KING LEAR

WRITING INTRODUCTIONS

Address the question, especially the quote and give your position. How is the statement relevant? Do you agree with it? Do critics agree or disagree with it?

Offer some brief contextual detail - first performed in the court of James I in 1606, one of Shakespeare's best tragedies

Use important or significant short quotes from the play to show your overall knowledge

Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) observed the following conventions in the tragic genre:

1. The drama is usually centred on one main tragic hero (the protagonist) who acts in a way that proves disasterous.

2. We see the fall of a great, prosperous or noble character into misery and catastrophe (peripeteia).

3. The suffering/fall usually results from a flaw of one or more causes:

Hubris - excessive pride

Hamartia - error of judgement

Something of which the character is ignorant

4. The hero moves from ignorance to knowledge and comes to recognise clearly what causes his suffering (anagnorsis).

5. The play arouses pity and fear in the audience and succeeds in purging and purifying such emotions (catharsis).

1. of a certain nobility or noble nature, high rank, power, fortune or high birth

2. cannot be completely virtuous or good (the audience would feel cheated and therefore the play would be meaningless)

3. cannot be completely evil or immoral (the audience would rejoice in their downfall)

4. may be courageous and generous

5. has to be partly to blame for his own misfortune

6. downfall brought about by some flaw or frailty

How well do you know the play?

• What key changes does Lear experience in each act? Find quotations to support each change.
• List the order of departures, returns and deaths in the play. Find a quote to demonstrate the significance of each.
• Find references to fate, religion and Greek mythology.

KING LEAR

WEEK 2

Hierarchy and the great chain of being

George Orwell

on the fool (1947)

HOMEWORK:

Critics on King Lear

If Gloucester is seen as humiliating Edmond ('the whoreson must be acknowledged') and as representing, like Lear, an old patriarchal and tyrannical power structure, then Edmond may be praised for his 'revolutionary scepticism'. - R. A. Foakes (1997)

Characters such as Kent...embody the old 'feudal' values of loyalty and honour while Goneril, Regan and above all Edmond are prototypes of the capitalist 'New man.' Theirs is a society based on unfettered competition... Lear is the feudal state in decomposition.' - John Danby (1952)

TASK: Choose one of the above critical views and write a paragraph in response with evidence from the play. Respond briefly to the other view in a new paragraph.

Shakespeare was not a saint, he was a human being and not a very good one. He was capable of flattering the powerful in the most servile way... However, throughout his plays the acute social critics, the people who are not taken in by accepted fallacies, are buffoons, villains, lunatics or persons who are shamming insanity... Lear contains a great deal of veiled social criticism but it is uttered either by the Fool, by Edgar pretending to be mad or in his madness... Shakespeare could not restrain himself on commenting on almost everything and he put on a series of masks in order to do so.

OVERVIEW

Analyse the Fool's language in 1.5

Find examples of the following then try to relate your analysis to all the ideas we have explored in class today.

• proverbs
• rhymes
• irony
• bawdy or crude rhymes/language
• comic verse
• imperatives
• prose
• animal imagery

NT interview

with the fool

and Kent

The Fool's function in 1.4

A) Find two quotes demonstrating the Fool's attempts to:

• criticise the King
• amuse the King
• voice the King's conscience or inner most thoughts
• draw attention to the King's tragic state and reveal the truth about his situation.

B) The Fool and Cordelia never appear together on stage. Many critics argue that the Fool can be played by Cordelia in disguise and that they are the same character. Do you agree?

HOMEWORK: ESSAY QUESTION

'Lear is a play about the disruption of an ordered world.'

To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Comment on:

• Shakespeare's presentation of characters and their language
• The views of critics
• Context - the divine right of Kings, the great chain of being, kingship, primogeniture, Jacobean society

Order and disorder

1. How has the hierarchy of the play changed by the end of Act 1? How the 'great chain of being' has been disrupted?

2. Who has risen and who has fallen? Find and analyse two quotes for each character.

Does Lear gain self realisation or anagnorisis?

Critics are divided over the meaning of Lear's last speeches. See A.C Bradley, Orwell and Tolstoy. Have a look at the speech you have been given. Consider:

1. Does Lear's speech suggest that he has learned the truth about his own condition and attained anagnorsis or does this seem more ambiguous?

2. Do we experience pathos and catharsis - a purging of the feelings of pity and fear? Which techniques does Shakespeare use to convey these feelings?

3. if Lear does not seem to attain some kind of self knowledge how does this change the way we view the end of the play?

4. Choose a critic to support your view and incorporate it into a paragraph.

ESSAY QUESTION

'As a hero Lear never gains the self knowledge that the audience expects.'

By considering the action and the dramatic effects of the play, evaluate this view.

Brainstorm the question and identify key quotations, speeches and scenes you could use.

AO1 - Terms, written expression and accuracy (5)

A02 - Language form and structure (10)

AO3 - Analysis, response to the question (10)

AO4 - Context (5)

Write a short introduction with your own thoughts and a clear position. Check you have included all the elements that make a good introduction.

A LITTLE HELP...

AO4 - James I and divine right of kings

the division of the kingdom

the great chain of being

Jacobean revenge tragedy

Nahum Tate 1681 rewritng of King Lear in which Lear and Cordelia both survive

Possible plan/points

• In what ways can Lear be considered a 'tragic hero' according to Aristotle's definition? How does he lack self knowledge? (Close focus on first speech and 1.1; love test and banishments)
• What is his blindness and his flaw? How do these lead to his downfall? Lear's challenge to Goneril and Regan. (Act 2 - failure to understand himself and the consequences of his actions)
• How could we suggest that Lear gains some self knowledge? (Act 3 - the storm, the fool, Edgar, discovery of social conscience; speech to Cordelia in Act 4)
• What evidence is there to suggest that Lear's anagnorisis is more ambiguous than we would expect of a tragic hero? Think about his mental deterioration and his madness. If Lear does not learn anything or fails to gain some kind of self knowledge, how does this change the meanng of the play?

Week 1: Read the whole of Act 1. Complete your reading log

Week 2: Read Act 2. Essay question. See last frame of Week 2

Week 3: Read Act 3. Prepare for a test on Acts 1-3

Week 4: Finish off all work on the prezi. Revise for mock. Go to Moodle to access the quotes for the quote test part of the mock.

Week 5: Over the Christmas break finish the play. Complete your reading log booklet. Extention: TIMED 1 HOUR ESSAY Handwrite an answer to any of the essay plans produced this term or this week's essay on blindness.

HAVE YOU COMPLETED YOUR READING LOG BOOKLET? ARE YOU UP TO DATE WITH THE PREZI? HAVE YOU STARTED RE-READING THE PLAY?

Spring half term 1: Your homework is to complete the classwork each week if you don't manage to do so in lesson time. Your main homework is to produce the four essays set after Act 3 and revise.

WEEK 1

ACT 0NE

PRIMOGENITURE - 1. The state of being the first born or eldest child of the same parents. 2. Law The right of the eldest child, especially the eldest son, to inherit the entire estate of one or both parents.

GERONTOCRACY - men retained their power, wealth until they died.

WATCH THIS!

What kind of villain is Edmond?

RECAP

Find two quotes from 1.1 which represent the following relationships:

• Lear + Cordelia
• Lear + Goneril + Regan
• Lear + Kent
• Cordelia + Goneril + Regan

For each quote you find, think about the following:

• Which themes emerge that might be applicable to the play as a whole?
• Which key language features can you find?

ACT FIVE

ENDINGS

oldsite.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/oconnell/shakespeare/KingLear4.ppt

The malcontent - common figure in Jacobean drama - someone who is disaffected, melancholy, dissatisfied with or disgusted by society and life.

Machiavellian villian - The Prince (1532) a political treatise by Niccolo Macchiavelli taken to mean 'the end justifies the means' - he focused on the importance of a strong ruler who was not afraid to be harsh with his subjects and enemies for the good of the state.

The vice - stock character of the medieval morality plays. While the main character of these plays was representitive of every human being (and usually named Everyman, Mankind or some other generalising of humanity at large), the other characters were representitive of (and usually named after) personified virtues or vices who sought to win control of man's soul. While the virtues in a morality play can be seen as messengers from God, the vices were viewed as messengers from the Devil. Vice often takes the audience into complicity by revealing its evil plans, often through soliloquies or monolgues. Its enacting is frequently comic or absurd.

1.2 Edmond as a villain

WEEK 3

ACT TWO

Nothing

1. What motivates Edmond's villainy? Find a quote to support your argument.

2. How does he begin to execute his plan? What does he need in order to set his plan in motion?

3. How does Shakespeare use dramatic irony to create a response in the audience to Edmond?

4. Edmond speaks in prose and blank verse throughout the scene. How does this help to shape our view of him as a villain?

Edgar's Soliloquy

• How has Edgar's position in the play changed?
• What does 'nothing' mean to Edgar?
• In what ways is Edgar 'stripped' and 'stripping'?

RECAP

What key prop is used again in 2.1? Chart its use in Acts 1 and 2 and discuss why it is so effective.

Throughout the play the audience is treated to some fantastic insults. List all those found in Act 1. In 2.2 Kent's words result in his confinement in the stocks. Choose and comment on your favourite lines from Kent.

From Edmond's soliloquy pick out 5 important quotes which reflect key themes and display a powerful use of language. Name and discuss the techniques Shakespeare uses.

How can we define 'nothingness' in the play?

• Cordelia's imperative directed at herself: 'Love and be silent'
• Cordelia's reluctance to speak and voice her love: 'Nothing my lord'
• Lear's fear/warning: 'Nothing comes of nothing'
• Gloucester's fear and suspicion: 'The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself'
• Kent's inability to understand the Fool: 'This is nothing Fool'
• The Fool's criticism about Lear's lack of knowledge: 'I am a fool, thou art nothing'
• Edgar's role as an outcast on the fringes of society: 'Edgar I nothing am'

Prepare a psychological analysis report on Lear based on his decisions, speech and position at the end of 1.1. Use quotes to back up your assessement.

Nihilism

Madness

The stripping scene 2.4

http://www.rsc.org.uk/downloads/rsc_king_lear_themes_2011.pdf

Coppelia Khan 'The Absent Mother in King Lear' (1986)

(Look up the meaning of bathos and pathos. Write the definitions in your book.)

Helmut Thielicke wrote that 'Nihilism literally has only one truth to declare, namely, that ultimately Nothingness prevails and the world is meaningless' (Nihilism: Its Origin and Nature, with a Christian Answer, 1969)

Nietzsche wrote 'Every belief, every considering something true is necessarily false because there is simply no true world.' For Nietzsche nihilism requires a radical repudiation of all imposed values and meaning. 'Nihilism is... not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one's shoulder to the plough; one destroys'. (Will to Power)

Lear is stripped of his:

• sanity
• status
• material possessions

• political power
• family
• masculinity

O! how this mother swells upward toward my heart!

Hysterica passio! down, thou climbing sorrow!

Thy element’s below. Where is this daughter?

(2.4.56-58)

By calling his sorrow hysterical, Lear decisively characterizes it as feminine, in accordance with a tradition stretching back to 1900BC.

Find evidence of the above in the lines below:

• 93-112
• 128-156
• 161-174
• 200-226
• 256-280

Link to a summary of Khan's essay (very interesting and easy to digesst)

WEEK SIX

ACT FOUR

http://jrkinglear.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-absent-mother-in-king-lear-breakdown.html

1. Who is mad in the play?

2. Place characters on the spectrum with a quote of your choice. Is this position static?

WOMEN IN LEAR

You can also access Khan's full essay online as a PDF (very heavy reading)

WATCH THIS!

Critics on madness in the play (2)

Overview

Of sound mind

and faculites

Psychologically

disturbed

Think about and comment on metaphors, similes, imperatives, animal imagery, religious imagery, register, use of bathos/pathos, syntax, breaking of iambic pentameter.

In your groups produce an A3 spiderdiagram focusing one of the views below. Use quotes, critics and context to support your assigned position.

Do you think King Lear is a 'nihilistic' play?

1. The Fool knows that the only true madness is to regard this world as rational (Jan Knott)

2 ...the Fool does not desert his ridiculous degraded king, but follows him into madness (Jan Knott)

3. [The Fool represents]... worldly common sense... (George Orwell)

4. ...coldly pompous, artificial ravings...senseless inappropriate words (Leo Tolstoy on the representation of madness in the play)

1.Lear is an aged king who is in the throes of a clear mental decline. This is apparent form his irrationality at the beginnig of the play.

2. Lear is rational and is driven mad by the injustices he experiences at the hands of his daughters.

3. Those who appear to be mad hold the most profound truths of the play.

4. Lear's madness is the result of his irresponsibility and lack of self-knowledge.

5. True madness in the play is linked with the desire for materialism, wealth and power.

Find evidence in 2.4 supporting the statement you have been assigned and write a paragraph incorporating both statement and quotes. Do you agree with it?

WOMEN AND DEATH

Examine the deaths of Regan, Goneril and Cordelia. What do they have in common? How are they different?

What might each death symbolise? Consider the restoration of order, nihilistic catastrophy

1. See thyself, devil: /Proper deformity shows not in the fiend /So horrid as in woman

2. No you unnatural hags, /I will have revenges on you both

Who says the above and which language features does Shakespeare use?

Write a short paragraph explaining your thoughts on how Shakespeare presents women in the play exploring the two quotations. Don't forget to address AO2.

EXAM QUESTIONS

1. 'King Lear reflects a patriarchal world view that seems terrified by women and femininity.'

How far do you agree with this view?

2. The presentation of Goneril and Regan is wholly removed from the realm of sympathy.'

How far do you agree with this view?

Essay Preparation

• which positions do women occupy in the play?

• how is female sexual desire presented in the play?

• how are the traditional achetypes such as mother, wife, daughter presented in the play and how are they positioned in relation to patriarchy?

• how are women presented with regard to power and relationships with men?

Quotes for women in Lear

Look at the photocopied quotes from the rest of the

play and annotate the following:

• Who is speaking and to whom?
• How are women or images concerning women, presented?
• Which of the features we discussed are used and to what effect?

• how do the female characters challene patriarchal order?

Questions to prompt a feminist reading

• discuss female silence and voice

• what kind of language is

used by other characters

to present women?

Critics on women in Lear

What do you think about each of the critical views? Do you agree or disagree with the view?

Choose 2 to 4 critics to use as part of your exam essay response.

• are women characterised as morally complex characters that develop or flat two dimentional types?

• does the play suggest

that disorder is caused

by women rising above

their social position?

Key scenes

Love test 1.1.278-297 2.4.260-280

1.1.218-244 2.4.138-174 4.2. - 4.5

• how do the actions of women seem frightening or unnatural? Lear's curses, the disruption to social order, animal imagery, Regan's violence, appetite for sex conveyed by both women

4.2 - 4.5

From Act 4.2 to 4.5 Shakespeare offers us three different versions of femininity. Why?

1. STRUCTURE ALERT! Each of the sisters are presented in isolation in these scenes. Why does Shakespeare use this structure?

2. How is Cordelia differentiated from her sisters?

3. CONTEXT ALERT! Within Elizabethan culture women were expected to observe three virtues: obedience, silence and chastity. How does this work within the play?

WEEK 5

WEEK 4

ACT THREE (2)

ACT THREE

SCENES 4 AND 6

RECAP and CHECKING BOOKLET

The hero in Classical Greek tragedy is:

THE STORM - representations

GENRE: Tragedy

...the hero?

What does the storm represent?

What is the storm's purpose?

More specifically what does the storm mean for Lear...

• Symbolic of the unrest in the kingdom
• Reflects the storm between Lear and his daughters
• Reflects the natural disruption of order caused by the displacement of a king - trouble in the state
• Reflective of Lear's turbulent passions and changing fortune - pathetic fallacy
• Dramatic device to separate characters - inside/outside, civilisation/wilderness
• Internal tumoil that is building between Cornwall and Albany
• The storm symbolises a world without hope.
• The madness rages both within and outside him
• 'with eyeless rage' (3.2.8) Quote echoes Lear's rage and lack of sight in dividing the kingdom as we are remindedof man' insignificance in a vast natural world
• The storm is Lear's ally; he seeks destruction and the weather is his means to it.
• Nature punishes Lear. Nature is an enemy.
• External force becomes the agent that brings Lear kinship

1. Lear's mind shifts to a new level which he registers as the onset of madness but which may show a glimmer of self-awareness

2. There are two stripping metaphors: the stripping of clothing and the stripping of social identity; these are tied to the journey Lear is on

3. Lear rails against nature and his life, but does not accept responsibility or a role in events

4. Homeless but still believes that justice exists - wants to put Goneril and Regan on trial and exact vengence

5. Begins to think of others - has sympathy/ empathy and sees suffering for the first time. Discovers his social conscience

6. Lear's language moves from grandiloquence to humility and simplicity

7. Takes Edgar as his teacher, begins to accept change of role/position

8. Begins to learn of his mortality, and that he is just a man

9. Lear's journey changes from one of outward quarrels to the inward action of self-discovery

EXAM QUESTION

CRITICS on the blinding of Lear

Violence and tragedy

Gloucester is barbarically punished for denying Edgar his birthright. 'By undergoing ritual punishment, Gloucester purifies the aristocratic body.'

What is the significance of blindness and sight in the play?

• How do the sister's respond to the blinding of Gloucester? What does this suggest about the presentation of women in the play?
• How can we compare Lear and Gloucester's suffering in the play? How can we read them as tragic figures? Relate features of Aristotelian tragedy to the play.
• How does the scene develop the ideas of corruption and disorder? Think about the Great Chain of Being.
• What is the role of the servant in the scene? How does the Quatro version add to our understanding of the role of servants? (See handout)

Samuel Johnson (1765):

'The tragedy of Lear is deservedly celebrated among the dramas of Shakespeare. There is perhaps no play which keeps the attentions strongly fixed; which so much agitates our passions and interests and curiosity.'

'...I am not able to apologise... for the extrusion of Gloucester's eyes, which seems an act too horrid to be endured in dramtic exhibition...'

Lawrence Rosinger (1968) suggests that the play is about Lear and Gloucester's self-discovery after a period of treating others as a means of self-gratification.

Tennenhouse (1986):

Gloucester is barbarically punished for denying Edgar his birthright. 'By undergoing ritual punishment, Gloucester purifies the aristocratic body.' Tennenhouse suggests that 'punishment' is part of 'the Jacobean pattern in this play.'

Blindness, sight and vision

A good paragraph...

• begins with a relevant topic sentence that links to the question and/or statement
• discusses A02 in detail
• links to critic and/or context
• develops your argument
• is accurate, meaningful and relevant

A good essay...

• demonstrates knowledge of the whole play
• considers both plots
• discusses the dramatic form

There are 135 references to sight, eyes, looking and blindness in the play. Gloucester's blinding is often considered to be a physical manifestation of these metaphors that run throughout the play. Examine the significance of these references in the play.

• Read through the quotes and decide how the issue of blindness/vision/sight is explored in the quote.
• Identify language features that are used
• Group the quotes according to the different metaphorical meanings to do with blindness/sight/vision that can be found in the play.

Rank the critics in order of importance. Find quotes from the scene to support the critic with whom you most agree. Write a paragraph combining the critical view with your evidence and analysis.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: King Lear and the Fool in the Storm (c. 1851) William Dyce; King Lear in the Wilderness (1892) Lyceum Theatre brochure; King Lear in the Storm (1767) John Runciman; King Lear (2013) Almeida Theatre; King Lear (1971) Kozinstev; The Storm National Theatre Discover; Shakespeare Uncovered Christopher Plummer on King Lear;

STRUCTURE OF ACT THREE

Criticism

Jan Kott 'King Lear or Endgame' (1965)

Close analysis

Consolidation of ideas

Shakespeare continues to inject the Gloucester/ Edgar/Edmund plot into the main plot of Lear's downfall.

A. Lear is a man 'more sinned against than sinning' who is in the midst of suffering.

Blindness in tragedy

1. Underline all the verbs and adjectives in the first speech of 3.2

2. What do they tell us about Lear's state of mind?

3. How does the storm impact Lear's changing state of mind?

4. Specifically looking at the following references note changes in Lear's language. Analyse imperatives, natural imagery, animal imagery, possessive pronouns, caesura, alliteration, rhetorical questions, monosyllables, prose, verbs, iambic pentameter.

B. Lear enters Act 3 the least introspective of Shakespeare's protagonists but leaves it a man who, immersed in the cauldron of internal and external turmoil, develops, or at least discovers, his soul'.

At the beginning there was a king with his court and ministers. Later, there are just four beggars wandering about in a wilderness, exposed to raging winds and rain. The fall may be slow, or sudden.

Lear has at first a retinue of a hundred men, then fifty, then only one. Kent is banished by one angry gesture of the King but the process of degredation is always the same. Everything that distinguishes a man - his titles, social position, even a name is lost. Names are not needed anymore. Everyone is just a shadow of himself; just a man. A naked man has no name. Before morality commences, everyone must be naked. Naked like a worm.

1. Map the order of scenes in Act 3. For scenes 3 and 5 pick out five key plot developments. Select and analyse a quote for each.

2. How successful is Shakespeare's structure?What is the audience's response to this interplay?

• Consider dramatic irony, tension, staging as well as how the audience's understanding of one story is affected by the other.

Blindness and the gouging out of eyes is a common metaphor in Greek tragedy. The tragic hero is typically endowed with a fatal flaw or hamartia - a type of blindness. Through the course of the tragedy, the tragic hero learns of his flaw and arrives at self knowledge, finally seeing the error of his ways. Through these graphic and violent actions, the audience experiences pathos and a form of catharsis.

How does Shakespeare present Lear in Act 3?

In your groups produce a DETAILED essay plan for your assigned quote/question. Your quotes should come from Act 3 primarily. Use ALL the material from this week.

3.4.6-21

3.4.23-25

3.4.28-36

3.4.47

3.4.65-71

3.4.95-97

3.2.1-9

3.2.22

3.2.48-58

What is the meaning of blindness in the play?

What does it represent?