King Lear
King Lear
Author: Shakespeare
Culture: English
Time: 1608 CE (early 17th century)
Genre: drama (tragedy)
Names to know: Lear, Goneril,
Regan, Cordelia, Edmund, Kent,
Gloucester, Cornwall
1
KING LEAR
•
•
•
•
•
•
King Lear explores the issues of:
Egotism (need for flattery is a
tragic flaw)
Madness (leads to the insight which
he lacks)
Love & Loyalty (exposes the Kent,
Cordelia and Edgar as those who
have insight and are true)
The influence of Modernity
(division of land causes division
amongst Lear’s daughters)
Unnatural – Lear’s abdication of
the throne and division of land,
Gloucester choosing illegitimate
over legitimate son creates chaos in
a society that regards natural order.
2
Issue: Unnatural behaviour
• Animal imagery
reinforces unnatural
behaviour. Lear’s
reference to cannibals,
pelicans and predatory
animals serve as
illustrations of the
unnatural behaviour of
Goneril & Regan as
well as that of
Gloucester’s son Edmund.
3
Issue: Loyalty
• Lear’s question “Do you love
me?” effectively turns daughter
on daughter in a betrayal of
loyalty and trust.
• Cordelia remains true even
though she is banished for her
truthful love
• Her response of “Nothing”
introduces a main theme that is
present in the double plot line.
Gloucester believes the contents
of a letter outlining betrayal
which was actually “nothing” as
Edmund ironically answered
him upon request to read it.
4
Issue: Love & Loyalty
• Like Edgar,
Cordelia remains
true to her father
and holds the ideal
love - one that
suffers in patience,
is sacrificed for
truth and honour to
restore order to a
chaotic world.
5
Loyalty
• Kent is a remains a servant although
banished from Lear’s sight.
• Kent begs Lear “to see better” when
pleading with him to reconsider his decision
to disown Cordelia.
• Kent remains loyal, but due to Lear’s
blindness he must do this in disguise
because he must remain out of Lear’s sight.
6
Justice
How does this
image link to Lear?
• An image often
used in the play…
the wheel of
fortune and a wheel
of torture and
suffering.
7
Issue: Justice & Fate
• Fortune can tie you
to the wheel so as
to turn you through
fortune to poverty
and back on a
whim. Fortune is
often pictured as a
whore granting or
refusing favours as
the mood takes her.
8
Parallel Plots
• Parallel Plots
Each family centers on an aging father (patriarch)
Lear: imperious tyrant
Gloucester: gullible
Each sees his children through a distorted lens,
turning against the child who truly loves him,
unleashing in the other children greed, lust,
ambition.
9
Issue: Modernity
• The MAP is the
symbol of the
modern world
imposed on a world
without measurable
boundaries.
• Lear’s
“constitutional
monarch” conflicts
with the
Elizabethan world
scene.
10
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
King Lear Themes
Sight-Insight/Blindness-lack of insight
Nothing
Natural/Unnatural
Flattery
Madness
Judgment
Appearance vs. reality
world view of Renaissance Christian Humanist and
Machiavellian
11
Act 1
Scene 1
Lear divides
country,
Disowns Cordelia
Cordelia bids
farewell to
sisters
Scene 2
Edmund soliloquy
Conspiracy theory
Advice to Edgar
Scene 4
Kent to serve Lear
as Caius
Lear and Fool
Lear and Goneril
Scene 3
Goneril and Oswald
Scene 5
Lear sends Kent
to Regan
Lear and Fool
12
Act 1, Scene 1
• Act 1, Scene 1
Shakespeare sets out the premise for the play (the crazy idea out
of which all follows):
King Lear, intending to divide his power and kingdom among
his three daughters, demands they publicly profess their love
for him. Cordelia refuses to put on that show.
In revenge, Lear strips her of her dowry, divides the kingdom
between the other two, then banishes the Earl of Kent, who
dares to protest Lear’s rash and unfair actions toward Cordelia.
13
Insight/Seeing Imagery
• Act 1
– “Hence and avoid my sight” “Out of my sight!”
– “See better, Lear”
– “If it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles”
14
Complications
• Complications
The king of France marries Cordelia despite
her lack of dowry.
Lear tells Goneril and Regan that they and
their husbands should divide his powers and
revenues; he will keep 100 knights and will
live with them each by turns.
15
Act 1, Scene 2
• Act 1, Scene 2
Introduction of the Sub-plot
• Gloucester’s two sons – Edmund & Edgar
• Gloucester’s relationship with them
• Sub-plot amplifies & reverberates themes and issues explored in
the main plot
Ordinary jealousies, demands, and desires begin to be taken to extremes.
Edmund plots to displace Edgar as Gloucester’s heir.
What does he tell his father about Edgar?
Is it true?
16
King Lear: Act 1 Scene 2
Edmund’s Speech in the beginning
• The Issue of Nature
– The Elements
– Natural Order of Things
• Nature , Natural & Unnatural
17
King Lear: Act 1 Scene 3
 What did we expect?
 Is Goneril unreasonable if she is irritated by her
father’s antics?
 Are our suspicions confirmed by Goneril’s
actions?
18
19
Act 1, Scene 3
• Act 1, Scene 3
Lear has gone to live with Goneril.
Why does Goneril become so angry with her
father?
What does she tell her steward, Oswald, to tell
Lear?
20
King Lear: Act 1 Scene 4
Kent Disguised
• Disguise as an important feature of Shakespearean
plays
• Appearances vs Reality (able to be pulled off
because of a lack of insight in characters such as
Lear and Gloucester)
21
Act 1, Scene 4
• Act 1, Scene 4
The Earl of Kent returns in disguise, offers
his services to Lear, and is accepted.
Goneril and Lear confront each other - what
does Goneril demand, and how does Lear
react?
22
King Lear: Act 1 Scene 4
Purpose of Disguise
 Dramatic irony, where the audience is aware of
something (in this case the true identity of characters)
that characters in the play are not. This creates tension
in a play and excites the audience; actions take place on
the stage, of which the audience knows the import, but
characters on the stage do not.
 It also creates a setting for a great deal of irony where
characters make comments that take on a double
meaning.
23
King Lear: Act 1 Scene 4
Development of Features of Act 1 Scene 3
• Lear starting to lose grip
• Goneril shows her true colours
• Lear begins to regret
24
King Lear: Act 1 Scene 4
Entrance of the Fool
• Traditional role of the fool
• ‘Magic’ status of the fool
• Ability to see & say what others can’t
25
King Lear: Act 1 Scene 4
Entrance of the Fool
• The ‘Wise’ fool
• Effect of the fool on Lear
• The Fool’s Advice
• Song 1 Line 120
• Song 2 Line 145
26
Act 1, Scene 5
• Act 1, Scene 5
Lear sets out for Regan’s with his Fool.
The disguised Kent goes ahead with a letter
for Regan.
27
Issue: Madness
• Lear’s realisation of
the betrayal of
professed love
leads him to
madness and the
insights necessary
for him, and the
audience, to
recognise the need
to know and see
reality.
28
King Lear & Suffering
• King Lear & Suffering
(the sadness of old age)
Lear makes a big mistake - he gives up his basis for power, but
still expects to be treated as powerful.
He rages against his own pain until his sanity cracks.
He dies without being able to profit from his learning through
suffering. In King Lear, most of the characters suffer.
They react to suffering in different ways:
- Some harden their hearts
- Some indulge in violence
- Some try to alleviate others’ suffering
29
The promised end
• When order is restored
there can be no life for
Lear. Cordelia’s death
and the knowledge of
his own weakness - as a
man and as a Monarch
means that he, too, must
die.
• “Is this the promised
end? Or image of that
horror?
30
31