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In King Lear, William Shakespeare illustrates the theme of family dysfunction through the parallel plot lines of the Lear and Gloucester families. With these families he demonstrates that the act of betrayal always results in the dissolution of the family.
1) Both Lear and Gloucester demonstrate qualities of ignorance and gullibility and the consequences they face are a direct result to their lack of insight. In today's society, are ignorance and blindness equally deserving of consequence as it was treated in the play? Explain
2) Do you think Edmund's reason for being angry and spiteful is justified? would you have different feelings if you were in his position today?
Kent is sent to deliver a message to Gloucester from King Lear. King Lear talks with the fool who warns him that Regan will treat him just as poorly as Goneril did. Lear prays that he does not go mad.
In Shakespeare's "King Lear" Act 1 Scene 5 there are a couple of lines that foreshadow King Lear being deceived by his daughters and the repercussions of his betrayal.
Point:
The fool tells Lear that Regan will also treat Lear poorly and this foreshadows King Lear being betrayed by his daughters.
Point:
When King Lear prays to the heavens that he does not go mad it is foreshadowing because later in the play King Lear does go mad due to the betrayal and mistreatment of his eldest daughters.
Proof:
"Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly. For though she’s as like this as a crab’s like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. " (goes with first point) FOOL (foreshadowing king Lear being betrayed by Regan as well as Goneril)
The scene opens with Kent, he has disguised himself as a peasant named Caius because he has not listened to Lear’s order to leave England, Lear accepts his service. After a knight tells Lear of the poor treatment he received at the Goneril and Duke of Albany’s palace, Lear and Oswald have a heated argument and Kent strikes Oswald in defence of Lear. The fool interjects and talks to Lear stating how foolish his decision to divide up the kingdom and disown Cordelia truly was. In conversation with Lear, Goneril proceeds to tell Lear he must reduce the number of knights in her palace and tells Oswald to inform Regan that Lear intends to arrive to her palace.
Proof:
"O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!
I would not be mad." LEAR (foreshadowing Lear going mad)
In act one, scene four of King Lear, William Shakespeare uses comic relief and situational irony to reveal the theme of wisdom versus foolishness while maintaining the interest of the audience.
Point: In satire and comic relief, the fool uses analogies to describe what Lear has done in disowning Cordelia.
Proof: “Why, after I have cut the egg i’ the middle and eat/ up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou/ clovest thy crown i’ the middle and gavest away both/ parts, thou bores thine ass on thy back o’er the dirt./Thou hadst little wit in they bald crown when thou/ gavest thy golden one away. If I speak myself in/ this, let him that be whipped that first finds it so.” (1.4.155-161)
Point:
The fool again expresses his thoughts on Lear’s foolishness saying that Lear and his daughters have switched roles. Goneril and Regan betray Lear as a king and no longer respect him as a father.
Proof:
“i have used it, uncle, ever since thou maddest thy/daughters thy mother; for when thou gavest them the rod, and puttest down thine own breeches.” (1.4.168-170)
Here in the play Goneril is discussing with her steward Oswald about the problems she is having with her father staying in her home. His attitude and knights are getting on her nerves. She wants to get rid of Lear as soon as possible, so she gives Oswald instructions to provoke Lear so that his actions will give her motive to be rid of him.
Goneril plans her treason against her father and begins to cause Lear to go mad furthering the plot.
Point:
Goneril explains the problems she is having with Lear living in her home to Oswald.
Proof:
“I’ll not endure it. His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us in every trifle” (1.3.7).
Point:
Goneril tells Oswald to provoke Lear in order to give her a reason to evict him.
Proof:
“And let his knights have colder looks amoung you. What grows of it, no matter. Advise your fellow so. I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall that I may speak” (1.3.23)
In this part of the play we are introduced to Edmund, the earl of Gloucester and the other son of the earl (Edgar).
We also see right of the bat how Edmund truly is and how he will do anything to get his fathers title even though he is the earl's illegitimate son.
We see how Edmund is betraying his brother who trusts, just to get his fathers earldom.
This is the scene which sets the play in motion.
Begins with Gloucester and Kent discussing Lear's decision to divide the kingdom, as well as Gloucester's illegitimate son, Edmund.
King Lear has decided to divide his kingdom between his daughters, but firsts asks each of them how much they love him.
Both Goneril and Regan flatter him, but when asked what she can say, the youngest daughter Cordelia just says “Nothing.”, this angers Lear causing him to make the decision to disown and disinherit her.
Next the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France, who have been trying for Cordelia’s hand in marriage come in, and it is the King of France who accepts her in her new state.
At the end of the scene, there is a conversation between Goneril and Regan who decide that in order to protect themselves from the mental unstable Lear, they must work together.
Point:
We (as the audience) knows that Edmund has a plan and having his brother armed and running away is part of it. However Edgar thinks Edmund has his best interest in mind.
Point:
When Gloucester is furious with Edgar during/after having read the letter we know it was forged by Edmund but Gloucester does not.
Proof:
“This policy and reverence of age makes/ the world bitter to the best of our times, keeps our/ fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I/ begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression/ of aged tyranny, who sways not as it hath/ power but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this/ I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked/ him, you should enjoy half his revenue forever, and/ live the beloved of your brother,
Edgar.” (1.2.46-54)
Proof:
Edmund: Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him./And at my entreaty forbear his presence until/ some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure,/ which at this instant so rageth in him that with/ the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay./
Edgar: Some villain hath done me wrong.
Edmund: That's my fear. I pray you have a continent forbearance/ till the speed of his rage goes slower: and, as/ I say, retir with me to my longing, from whence I wll fitly bring you yo hear my lord speak. Pray ye, go!/ There's my key. If you do stir abroad, go armed.
Within the first scene of the play, the audience gets insight into the character of King Lear, as well as two of his daughters, Goneril and Regan. Through these characters and their self-concerned personalities, Shakespeare sets in motion the theme of betrayal that will eventually lead the family to their dissolution.
Point:
Towards the end of the scene, there is a conversation between Goneril and Regan about Lear’s recent actions, and his irrational behaviour, and they discuss how it could
possibly affect them.
Proof:
“We must do something, and i’ the heat.” (1.1.307)
Point:
This scene introduces Lear, the protagonist of the play.
In this scene Shakespeare uses the dramatic purpose of
character to show the nature of Lear, and
the traits that lead to his betrayal of his daughter Cordelia.
Proof: “Let it be so. Thy truth then be thy dower./
For by the sacred radiance of the sun,/
The mysteries of Hecate and the night,By all the operation/ of the orbs From whom we do exist and cease to be;/
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,/
Propinquity, and property of blood,/
And as a stranger to my heart and me” (1.1.110-117)