King Lear: Quotation Analysis
For each of the following quotations identify:
a) the speaker
b) the listener
c) two literary devices (identify meaning as well)
d) significance of this quotation to the rest of the play (in light of character, theme, or plot)
SAMPLE:
“O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! / Keep me in temper. I would not be mad!”
(I.v.45-46)
a) Lear is speaking
b) He is speaking to Goneril, Albany (people in the room)
c) The word mad is repeated in this quotation, expressing Lear’s anxiety about madness.
Ironically, he appears to be unraveling as he says this. The short, choppy sentences
reveal his fretful state of mind. He also appeals to the heavens for help, almost begging
the gods for assistance (apostrophe). This quotation foreshadows Lear’s eventual
decline into madness.
d) This quotation demonstrates Lear’s recognition of the error he made in disowning
Cordelia. He has divided up all his power between his two other daughters, and thus
has lost his authority as the king. He now fears that he is also losing his mind, since his
identity as king has been stripped from him. Lear’s recognition initiates an internal
conflict. Lear is slowly beginning to ‘see’ with the help of the Fool and Kent. Goneril and
Regan’s combined effort to lower their father’s position is creating conflict in Lear, as he
begins to doubt his decisions.
“To shake all cares and business from our age,/ Conferring them on younger strengths.”
(I.i.41-42)
2. “Nothing will come of nothing.” (I.i.99)
3. “See better, Lear, and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye.” (I.ii.180-181)
4. “I return those duties back as are right fit:/ obey you, love you, and most honor you.”
(I.i.107-108)
5. “Kill thy physician and they fee bestow / Upon the foul disease.” (I.i.187-188)
6. “Some villain hath done me wrong.” (I.iii.172)
7. “I am better than thou art now. I / am a Fool. Thou art nothing.” (I.i.198-199)
8. “Does any here know me? This is not Lear. Does Lear walk thus, speak thus? Where
are his eyes?...who is it that can tell me who I am?” (I.iv.231-236)
9. “Old found eyes, / Beweep this cause again, I’ll pluck you out / and cast you” (I.iv.318320)
10. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is / To have a thankless child” (I.iv.302-303)
1.