KING LEAR by William Shakespeare DATE OF COMPOSITION
KING LEAR by William Shakespeare
DATE OF COMPOSITION AND SOURCE v Most difficult play to pin down. v Written after Hamlet and Othello. v Winter of 16051606. v “Leir” a folk legend king who never actually existed. v Published during his life time.
LEAR AND EUROPEAN HISTORY v One of the few plays to take place in Britain v Similar to other tragedies- nobility v Believed to be during the Hundred Years War (1337 -1453) v France loses the battle
THE PLOT AND SUBPLOT: TWO PARALLEL STORIES v Lear and his daughters: main plot v Edgar and his father and brother: subplot v Parallel stories: their closeness in plot and direction render them mirrors of each other v Both Lear and Gloucester have faith in the wrong child and reject the right one v Hook: begins in medias res (in the middle of things) Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund enter stage already in conversation
ARISTOTELIAN HAMARTIA Hamartia - is a word most famously used in Poetics, where it is usually translated as a mistake or error in judgment. In modern discussions of tragedy, hamartia has often been described as a hero's "tragic flaw or fatal flaw. " v Poetics: tragic hero is one who is guilty of hamartia, and perhaps hubris v Hamartia: error of judgment v Hubris: excessive (túlzott) pride v Lear is guilty of both v Fall from high to low v
CHARACTERS v King Lear-Aging King of Britain v Cordelia-Lear’s youngest daughter, disowned for refusing to flatter him v Kent-Nobleman who is loyal to Lear, but outspoken v Gloucester-Nobleman to Lear, suffers a parallel fate v Edgar-Gloucester’s older legitimate son v Fool-Lear’s court jester who gives important advice
CHARACTERS- EVIL v Edmund - Gloucester’s Bastard Son who resents his position; cunning in his schemes v Regan (wife of Cornwall) and Goneril (wife of Albany) - Lear’s daughters who are interested in power and do not care about their father
KING LEAR Lear, king of Britain, a petulant (szeszélyes) and unwise old man, has three daughters: v Goneril, wife of the duke of Albany; v Regan, wife of the duke of Cornwall; v and Cordelia, for whom the king of France and duke of Burgundy are suitors. v 2021/12/31 8
KING LEAR v. Intending to divide his kingdom among his daughters according to their affection for him, he bids them say which loves him most. v Goneril and Regan make profession of extreme affection, and each receives one-third of the kingdom. v Cordelia, self-willed, and disgusted with their hollow flattery (hízelgés), says she loves him according to her duty, not more nor less. 2021/12/31 9
Cordelia to her father: “My love’s more rich than my tongue. ” (1. 1) Lear to Cordelia: “Nothing will come of nothing. ” (1. 1) Lear’s soliloquy: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” (1. 4) Lear to all: “Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest. ” (1. 4)
KING LEAR Infuriated with this reply, Lear divides her portion between his other daughters, with the condition that himself with 100 knights shall be maintained by each daughter in turn. v Burgundy withdraws his suit for Cordelia, and the king of France accepts her without dowry. v. The earl of Kent, taking her part, is banished. v Goneril and Regan reveal their heartless character by grudging their father the maintenance that he had stipulated for, and finally turning him out of doors in a storm. v 2021/12/31 11
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KING LEAR v. The earl of Gloucester shows pity for the old king, and is suspected of complicity (bűnrészesség) with the French, who have landed in England. v His eyes are put out by Cornwall, who receives a death-wound in the affray (csetepaté). v Gloucester's son Edgar, who has been traduced (megrágalmaz) to his father by his bastard brother Edmund, takes the disguise of a lunatic beggar, and tends his father till the latter's death. v Lear, whom rage and ill treatment have deprived of his wits, is conveyed to Dover by the faithful Kent in disguise, where Cordelia receives him. 2021/12/31 13
KING LEAR Cordelia and king Lear 2021/12/31 14
KING LEAR Meanwhile Goneril and Regan have both turned their affections to Edmund. v Embittered by this rivalry, Goneril poisons Regan, and takes her own life. v The English forces under Edmund and Albany defeat the French, and Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned; by Edmund's order Cordelia is hanged, and Lear dies from grief. v The treachery of Edmund is proved by his brother Edgar. v Gloucester's heart has “twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, / Burst smilingly. ” v Albany, who has not abetted (felbújt) Goneril in her cruel treatment of Lear, takes over the kingdom. v 2021/12/31 15
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KING LEAR Theme: v King Lear is not only a tragedy of an individual, but also a tragedy of a society, with wide significance and profound impact. v It depicts a great social upheaval (felfordulás). v The miseries of Lear disclose the essence of a corrupt society, in which each is ready to prey on the other. v No images are more frequently met with in the play than the images of animals and beasts. This is a reflection of the jungle law of the age of primitive accumulation. 2021/12/31 17
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KING LEAR This play also shows Shakespeare’s affirmation of national unity and royal responsibility. v The root of Lear’s tragedy lies in his irresponsibly dividing up his kingdom owing to his folly and his mistaking flattery for true love. v The playwright here seems to point out that the king, however great he might be, should be responsible to the people. If he can’t, history will punish him. v 2021/12/31 19
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THEMES Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
JUSTICE King Lear is a brutal play, filled with human cruelty and awful, seemingly meaningless disasters. The play’s succession of terrible events raises an obvious question for the characters—namely, whethere is any possibility of justice in the world, or whether the world is fundamentally indifferent or even hostile to humankind. But, in the end, we are left with only a terrifying uncertainty—although the wicked die, the good die along with them, culminating in the awful image of Lear cradling Cordelia’s body in his arms. There is goodness in the world of the play, but there is also madness and death, and it is difficult to tell which triumphs in the end.
AUTHORITY VERSUS CHAOS King Lear is about political authority as much as it is about family dynamics. v Lear is not only a father but also a king, and when he gives away his authority to the unworthy and evil Goneril and Regan, he delivers not only himself and his family but all of Britain into chaos and cruelty. v As the two wicked sisters indulge their appetite for power and Edmund begins his own ascension, the kingdom descends into civil strife, and we realize that Lear has destroyed not only his own authority but all authority in Britain. v
RECONCILIATION v v v Darkness and unhappiness pervade King Lear, and the devastating Act 5 represents one of the most tragic endings in all of literature. Nevertheless, the play presents the central relationship —that between Lear and Cordelia—as a dramatic embodiment of true, self-sacrificing love. Rather than despising Lear for banishing her, Cordelia remains devoted, even from afar, and eventually brings an army from a foreign country to rescue him from his tormentors. Lear, meanwhile, learns a tremendously cruel lesson in humility and eventually reaches the point where he can reunite joyfully with Cordelia and experience the balm of her forgiving love. Lear’s recognition of the error of his ways is an ingredient vital to reconciliation with Cordelia, not because Cordelia feels wronged by him but because he has understood the sincerity and depth of her love for him.
MOTIFS Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
MADNESS Insanity occupies a central place in the play and is associated with both disorder and hidden wisdom. The Fool, who offers Lear insight in the early sections of the play, offers his counsel in a seemingly mad babble. Later, when Lear himself goes mad, the turmoil in his mind mirrors the chaos that has descended upon his kingdom. At the same time, however, it also provides him with important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity, stripped of all royal pretensions. Lear thus learns humility. He is joined in his real madness by Edgar’s feigned insanity, which also contains nuggets of wisdom for the king to mine. Meanwhile, Edgar’s time as a supposedly insane beggar hardens him and prepares him to defeat Edmund at the close of the play.
BETRAYAL Betrayals play a critical role in the play and show the workings of wickedness in both the familial and political realms—here, brothers betray brothers and children betray fathers. Goneril and Regan’s betrayal of Lear raises them to power in Britain, where Edmund, who has betrayed both Edgar and Gloucester, joins them. However, the play suggests that betrayers inevitably turn on one another, showing how Goneril and Regan fall out when they both become attracted to Edmund, and how their jealousies of one another ultimately lead to mutual destruction. Additionally, it is important to remember that the entire play is set in motion by Lear’s blind, foolish betrayal of Cordelia’s love for him, which reinforces that at the heart of every betrayal lies a skewed set of values.
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
THE STORM v v v As Lear wanders about a desolate heath in Act 3, a terrible storm, strongly but ambiguously symbolic, rages overhead. In part, the storm echoes Lear’s inner turmoil and mounting madness: it is a physical, turbulent natural reflection of Lear’s internal confusion. At the same time, the storm embodies the awesome power of nature, which forces the powerless king to recognize his own mortality and human frailty and to cultivate a sense of humility for the first time. The storm may also symbolize some kind of divine justice, as if nature itself is angry about the events in the play. Finally, the meteorological chaos also symbolizes the political disarray that has engulfed Lear’s Britain.
BLINDNESS Gloucester’s physical blindness symbolizes the metaphorical blindness that grips both Gloucester and the play’s other father figure, Lear. The parallels between the two men are clear: both have loyal children and disloyal children, both are blind to the truth, and both end up banishing the loyal children and making the wicked one(s) their(s). Only when Gloucester has lost the use of his eyes and Lear has gone mad does each realize his tremendous error. It is appropriate that the play brings them together near Dover in Act 4 to commiserate about how their blindness to the truth about their children has cost them dearly.
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