Critic Quotes Flashcards
“The plot of Edmund against his brother, which distracts the attention, and destroys the unity of the fable.”
Joseph Warton
“the Forces of the two wicked sisters are victorious”
Charlotte Lennox
“contrary to the natural ideas of justice…Cordelia has always retired with victory and felicity”
Samuel Johnson
“to see an old man tottering about the stage…has nothing in it but what is painful disgusting.”
Charles Lamb
“The appearance of Edgar…a miserable picture of…woe…and filial ingratitude brought him to this state”
A.O.Kellogg
“from the Fool he can bear to hear truth…having scarcely anything in the world to love but the Fool, to him Lear clings.”
Francis Jacox
“A very bad, carelessly composed production”
Leo Tolstoy
“Cordelia…is the death-goddess”
Sigmund Freud
“Chaos from conflict of authority is the very essence of the play.”
John Draper
“Unnaturalness of Goneril and Regan is what Lear cannot bear, as Gloucester cannot…of Edgar.”
Theodore Spencer
“It contains a great deal…of social criticism…uttered by the Fool or (those) pretending to be mad.”
George Orwell
“The theme of King Lear is the decay and fall of the world.”
Jan Kott
“The idea upon which the play rests is…the…abuse of justice.”
C.J Sison
“The play has two strands: one is the strand of optimism…the other, the strand of rage against the dying of the light.”
Germaine Greer
“It is all too easy to dismiss Regan and Goneril…as mere emblems of female evil…rather than formidable.”
Martha Burns
