the mad who are sane and the sane who are mad Flashcards
Paragraph themes
One: Lear’s blindness
Two: Fool
Three : Lear’s education
Paragraph one: Lear’s blindness
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
Paragraph two: Fool
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
Jacobeans how money is not a measure of worth
Paragraph three
1) Lamar “The principle theme of the play is the education and purification of Lear”
2) Only when Lear is stripped of his titles does he reach an agnorisis of truth and can see clearly
3) Indictment “Robes and furred gowns hide all,”
Suggests that Lear held from his true self before
4) Schama King James 1 was drunk on spending
5) “Foolish fond old man”
Royal sycophantic “we” at the beginning of the play now descends into a mundane “man” stripped bare
“Man” reiteration – we are all equal at our basest selves
6) The Divine Right of Kings
Critics
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 - Lamar “The principle theme of the play is the education and purification of Lear”
Other titles
How far would you agree that “King Lear leaves its audience clearer about what is unjust than what is just”?
“Shakespeare’s King Lear is a play of redemption in which the King moves from moral blindness to a clearer vision of what really matters.”
