The first time the Fool enters Shakespeare's King Lear, he immediately offers Kent his jester's or jester's hat. Lear asks the Fool, “My pretty rascal, how are you?” (1.4.98) This initial action and investigation of the Fool is representative of the relationship between the Fool and the other characters throughout the play. Typically, the Fool will say something absurd, or act in a seemingly illogical way, and then explain his words and/or actions to let the reader know that he is actually the wisest man in the room. In the case mentioned above, the Fool inexplicably offers his suit to Kent. At first it seems that the Fool is simply stupid, because even the king cannot understand the meaning of the Fool's actions and words. However, after explaining himself, the reader realizes that not only is the Fool not a fool, but he actually has a sharper mind than the king's. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay A similar situation arises in Cervante's Don Quixote. Even more than King Lear, Don Quixote is mad, and although his squire, Sancho Panza, constantly tries to help Don Quixote come to his senses by pointing out his various insane hallucinations, Don Quixote generally refuses to listen to his servants. lower. It should be noted that the king's jester and a knight's squire are both positions of servitude; the fool is used for entertainment purposes while the squire is a sort of knight concierge (pun intended). But as Shakespeare and Cervantes point out, these servants of powerful men are used for evil purposes, and their words of wisdom are brushed aside by the men who need them most. If King Lear and Don Quixote had listened to their “foolish” servants, they both would have avoided great suffering, and ultimately their lives. At the end of King Lear and Don Quixote, the reader wonders: why were the idiots the same? kings and knights while the true wise ones were the fools and the squires? There are countless explanations as to why both Shakespeare and Cervantes chose this particular form of irony. One explanation particularly evident in both works is that the ironic role reversal, where the rulers are the fools and the servants the wise ones, illustrates the injustices suffered by the lower classes, not because they are intellectually inferior, but because that they lack money. There are many scenes in Don Quixote which highlight the fact that Sancho Panza would never have accepted the continual suffering and terrible misadventures to which his master exposed him unless an economic reward, in this case an island , be promised to him. Similarly, in King Lear, the Fool must stay with his master even though he knows that his master has “gone mad” (1.4.171). Despite their lack of wealth, however, the Fool and the Squire are wise enough to realize that they are better off, smart and poor, than rich and crazy. Additionally, suppressing their intelligence is a necessary part of their job. The Fool lets the reader know his wise decision to refrain from showing his true intelligence through the lyrics of his song "Have more than you show/Speak less than you know" (1.4.122-3), as well than when he says "I'd rather be anything than a fool. And yet I wouldn't be you, uncle" (1.4.189-91). In Don Quixote we see that although Sancho Panza desires economic prosperity, he is comfortable with his status as a peasant: "Even if it is only bread and onions that I.