King Lear Flashcards
what does Jan Kolt argue?
King Lear is ‘about the disintergration of the world’
what does Dollimore argue?
‘Lear looses his mind when he looses his social status’
what does Brandes state about Cordelia?
she is the ‘living emblem of womanly dignity’
what does Thorndike argue about Goneril and Regan?
They are ‘inhuman sisters’
what do Mendes and Beale agree about what King Lear is focused on? (modern) (Sam Mendes production 2014)
personal loss of communication through dementia
what does Kettle state about Lear’s descent into madness and metaphorical blindness?
it is ‘neccessary’ and ‘not a breakdown but a breakthrough’
what does Mcluskie argue about King Lear?
it is an ‘anti-feminine play’
what does Stuart state about the importance of flattery to Lear?
‘Lear would rather have flattery than the truth’
what does Kettle reveal about Edmund?
‘his personal motive is simple, he wants power’
why does Miller observe the storm scene to be important? (director)
Lear ‘discovers the essential nature of the human soul’- links to self-awareness, anagnorisis etc?
what are some things to consider about King Lear?
lear is both body politic and body natural
his foolishness and suffering represents England- Jacobean fear of unrest, 1605 bomb plot etc
Aristotelian tragedy requires both pity and fear- storm scene, eyes gouged out, heath scene, pity of Lear, Cordelia, Gloucester, Edgar, Kent etc etc
when was the play not allowed to be perfomed?
during the reign of George III- insanity
when was the play popular?
WW2- nihilistic view of life, Holocaust
what did Nahum Tate do?
change ending to happy- Lear lives and Edgar and Cordelia marry…
what does Bloom state happens in Lear?
it is a ‘descent from monarch to unaccommodated man’
