Edgar Flashcards
“The country gives me…
proof and precedent of Bedlam beggars” “Poor Turlygod! Poor Tom! That’s something yet: Edgar I nothing am.” (2:3)
AO2: Recurring motif of ‘nothing’ reinforces how truth is punished and forced to disguised. Alliteration and plosives ‘p’ and ‘b’ emphasisn the unfairness in the world.
poor…tom - Edgar practices his beggars call.
AO3/5: Bedlam beggars; Former inmates of the Bethlehem Hospital for the insane, who had licences to beg. Social comment by Shakespeare - these people have been abandoned by nobility. Edgar goes to the most unfortunate for help. Those with nothing appreciate what little they have. These people would’ve been present in James’s society and are still present now in different forms - links to modern day homelessness. Shakespeare encouraging us to reflect on our behaviour?
(Aside) “O, matter and…
impertinency mix’d! Reason in madness.” - Edgar (4:6, 170)
AO2: Juxtaposition/paradox - Edgar notes that while some of Lear’s rambling seems meaningless, some of what he says is relevant.
AO3: Shakespeare’s message not to judge people too quickly and to actually listen to what they are saying? Reason is often viewed as madness in real life, especially when it comes form someone of low social status and goes against social norms, but it could actually be correct.
AO4: It is ironic that Lear finds reason in madness and it is during his madness when he experiences his anagnorisis.
AO5: Edgar’s description is similar to Polonius’s muttering behind Hamlet’s back in Hamlet: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t” (Hamlet, 2:2, 203-204). George Orwell on social criticism - “(King Lear), contains a great deal of veiled social criticism. It is all uttered either by the Fool, by Edgar when he is pretending to be mad, or by Lear during his bouts of madness.” Shakespeare can not be too directly socially or politically critical due to censorship so he disguises his social criticsm withinn madness and encourages the audience to seek the message for themslves.
“He’s dead ; I am only
sorry he had no other deaths man. Let us see…” - Edgar 4:6
AO2: Edgar didn’t want to kill - contrasts from the other characters. He remains calm and tries to scare Oswald out of fighting. Shows empathy and an alternate leadership.
Recurring motif of sight - Edgar is an insightful character.
AO3: James was strongly committed to a peace policy, and tried to avoid involvement in religious wars. He valued peace and unity. After the war of roses the audiences would’ve been in supportive of Edgar’s efforts to avoid violence.
“The gods are just, and of our pleasant…
vices make instruments to plague us; The dark and vicious place where thee he got cost him his eyes.” - Edgar (5:3, 170)
AO2: Pleasant vices = The sins we take pleasure in i.e. the bed where he committed adultery. Euphemistic language. Edgar recognizes the vices in men and understands how those vices haunt men. He realizes Lear’s foolishness, anger and pride and certainly recognizes Gloucester’s adultery as the cause of many of his problems. Adjectives “dark” and “vicious” emphasises Gloucester’s sins.
AO3: Edgar references Gloucester’s blinding as a punishment for unlawful fornication.
The last lines of the play
Edgar: “The weight of this sad time we must obey; Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most: we that are young shall never see so much, nor live so long.”
AO2: Rhyming couplet ‘obey’ and ‘say’ - Shakespeare trying to make the last line memorable as it holds the final message of the play. Edgar suggests that the young will never “see” as much as the old have seen and suffered. This is ironic as Edgar himself has experienced not only his own tragedy but also everybody else’s. Arguably, he has seen far more than anybody else in the play even at his young age. This is a “sad time” for Edgar because he has seen many tragedies but he chooses to express that things may have been worse for others, because this is what allows him to continue.
“speak what we feel not what we ought to say” links back to 1:1 when Cordelia spoke what she felt but her sister spoke what they “ought to say”.
AO5: In Shakespeare’s plays the last line tends to be spoken by the leader i.e. Malcom in Macbeth.
Gillian woods on poor tom
Gillian Woods
Poor Tom is a ‘fractured mirror for Lear himself’
Serving man speech
Act 3:4
Echoes the fool’s paradoxical prophecy in 3:2
Edgar says that he used to be a proud, sinful serving man “False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand—hog
in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in
madness, lion in prey.” - Shakespeare’s comment on the corruption of court and the hypocrisy of the wealthy. “light of ear” - metaphorical ready to believe anything. Animal imagery reflects how upside down the world is those at the top act like animals.
“Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets,
thy pen from lenders’ books, and defy the foul fiend.” - advice to the audience
George Orwell on social criticism
“(King Lear), contains a great deal of veiled social criticism. It is all uttered either by the Fool, by Edgar when he is pretending to be mad, or by Lear during his bouts of madness.”
