King Lear Critics Quotes

Question 1

Quote about the genre of the play?

Answer 1

Shakespeare’s ‘cruellest tragedy’ - Kermode

Question 2

Quote about the plot of the play?

Answer 2

‘Monstrously unjust’ - A. C. Bradley

Question 3

Quote about the outcome of the play?

Answer 3

‘play in which the wicked prosper’ - Dr Johnson

Question 4

Quote about bastards?

Answer 4

‘Bastards are always rotten in English Renaissance drama’ - Susan Bruce

Question 5

Quote about Edmund?

Answer 5

‘[Edmund] is the product of Nature - of a natural appetite asserting itself against the social order’ - Bradley

Question 6

Quote about misogyny?

Answer 6

‘Women with opinions frighten men’ - McLuskie

Question 7

Christian analysis of the play?

Answer 7

Battenhouse viewed Cordelia as initially selfish, but this is contrasted by her later experiences of love

Question 8

Misogynistic analysis of the play?

Answer 8

Elton believes Goneril and Regan to be typical Renaissance pagans and are therefore Machiavellian

Question 9

Interpretation of loss in the play?

Answer 9

Colie sees the play as a commentary on fathers losing their power

Question 10

Patriarchal analysis of the play?

Answer 10

Novy sees the play as a criticism on fathers holding power over their daughters

Question 11

Interpretation of selfishness?

Answer 11

Greenblatt sees the play’s central concern being Lear’s selfishness

Question 12

Quote about the Fool?

Answer 12

The fool is ‘witty, pathetic, lonely, angry and prophetic in turn, a part rich in quips and snippets of ballads and sharp sardonic exchanges’ - Shapero

Question 13

Quote about Shakespeare’s use of the Fool?

Answer 13

‘Shakespeare tended to keep clowns and kings apart, this time he would force them together, creating an unusually intimate and endearing bond’ - Shapero

Question 14

Quote about Edgar?

Answer 14

‘What Edgar has endured seems purposeful in retrospect. Loss is given meaning in that it has contributed to the education of the next ruler’ - Shapero

Question 15

Criticism of Lear?

Answer 15

Is Lear ‘a pathetic senior citizen trapped i a hostile environment’ - Foakes

Question 16

The fall of the royal family?

Answer 16

‘It must have been shocking, the image and horror of the collapse of the State and the obliteration of the royal family, akin to the violent fantasy of the Gunpowder plot’ - Shapero

Question 17

Quote about dialogue?

Answer 17

‘The atmosphere, the sense of location, time, external scene, as well as ideas and emotions, had to be generated through dialogue’ - Foakes