The journeys in King Lear are symbolic of madness and death. Trapped in a greedy, amoral world, for which he is partially responsible, and aware that

his death is near, Lear, wanting some magical change, reaches frantically for Cordelia. When she is unable to solace him, he angrily breaks the bond between them, having already broken the bond with his people. This action precipitates a desperate, irrational mood, a sharp increment in his mental distress. McLaughlin feels the psychological truth Shakespeare presented was that man experiences a sense of nothingness when separated from his natural order and transcendent peace when reunited with it, as Lear was at the play's end.