King Lear:
by William Shakespeare
Lecturer: Dr. Steven Carter
Play focuses on the psychology of emotional blackmail. Example: turning love into tangible capital and forcing roles.
Why do Goneral and Regan do emotionally blackmail their father? 1>they aren't nice people 2> once you buy into it it keeps happening
3>only way to stop it is to kill the blackmailer and not to buy into it.
As role playing is a running theme in Hamlet so to is it in King Lear. Example: when Lear tells the girls to tell him
how much they love him= forcing them into a role of the dutiful daughter.
King Lear is a great play because: 1> it addresses head on the question of what it means to be a human or a man. Lear: "What art thou?"
Kent:"A man, sir." Lear:"What is a man?"
Lear loses faith in humanity (just like Hamlet) because his daughters are so bad and were created by humans. Lear thinks the entire
human race should dry up and die.
Issue: Your role in life is important because of memory.
Conflict between evil man and good man: Gloucester to Edgar: "Now good sir, what are you?" Edgar: "A poor man, sir?"=this shows good man
But then edmust asks a soldier to do a "man's work" ad murder Cordillia= this shows evil man.
Blinding scene: crucial but difficult=must be realistic because: 1> the audience wants to see the bad guys get their just goods
2>Shakespeare is raising the question "Does it solve anything?" 3>Shows up what Lear could have become...he could have become Cornwall...
Issue: What does it mean to see? 1> see with your eyes 2>See within yourself 3>see truth
Reference to Oedipus: when he lost his eyes he began to see within himself...
It is only when Gloucester loses his sight does he see the truth that Edmund is evil and Edgar was true love...the truth has made Gloucester free
but at what cost?
Role of the good servant: When Cornwall gouges out one of Gloucester's eyes the servent steps forward...just when you are ready to give up on huminty
someone like the good servant steps up...he's followed orders all his life but THERE IS ONE ORDER HE WILL NOT FOLLOW. This is Shakespeare grabbing
us before we give up on humanity.
Suicide scene: one of the few humorous suicide scenes ever written: 1> Gloucester loese faith in humanity and is being led by Edgar who takes his time
to show the mercy of the gods...leads Glouc to what he thinks is the white cliffs of dover. Look for: Shakespeare does the exact opposite of verbal scene painting
Audience starts to beileve Edgar...however, blind Gloucester can see the truth "Me thinks the ground is even"...scene ends with a laugh.
Suicide scene: plays death and suicide for a laugh: we are all fools when we take life to seriously.
Structure: 1> what characterizes the dramatic world of King Lear...a very bleak veiw of existence. 2>How does he pull the rug from beneath wishful thinking?
3>Is there anything readeeming in Shakespeare's view of reality?
Answers: Pay attention to patterning: example: visual contradiction...what the characters say clash with what is going on: Kent:"Nothing almost see miracles...Smile once
more fortune, turn thy wheel.." Enter Edgar with bad fortune. Another example: (Cordillia is going to get killed)Alb: "The Gods defend her!" Enter Lear holding Cordillia's corpse.
Yet another example: Lear loses faith with humanity but right before him and all around him are people who love him.
Language: meaning through the way the words sound, meter and rytham. Example: pounding meter: "And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain and tell my story."
Pounding on a death drum.
Fool is a double of Cordillia: Lears relationship with the fool changes: Forest scene...the come across a hut (act 3 sc 4): Kent tells Lear to go into the hut first
but lear tells the freezing fool to go in first: first time Lear shows feeling for someone else. TRANSITION
To Be Continued...
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