Servant characters in King Lear, Othello and The Tempest

This essay examines the complex nature of servant characters in Shakespeare’s plays King Lear, Othello, and The Tempest through the scenarios of virtue, villainy, and comedy. It develops Linda Anderson’s argument, made in A Place in the Story: Servants And Service In Shakespeare’s Plays that servants are “conscious of their own abilities”, “capable of independent thought and action”, and “even occasionally rebellious against their station in life” (24-26). These capabilities of independent thoughts and actions of servant characters give outcomes in form of disobedience, conflict of services, rebellion, plots against masters, and confrontations which reveals the complex nature of servant characters. In the scenario of virtue, servants reveal their complex nature through disobedience, conflicting service, and confrontation although their loyalty to their masters is unquestioned. In the scenario of villainy, the servant characters plot against their master or ignore their masters’ authority and reveal their complex nature. In the scenario of comedy, comic servant characters reveal their complex nature through their clever puns while criticizing their masters, giving counsel to their masters, and plotting against their masters (parallel comic villains)