King Lear Flashcards
Critics:
William R. Elton
The last act shatters the foundations of faith itself… the play is not a drama of meaningful suffereing and redemption within a just universe ruled by providential higher powers… its ironical structure is just calculated to destroy faith in both poetic justice and divine justice
Critics:
Paul W. Kahn
Edmund is the most dangerous and trecherous of the characters. Yet, he begins from a cause that we cannot identify as unjust. By placing himself ahead of his brother, he is only rejecting the fate that the law had dealt him. If there is no justicee in Edmund’s plan, there is no justice in Edgar’s legal entitlement either.
Critics:
Michael Ignatieff:
[The heath is] what the human world would be like if pity, duty, customs of honour and due ceased to rule human behaviour. It is both a real place and a place in the mind. It is a realm of natural man beyond society, clothes, retinue, pride and respect. Lear learns of natural man’s terrible identity at degree zerp, and the equality of abjection no man can endure.
Critics:
Coppelia Kahn:
The play’s beginning is marked by the omnipotent presence of the father and absence of the mother. Yet in Lear’s scheme from parceling out his kingdom, we can discern a child’s image of being mothered. He wants control over those closest to him and to be absolutely dependent on them.
Critics:
Harley Granville- Barker
It will be a fatal error to present Cordelia as a meek saint, She has more than a touch of her father in her. She is as proud as he is, and as obsitnate, for all her sweetness and her youth.
Critics:
Joseph Warton:
it is too savage and shocking
Naham Tate’s 1681 adaptation of King Lear:
-eliminaated the character of the fool and the blinding of Gloucester; Tate created a happy ending for the story by marrying Cordelia and Edgar and restoring Lear to the throne
In the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) 2007 production of King Lear:
- Lear is a semi-religious, childish, dominant and narcissitic figure.
- Lear punches kent instead of drawing his sword- appearing more bestial, impulsive and disgraceful- he does’nt refer to his kingly power
-Edmund within earshot of Gloucester and Kent’s conversation (where Gloucester calls Edmund a whoreson)- Edmund’s actions more justified?
-Set roughly in the 18th century. Anachronistic- more historically/ culturally relevent? - daughters- goneril and reagan seem nervous before there speech- suggesting that they are carefully crafting their words, trying to impress and Cordelia leans over Lear to speak- appealing more hostile, intimidating and assertive and reaches for Lear’s crown- wanting poer, desire to preserve monarchy
Critics:
David Scott Kastan:
‘Tragedy for Shakespeare , is the genre of uncompensated suffering’
Critics:
O’Toole:
the overwhelming sense of injustice.. is the whole point of the play’s structure
Critics: norris- sisters
the horror of Lear’s story is the unnatural nehavious of Goneril and Regan
Critics:
Frank Kermode 1: the blinding scene …
[the blinding scene] restores the mood of despair and horror
Critics:
Frank Kermode 2: two …
two bodies of the King, one loves by ceremony… The other is born naked… Lear is stripped
Critics:
Maynard Mack:
madness has a further dimension as insight
Critics:
Adrian Scarborough: the fool…
[the fool is a] faintly ridiculous and ludicrous part.
Critics:
Carol Rutter: most complicatedly..
most complicatedly feminised of all Shakespeare’s tragedies
Critics:
Carol Rutter 2: women ..
women curse. They curse because they cannot act
Critics:
Stanley Cavell: regan’s mind ..
[Regan’s] mind itself is a lynch mob
Critics:
Adrian Scarborough 2: the fool is in a …
[the Fool] is in a pretty powerful position
Critics:
George Orwell: the fool is a …
[the Fool is] a trickle of sanity
Critics:
Carol Rutter: lavished …
lavished upon the broken body of this redemptive child
Critics:
Frank Kermode 3: on Gloucetser and Edmund
folly of Gloucester and ingenious unregenerate wickedness of Edmund
Critics:
O’Toole 2: two endings
the ending of the play is in a sense a second ending.
Critics:
O’Toole 3: the story bursts …
the story bursts out beyond the moral ending of the play, the overwhelming sense of injustice breaks through the even balancing of good and evil
Critics:
O’Toole 4: 3 ideas: no simple sense…
- there is no simple sense of morality- of what is virtue and what is vice.
- morality falling apart under the stress of the play’s traumatic events and emotions
- The traditional morality of loyalty, of knowing one’s place and keeping it, is no longer of much use.
Quotes: quote about Gloucester embarrassed of Edmund:
“I have so ostentatiously blused to acknowledge him that now I am blazed to’t”
page 33
Quote at the begginning about Lear’s folly:
“meantime we shall express our darker purpose”
page 34
Quote at beginning that demonstrates Lear’s control of language:
“ Give me the map there. Know that we have divided in three our kingdom; and ‘tis our fast intent to shae all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we unburthened crawl toward death”
page 34
Quote that shows Goniral’s false speech to Lear:
“ A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable”
- irony as she speaks in perfect iambic pentameter unlike Cordelia who actually is unable to speak
quote by kent that describes Lear’s folly:
“ when majesty stoops to folly”
page 37
quote where goneril agrees with regan that lear has always been rash and quick-tempered
“the best and soundest of his time hath been but rash. Then must we look from his afe to recieve not alone the imperfections of long-ingraffed condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them”
edmund’s soliloquay page number
page 42
Fool quote about crown- cutting criticism:
“Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gav’st thy golden one away”
page 52
Fool quote about cuckoo birds:
the hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it had it head bit off by it young
page 53
What Lear wishes of Goneril:
“ into her womb convery sterility, Dry up her organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring a babe to honour her. If she must teem, create her child of spleen”
how Lear describes Goneril:
“how sharper than a serpent’s tooth”
Fool quote to Lear about his age:
“Thou should’st not have been old till thou hadst been wise”
What does Lear say after Regan kicks him out: (clue-it foreshadows the blinding scene)
“You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames into her scornful eyes!”
page 73
What Lear says on the heath-talking to the storm- page number
“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulph’rous and though-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, singe my white head!And thou, all-shaking thunder, strike flat the thick rotundity o’th’world, Crack nature’s moulds, all germans spill out at once that make an ungrateful man!”
page 80 (continues on page 80).
violence of blinding scenefrom Goneril:
“pluck out his eyes”
page 92
gloucester’s beard is plucked quote:
“to pluck me by the beard. So white, and such a traitor? Naughty lady, these hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin will quicken and accuse thee”
page 93
Gloucester talking about his eyes:
“pluck out his poor old eyes”
page 94
Gloucester realises he was blind: about edgar
“O, my follies! Then Edgar was abused
Line by servant 3 after the blinding scene (about Goneril/ Regan):
“If she live long, and in the end meet the old course of death, women will all turn monsters”
page 95
Servant three providing for Gloucester after blinding scene:
“i’ll fetch some flax and whites of eggs to apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him”
page 95
violent stage descriptions of blinding scene:
“[Cornwall gauges one eye]”
94
How does Goneril describe her husband: s
“welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband”
page 98
hwo does albany describe Goneril:
“Tigers, not daughters”
“humanity must perforce prey on itself like monsters of the deep”
page 99-100
how does goneril describe Albany (to do with milk)
“milk-livered man”
page 100
How Cordelia is portrayed as divine:
“an ample tear trilled down Her delicate cheek. It seemed she was a queen over her passion, who, most rebel- like sought to be king o’er her”
“as pearls from diamonds dropped”
“the holy water from her heavenly eyes”
“ thou hast a daughter who redeems nature from the general curse”
“soul in bliss”
“spirit”
page 102
kent about the stars:
“the stars above us govern our conditions”
page 103
Lear quote of clarity through madness:
“through tattered clothes great vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold and the strong lance of justuce hurtless breaks; arms it in rags, a pygamy’s straw does pierce it”
page 111
Lear losing control of language:
“I’ll have such revenges on you both, that all the world shall- I’ll do such things. What they are, yet I know not”
“I’ll weep, I’ll not weep, ere I’ll weep”
Kent speaks highly of cordelia: to be…
“ to be acknowledged, madam, is o’er paid”
page 115
Lear expressing the karma for his actions:
“ you do me wrong to take me out o’th’ grave: thou art a soul in bliss: but I am bound upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears do scald like molten lead”
page 116
birds in the cage quote:
we two alone will sing like birds i’th’ cage
page 121
edmund admitting his malice:
“what you have charged me with, that have I done, and more, much more”
“the wheel is come full circle”
page 126
at the end, Lear saying he is blind:
“Mine eyes are not o’th’ best”
“this is a dull sight”
page 130
Lear’s despiar about Cordeila’s death:
“No,no, no life! why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, and thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never!”
page 130/131
“howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones! Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so that heaven’s vault should crack! shes gone forever.”
page 129
Albanys final line- about splitting the crown in two
“friends of my soul, you twain, rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain”
page 131
quote about flies from gloucester:
“as flies to wanton boys are we to th’ godss: they kill us for their sport”
- act 4, scene 1
lear realising he has been fooled:
“ they told me I was everything: ‘tis a lie, I am no ague-proof”
Act 4, scene 5
Lear quote about stage and fools:
When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools
act 4, scene 5
Lear to cordelia at the end- presented as inferior to her and begging for atonement
“when thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down and ask of thee forgiveness”.
act 5, scene 3
Quote at the beginning to show Gloucester’s affair to make Edmund:
“This knave came something saucily to the world before he was ent for, yet his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged”
polsive sounds in Edmund’s soliloquay:
“Why they brand us with base, with baseness, bastardy, base, base”
Quote about Lear’s rejection of Goneril and comparison of her to a disease:
“thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter- or rather a disease that’s in my flesh, which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil, a plague-sore, or embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood”
page 75
Lear talking about Gloucester’s bastard son:
“For Gloucester’s bastard son was kinder to his father than my daughrers”
page 109
The plea to the gods to save Cordelia by Albany:
“The gods defend her!”
Quote from Edgar that questions the gods: could talk about in the ending with justice achieved and then constrast to the injustice of cordelia’s death
“the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices/ makes instruments to plague us”
page 126
Lear against the gods:
“let the great gods, that keep this dreadful pudder o’er our heads, find out their enemies now”
page 81
Lear pleading to not be mad:
‘O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!/ keep ,e in temper, I would not be mad”
page 58
Edmund’s plea to nature:
“Thou, Nature, art my goddess”
Fool and whipping:
“They’ll have me whipped for speaking true, thou’lt have me whipped for lying”
Lear about Regan:
“With her naild/ she’ll slay thy wolfish visage”
Lear describing the sisters collectively (negatively):
you unnatural hags
Lear about Regan like a type of bird…
“Sharp-toothed unkindness, like a vulture”
Lear about Regan:
“Most serpent like”
page 156
Lear talking about Goneril- reference to illegitimacy:
“degenerate bastard”
critic: O’Toole- good beatin evil
“in this fight, good beats evil, the conventional mral triumph is completed but things start to go wrong with the moral ending”
Albany quote about ending and wages:
“all friends shall taste the wages of their virtue, and all test thr cup of their deservings”
quote about the astrological threat to stability:
these late eclipses of the sun and moon portend no good… brothers divide …. in countries discord…. the bone cracked
Lear demanding to Albany and Cornwall:
this coronet part between you
the … state
gored
rutter on daughters as monsters
but then th play makes the daughters ugly: the two who speak are monsters; the one who does not understand is monstered
kermode on suffering
suffering is the consequence of a human tendancy to evil, as inflicted on the food by the bad; it can reduce humanity to a bestial condition, under an apparently indifferent heaven
dollimore on sight and blindness of lear
for the humanist the tragic paradox arises here: debasement gives rise to dignity and at the moment when Lear might be expected to be most brutalised he becomes most human
context: What is the malcontent in Jacobean drama?
a stock character who exerts malign power, is full of spite and envy as part of the plot machinery
context: what could bastards not do?
legally own or inherit property, hold public office or marry
What did Elizabethan Thomas Beacon say about bastardy?
“God had ordained the state of matrimony for the propagation of the human race, and did not, therefore, bless whoredom”
when was the jacobean era?
the beginning of the reign of James I who reigned over a unified England and Scotland
Coverture:
A legal doctrine in English common law which stated that a women’s existence was merged with that of her husband in marriage- no independence
What hierarchacal belief system did Jacobeans believe in?
The Great Chain of Being. An inflexible social system representing the emanation of exisence from the divine down to the material world. God occupying the highest position, followed by the King, nobles, gentry, peasants and within this: men, women, children and animals.
catholicism vs. protestantism:
Henry VIII: break from Rome and catholic church- started conflict between catholicism and protestantism.
what was the divine right of kings?
a political doctrine in defence of monarchical absolutism, which asserted that kings derived their authority from God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as Parliment
What did King James I say about being a King in 1610
The state of monarchy is the supremist thing upon earth: for king’s are not only God’s lieutenants upon this Earth, and sit upon God’s trhone, but even by God himself they are called Gods.
Humoural theory:
Greek philosophers- they believed that health (specifically the state of blood) was an equilibrium of the four humours:
melancholic: an excess of black bile- sad
sanguine: excess of blood- full of life
phlegmatic: excess of phlegm- lack of emotion
choleric: excess of yellow bile- anger
Bedlam and public executions
Bedlam: a religious establishment notorious for the extortion of mental illness. The public would pay to view and ridicule patients with mental illnesses in cages, similarly to a zoo exhibition. Webster therefore catered to a Jacobean audience who enjoyed the mockery of mental illness and the physical violence trope of a tragedy.
Queen Elizabeth and her hier
- Queen elizabeth grew older, and remained unmarried, anxiety regarding the sucession of the throne abounded. Elizabeth names James VI King of Scotland as successor- unity
when did king lear open and whu=y was it a celebration of unity?
on boxing day- celebration of english tradition, peace and harmony
Shakespeare special marital lisence
Shakespeare himself had to request a special marriage licence with pregnant Anne Hathaway in order to prevent having illegitimate children. Shakespeare therefore experienced the troubles of the definative nature of the illegitimate title forthright. His brother was also called Edmund, possibly subtley evoking pathos for Edmund and promoting Shakespeare’s covert purpose, suggesting that Edmund’s malevolence derives from his unjust exclusion.
features of a senecan tragedy:
- Violence and Bloodshed
- revenge- aiming to achieve what the character defines as moral justice
- Isolation and Madness
- The Supernatural: Senecan tragedies frequently incorporate supernatural elements such as ghosts, prophecies, and divine intervention.
- Chorus: e.g. the fool- describes the truth and comments/ narrates- beacon of truth
- Fate and Determinism and stocism- we do not have control of our destiny so need to be stoic and accept our fate
Sydney’s Arcadia poem:
-1590
- an old prince is blinded by his illegitimate son but saved by the legitimate
- references gloucester
- shakespeares king lear: gloucester dies and isnt saved- makes edmund seem more hostile, vengeful and vindictive
event that may have influenced this play:
a lawsuit that occured not long before king lear was written, in which the eldest of the three daughters tried to have her elderly father, Sir Brian Annesley declared insane so that she could have his property . Annesley’s youngest daughter, Cordell, successfully defended her father against her sister
What happens in the Trevor Nunn, 2007 (ian mckellen version)
- frequent appealing to heavens: edgar looks up amd cradles head- emphasising existence of gods, servant “now gods helphim”- gloucester is then driven to suicidal despiar, albanys exclaimatory and fervent prayer-“ the gods defend her” followed by stage direction “lear carrying cordelia’s dead body”
- edmund laughs before ehis soliloquy
- lear basically naked- same level as fool - “fur coat quote”
sam mendes- 2014- simon russel beale- national theatre
- fool dies in bathtub
- lear is depicted having Lewy body dementia
Kozinstev (russian version)- 1971
- fool is alive at the end
- motif of hope through music
- fool plays uplifting musci through the wreckage- the flute?
sumptuary laws
wealth determined the type of cloth one could wear. Silk only for royalty.
draper chaos ao5
chaos from conflicwt of authority is the entire essence of the play
Critics: Goldberg- there is no …
there is no supernatural justice- only human natural justice
Critics: Elton about Cordelia as divine
Cordelia is defined as a Christ-like figure, therefore her downfall is a direct represeentation of a God-less society
Critics: Draper- the entire …
the entire play rests upon the division of the kingdom
Critics: Draper- chaos from…
chaos from conflict of authority is the very essence of the play
Critic: Leslie Lee on Edgar
“Edgar is the personification of the semi-apocalytic state into whiich the social world of the play descends”
“ he seems to pluck the charater of bedlaam out of the very landscape’
Lear’s crown being reinstated- Albany says it:
“for us we will resign/ during the life of this old majesty/ To him our absolute power”
Serpent quote about Goneril
How sharper than a serpants tooth is it to have a thankless child
Albany quote asking to share the crown at the end
Critic - Nasrullah Mambrol: on Gloucester and Lear’s paralleled story:
The play’s double plot in which the central situation of Lear’s suffering and self-knowledge is paralleled and counterpointed in Gloucester’s circumstances makes King Lear different from other tragedies
Gloucester’s blindness and Lear’s madness symbolising insight paragraph:
TS: Lear’s descent into madness is paralled to Gloucester’s loss of sight, both resulting in a discovery of truth, and agnorisis. Shakespeare therefore conceals his challenging of the rigid social structure, that encourages disaster, though the madness of Lear and blindness of Gloucester.
AO5: Maynard Mack: “madness has a further dimension, an insight”
AO2: Gloucester “stumbled when [he] saw”
Lear “A man may see how this world goes without eyes”. Through Lear’s madness, Shakespeare challenges the idea of ordained status, remarkably using a monarch figure, Lear, symbolising the DROK to do so.
Lear “through tattered clothing great vices do appear; Robes and firred gowns hide all. Plate sin in gold and the lance of justice hurtless breaks”. Lear’s physical stripping of clothing represents the reversal of GCOB, highlighted in the trevor Nunn production of the play, Lear in a thin top and a wreath. Shakespeare challenges the social order that clothes kings in rich garments and beggars in rags, challenging the sumptuary laws at the time.
AO3: agnorisis
AO5: performance detail- 2014 National Theatre production. Regan depicted as “vibrating with arousal” and Gloucetser waterboarded before his blinding, graphic and horrific imagery symbolisiing the folly of Gloucetser and the destruction caused by the corrupt having power.
Critic: Mambrol:
“the play’s double plot in which the central situation of Lear’s suffering and self-knowledge is paralled and counterpointed in Gloucteser’s circumstances makes King Lear different from other tragedies”
Cordelia divine portrayal and injustice of ending:
TS: Shakespeare presents honour as initially reinstated towards the conclusion of the play, but moral justice is not achieved, through the injust death of Cordelia.
AO5: O’Toole: “the story breaks beyond the moral ending of the play, the overwhelming sense of injustice breaks through the even balancing of good and evil”
AO1: ostensibly, Shakespeare presents honour as restored through the reformation of the GCOB, with Lear reinstates and honourable Edgar ascending to the throne maybe include: (and characters such as Edmund pun ished for his sins, expressed as Edgar says: “the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices/ makes instruments to plague us” )
AO2: Albany says: “we will resign/ during the life of this old majesty/ to him our absolute power”
AO5: overt ending supported by Naham Tate’s 1681 positive outlook on the ending of the play, with Lear reinstated and Cordelia marrying Edgar.
AO3/5: in the Folio version, 1623, Edgar ascends to the throne, but in Quarto,1608, Edgar refuses the throne, proposing Shakespeare’s covert purpose highlighting the destruction and irreperable damage caused by the rigidness of the GCOB, suggesting that not even honour can restore the impairment caused.
AO1: Cordelia’s divine portrayal furthers Shakespeare’s covert purpose as her divine death questions the plausability of divine intervention- her heavenly goodness is not enough to redeem the sins of society.
AO2: described as a “soul in bliss” and her tears as “holy water” from her “heavenly eyes”. She is even described as being able to “redeem nature from its general curse” however, this is undermined through the injustice of her death, suggesting that she cannot redeem the misconduct of the uppper echelons of society.
AO5: Therefore, her death destroys “divine justice”, says William R. Elton, reinforcing Shakespeare’s covert purpose, challenging the social order that breeds dishonour and imbalances the good and evil.
( Maybe include (probably don’t) Kermode: “suffering is the consequence of the human tendancy to evil, as inflicted on the good by the bad; it can reduce humanity to a bestial condition, under an apparently indifferent heaven”. Howl, howl, howl?)
Dishonour of nobility contrasted to the honour of the servants:
TS: Shakespeare furthers his exploration of honour by presented Gloucteser as dishonourable and dishonoured by his noble peers.
AO5: O’Toole: “the overwhelming sense of injustice.. is the whole point of the play’s structure”
AO2: “I have so ostensibly blus’d to acknowledge him now that I am blaz’d to’t.
“there was good sport at his making” - highlighting his indifference
AO3: illegitimate children unable to marry, inherity land and hold public office. Despite his damning of Edmund’s life through his extra-marital sex. Gloucester is justly punished: blinding is a common biblical punishment of adultary. “the dark and viscious place where thee he got cost him his eye s”-
AO5: in the Kozinstev version, Edmund achieves revenge through his sex with Goneril during his blinding, echoing gloucetser’s earlier affair to conceive Edmund. Gloucetser’s earlier mistreatment towards Edmund intensifies his desire for revenge, his rejection from his own family and society igniting his anger. “yet he begins from a cause that we cannot identify as unjust”- Paul Kahn
Gloucester being dishonoured:
“pluck out his eyes” , “[Cornwall gauges one eye out]”, “to pluck me by the beard. So white, and such a traitor. Naughty Lady! The hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin will quicken and accuse thee”
AO5: The 2014 National Theatre production, Regan is depicted as “vibrating with arousal” and Gloucetser is waterboarded before his blinding.
Honour of those at the bottom of the chain:
AO2: providing “flax and the whites of eggs to apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him”- covert purpose: a dismantling of the GCOB, promoting a society ranked by honour, a meritocracy.
Critic: Kenneth Muir:
“in King Lear, the gods are indifferent, or hostile, or even a man-made fiction”
Lack of divine intervention para:
AO5: Kenneth Muir: “In King Lear, the gods are indifferent, or hostile, or even a man-made fiction”
AO2: frequent motif of characters appealing to the heavens for help, often followed by further pain or a fracturing of social stability.
servant: “I’ll fetch some flax and whites of eggs to apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him!” followed by Gloucetser driven to suicidal despair
Albany’s exclamatory prayer “The Gods defend her!” is followed in the very next stage direction with Lear entering “with Cordelia dead in his arms”, reduced through his pain at losing his child to animalistic noises “Howl, howl, howl!” Whilst
AO5: Carol Rutter interprets Lear’s entrance as “a recollection, bizarrely recomposed, of the Pieta, Lear-as-Mary, Cordelia-as-Christ”- her death pointing to a failure in religion.
AO5: Trevor Nunn 2007 RSC production exploits these failed appeasl to the heavens in its closing shot: after the ator playing Edgar has spoken the play’s final couplet “The oldest hath borne most; we that are young/ Shall never see so much, nor live so long”, he stretches out his arms above him, seeking support from the gods, but then slumps back down, cralding his head in his hands in desolation and despair at the lack of Divine intervention.
quote edmund repentance:
“ i pant for life. Some good i mean to do, despite mine own nature”
“the wheel has come full circle”
