Act 4 Sc 3

Question 1

“Sunshine and rain”
“Queen/king and rebel”
“Patience and sorrow “
“Smiles and tears “
“King and queen” !!!!! most important
= word pairings/opposites used to describe cordelia by gentleman:
(4,3)

Answer 1

-These show that she can combine opposites and be a balance between the two, she acts as a balance between each. With king and queen she plays a balance between feminine and masculine and the different extreme stereotypes for each gender.
-Ways that we have seen her portray these different traits of each gender : (feminine traits stereotypically associated with men: )tears, patience, sympathy, the fact that she doesn’t speak much, duty (sees herself as a dutiful woman in this patriarchal society) - she also sticks to roles of women not speaking much in public through her speech in act1sc1 as women weren’t expected to speak much etc. Traits she shows are stereotypically associated with men: leading the french army which we see at the beginning of the next scene, independent, controlling her ‘passion’ - hiding/controlling emotions.
-Another way this image of cordelia is shown as heavenly, objectified and possibly not human is the fact that she’s not there, in a sense she’s also dismantled in a way as we hear about bits of her ‘ripe lip’ and her ‘eyes’ - all of which makes her seem non human. (feminist reading)

Question 2

‘As pearls from diamonds dropped’ gentleman (4,3)

Answer 2

her eyes being the diamonds and her tears the pearls - possibly being objectified as a woman who is being idealised. (as well as ‘holy water from her heavenly eyes”)

Question 3

‘a sovereign shame so elbows him” Kent (4,3)

Answer 3

Lears in town, he hasn’t seen Cordelia yet, he doesn’t want to see her because of the shame he feels about what he did to her. Significant in terms of seeing Lear’s recognition of what he’s done wrong - possibly leading us to pity lear slightly.