make us feel for the old, the poor and the outcast

Question 1

Paragraph themes

Answer 1

One - Lear’s blindness
Two - Fool
Three - Lear end

Question 2

Paragraph one:

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Paragraph two: fool

Answer 3

1) Fool – Chorus character and evokes pathos.

2) Critic Asimov states “is no fool at all.”

3) Fool – Jesters were often kept by the monarch to provide witty analysis of contemporary behaviour and to remind the sovereign of his humanity.

4) However, when first appears critical of Lear “All thy other titles thou hast given away” - highlights the flaws of the King rather than sycophantically flattering him
Embodiment of truth

5) Cordelia and fool same actor – never seen on stage at the same time

6) “Here’s my coxcomb” – metonymic device to illustrate Lear’s foolish division of the Kingdom

7) King James 1 unity

8) challenge for Lear is to recognize that the highest wisdom often comes in the humblest of forms, as the Fool’s lowly status means he escapes the King’s wrath unlike Kent in scene one

9) Jacobeans how money is not a measure of worth

Question 4

Paragraph three:

Answer 4

1) Johnson states that Shakespeare “violates the hope of the reader” – Performed St Stephens day dark lighting would have exacerbated this oblique atmosphere

2) “why should a dog have life and thou no breath at all”
-Questions the human condition – what differentiates us from animals

3) “Never” reiteration – Paganistic spiritual chant

4) Lear’s death despite being tragic = justice

5) Poetical that the last lines spoken in the play is Edgar – eldest born legitimate.
“We must obey” “Nor live so long”

6) Attitudes towards the homeless/ poor = Respect the old biblical laws of Mathew 25 as all are equal in the end = money is not a measure of worth

Question 5

Critics

Answer 5

1) Kermode states that “Under the Fine clothes, there is nothing but greed and lust,”
2) Critic Asimov states “is no fool at all.”
3) Johnson states that Shakespeare “violates the hope of the reader”