“Gloucester’s physical blindness is a mirror image of Lear’s spiritual blindness” Flashcards
Paragraph themes
One - Lear blind
Two - Edmund
Three - education
Paragraph one: Lear
1) King Lear begins with separation in Lear’s search for order
2) “Nothing can come of nothing”
-echoes Leibniz ‘ex nihlo nihil fit’ reflects the creation stories. Lear tries to find purpose and meaning.
3) Ironically tragic as Lear because “nothing” and reflects the Fool’s dictum “thou art nothing.”
4) Descent into madness as contravenes the Great Chain of Being
5) Kermode states that “Under the Fine clothes, there is nothing but greed and lust,”
6) Rejects Cordelia’s “love” of her “bond” family love (storage) and gluttony for sycophantic hyperboles “space time and liberty”
7) Mathew 25 – wealth is not a measure of worth
Paragraph two: Edmund
1) Bagliacca “the true victim of the play is Edmund”
2) If Gloucester had been kinder to Edmund then Edmund may not have needed to be so deceitful
3) Edmund second born so would not have inherited under laws of primogeniture even if he was legitimate yet
4) With semantic satiation ‘legitimate’, or more appropriately the plosive reiteration of ‘base’ to convey his disgust at the title and render concept meaningless
5) No fatherly love only “sport” in his making and described as a “whoreson”
Prose form – Jacobean audience would be able to ‘hear’ bawdiness of interaction
6) Edmund becomes a victim of a prejudice, in which he internalises into self-loathing and calls a “great foppery of the world” as he denies traditional convention
Paragraph three
1) Lamar “The principle theme of the play is the education and purification of Lear”
2) Only when Lear is stripped of his titles does he reach an agnorisis of truth and can see clearly
3) Indictment “Robes and furred gowns hide all,”
Suggests that Lear “hid” from his true self before
4) Schama King James 1 was drunk on spending
5) Gloucester mirrors as when he is stripped bare of his titles he begins to see clearly and admits that he “stumbled when I saw”
“stumbled” suggests that even though he “saw” through Edmunds “nothing” did not want to accept the “something” as truth
6) Anxieties over class and status as people due to ‘New Learning’ began to live longer
Christianity forgiveness
7) “Flaw’d heart…burst smilingly” when he realises the truth can finally die with redemption and peace
Critics
One - Kermode states that “Under the Fine clothes, there is nothing but greed and lust,”
Two- Bagliacca “the true victim of the play is Edmund”
Three - Lamar “The principle theme of the play is the education and purification of Lear”
