Themes + Key Quotes

Question 1

Name as many themes as you can

Answer 1

Old Age
Blindness
Identity
Madness
Suffering
Family
Strong female characters
Nothing + Nihilism
Divided Kingdoms
Gerantocracy

Question 2

Blindness quotes

Answer 2

‘Out, vile jelly!’
‘Does Lear walk thus, speak thus? Where are his eyes?’
‘dearer than eyesight, space and liberty’
‘So distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough’

Question 3

Identity quotes

Answer 3

‘Edgar I nothing am’
‘Who is it that can tell me who I am?’
‘my face I’ll grime with filth’

Question 4

Madness

Answer 4

‘O, Lear, Lear, Lear!’
[Enter Lear mad, crowned with wild flowers]
‘I am very foolish, fond old man’

Question 5

Suffering

Answer 5

‘Into her womb convey sterility, dry up in her the organs of increase’
‘Why do I trifle thus with his despair is done to cure it’

Question 6

Family

Answer 6

‘the bond cracked ‘twix son and father’
‘I must have your land’
‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child’
‘the younger rises when the old doth fall’

‘Filial ingratitude’

Question 7

Strong females (Goneril & Regan, Cordelia)

Answer 7

‘We must do something, and i’ the heat’
‘I love you according to my bond, no more, no less’
‘She shook holy water from her heavenly eyes’

Question 8

Nothing + Nihalism

Answer 8

‘All flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport’
‘Nothing will come of nothing’

Question 9

Divided Kingdoms

Answer 9

‘Crack nature’s mold’
‘The younger rises when the old doth fall’
‘according to my bond, no more no less’

Question 10

Old Age

Answer 10

‘We unburdened crawl towards death’
‘The younger rises when the old doth fall’
‘Shake all cares and business from our age’
‘Old fools are babes again’