in the play, as in Edmunds case, with malicious intentions as well.
Edgar deceives his father and his brother, turning them against each other and convincing Edgar to flee his fathers house. He also deceives Goneril and Reagan, letting both of them believe he intends to marry them. This turns the sisters against each other destroying their natural family loyalties with jealousy, eventually causing Goneril to poison her sister and take her own life. This kind of deception leads to the same jealousy in A Thousand Acres where Ginny tries to poison Rose after finding out that both Jess and her sister have betrayed her by sleeping with each other. Harold plays Edgars role as deceiver in the novel.
He tricks Ginny into thinking the church picnic will be a good place to try to reconcile their family differences when all he really wants to do is give Larry a chance to publicly humiliate his children and have his own chance to renounce Jess in front of the whole community after playing favorites with him over his brother for months. The idea of deception is tied up with the idea of blindness, which occurs in several forms in these stories. Most obvious is the physical blindness that the Gloucester/Harold character suffers. In Gloucesters case it is rather symbolic of his blindness to Edmunds manipulation.
He blindly trusts his unnatural son over Edgar, which leaves him helpless and leads to his physical blinding at the hands of Lears daughter. Harolds blindness is more like poetic justice. It is ironic that the deceiver who tries to manipulate everyone by keeping them from seeing the whole truth is struck blind by his own carelessness in overlooking something. He should have known to check that there was water in the tank before working on the tractor. So, by overlooking something obvious, the deceiver is deceived and blinded, it would seem by divine retribution, except that we know Pete had a hand in it.
Smiley creates another, perhaps more important form of blindness that affects Ginny. She is blind to her memories of living with an abusive father. This blindness allows him to have the control he has exerted over her for her entire adult life. As soon as she learns the truth, she starts to see through him, all the ways he had of wheedling into her guilt and getting her to bend to his will dont work anymore. It doesnt happen all at once, but in increments she stops backing down every time someone exerts their will over her, whether its Ty or Rose or her father.
This revelation is what gives her enough anger to get out of there and start a new life. Again, Smiley take the idea of natural sight and introduces complexities that push it to the psychological level. Next, she takes the idea of blindness and deception back to the physical level in the landscape. The idea of having something hidden below the surface where a characters blindness to it destroys them is symbolized in the land Larry gives his daughters as inheritance. Jess points out that the runoff of the chemicals they use to spray the crops leaks into the well water and is probably the cause of Ginnys five miscarriages.
He promotes the idea of organic farming as a more natural way to work the land. He seems to think this is the answer to their problems. Farm the land naturally and you wont be poisoning your body either with the food you eat or the water you drink off the land. Ginnys miscarriages and Roses cancer are merely symptoms of a bigger problem that runs as deep as their wells. The parallel to their relationships is that Roses anger and Ginnys submission are merely symptoms of a problem that runs much deeper. Roses anger is poisoning her and eating her alive just like the cancer in her body.
In the same way, Ginnys inability to produce a child is symbolic of her inability to produce any extension of herself. She cant have a personality or a will of her own with her father at all, and her personal will and desires always give way at the first sign of resistance from Ty or Rose or Harold or anyone she has even a mild conflict with. Both of these problems are merely the symptoms of the abuse the girls experienced with their father. His unnatural relationship with them poisoned their minds as surely as the chemicals they used for years on the land he gave them as inheritance poisoned their bodies.
Smiley uses the very root of the conflict in both stories, the land given away prematurely as inheritance, to bring all the other ways this theme of the destructive force of the unnatural played out in both texts, together. She shows that the symptoms of the problem we see as unnatural in King Lear, children dishonoring their fathers and deceiving people, are really more complex than Shakespeare makes them. She gives the motives of the disobedient children connection to an even more unnatural and destructive force than they are themselves, namely Larry.
