King Lear context Flashcards
King James I was prone to…
flattery.
King James I was a unionist…
He wanted a perfect union of Scotland and England, but the Scottish and English parliaments were not in favour. Yet, he named himself King of Great Britain and created the Union Jack.
Critics argue that the current social and political turmoil greatly influenced King Lear, for example…
in 1605 when a number of Catholic conspirators attempted to assassinate the King with the Gunpowder Plot.
Conventions of tragedy and how they link to King Lear
Hamartia: Lear’s fatal flaw is arguably his pride or his ignorance
Peripeteia: the storm
Anagnorisis: Lear’s anagnorisis is a gradual process
Hubris: Lear is hubristic when he abandons his kingly duties, as he dismisses the natural order (GCOB and DROK)
Seven Ages of Man
in old age people regress into a second infancy
contemporary anxieties surrounding…
filial ingratitude
Many considered Shakespeare’s King Lear to be almost unbearable so…
Nahum Tate rewrote it and this was the version performed between 1681 and 1838. Cordelia lived to marry Edgar and Lear, Kent and Gloucester lived to consider retirement
Edmund rebels against…
primogeniture and discriminatory customs around illegitimacy
Who sponsored Shakespeare’s theatre company?
King James I, thus it is argued that Shakespeare intended to please him
In Renaissance times, the King was believed to have divine right, so…
Only his Fool was allowed to amuse him and remind him of his humanity
King James I believes strongly in…
the Divine Right of Kings
Shakespeare drew upon previous versions of the story, however…
they all had happy endings, so it appears Shakespeare deliberately exploited the audience’s optimistic expectations
When is King Lear set?
In a pagan setting, before Christianity
From 1788 to 1820 King Lear was banned from the stage because…
King George III suffered from mental health problems, thus it is illuminated that a dysfunctional king is far more significant to historical audiences
