Regan Flashcards
Thorndike - AO5
Thorndike calls them “inhumane sisters”
Hudson - AO5
Hudson calls them “personifications of ingratitude”
Kathleen Mccluskie on feminism
feels it is an ‘anti-feminine’ play as it ‘presents women as the source of the primal sin of lust’. The play forces us to sympathise with the patriarchs. She continues to say ‘family relations in this play are seen as fixed and determined, and any movement within them is portrayed as a destructive reversal of the rightful order.’ “The feminine must be made to submit (Cordelia) or destroyed (Goneril and Regan).”
Martha Burns on Goneril and Regan
“It is all too easy to dismiss Regan and Goneril as mere emblems of female evil… when women are just as obsessed with power as with men, they are called evil rather than formidable. Regan and Goneril are formidable.
“I am made of…
that self-mettle as my sister // And prize me at her worth” - Regan 1:1
(Link) to Lear telling France and Burgundy, “I tell you all her wealth” 1:1, 207
(Link) “self-same colour” - Cornwall A2S2
AO2: Metaphor of metal suggests hardness to them which foreshadows their cruelty to Lear. However also could suggest malleable quality if they are easily manipulated by money. ‘worth’ has dual connotations (pun) - makes us question if she means emotional or financial worth
“Only she comes too…
short // I profess myself an enemy to all other joys.” - Regan (1:1)
AO2: ‘Too short’ creates competition between the two sisters, foreshadowing their turning against each other. ‘Enemy’ and ‘joy’ are hyperbolic and juxtaposed to reflect the contradictions she makes against herself further on in the play (she says she loves Lear but ultimately destroys him).
AO3: William Allen, treated very badly by his daughters because they wanted inheritance.
“I am alone…
felicitate in your dear highness’ love.” - Regan 1:1
AO2: Hyperbolic. ‘Alone’ mirrors isolation and foreshadows the consequences of Lear’s actions. Ironic as we know in the end it is Cordelia who is truly alone in his felicitate.
“what need one?”
Regan (2:4, 261)
Lear’s knights are symbolic of his power
Completely demises Lear’s power/status
“to wilful men, The injuries…
that they themselves procure must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors;” - Regan (2:4, 301-303)
AO2: Metaphor - Lear must learn from his own mistakes. Modal verb ‘must’ and imperitive ‘shut’ shows her authority.
AO4: Lear’s moment of peripeteia
Feminist criticism
The end of the play marks the death of all the female characters. The suggested new order is entirely male (but it’s suggested by a servant “if she (Reg) live long and in the end meet the old course of death, women will all turn monsters”, i.e. society is better off without women)
“He hath ever but…
slenderly known himself.”
Regan identifies Lear’s fatal flaw: he lacks self knowledge
Ironic because over the course of play, Lear will develop genuine self-knowledge, but that knowledge won’t save him from the tragic fate he has set in motion.
