Download - Shakespearean Drama
Chain of Being
The Elizabethan World Picture Elizabethans viewed their world order according to what is called The Chain of Being, much of which worked its way into the literature of the time, including Shakespeare's plays.
Everything on earth and in the universe is linked in a particular order - everything has its place.
The most heavenly beings are placed at the top of the chain, seated at the foot of God.
The basest creatures are at the bottom, furthest away from God. The best way of envisioning this is probably to think of a ladder
What is a Tragedy?
TragedyThe protagonists (main characters) must be admirable but flawed characters
=HUMAN
The audience must be able to understand and sympathize with the characters
THEMES TO LOOK OUT FOR IN KING LEAR
Kingship; Crown Inheritance; Division; Justice; Parents and Children Ingratitude of children Love: self-love and
false love Legitimacy Loyalty; Hospitality
Eyes and Sight Madness and Insanity Civil Disorder Nothing; The poor/poverty The Elements Nature and Nurture Identity Cruelty and Violence Fortune Warmth and Cold
LANGUAGE
1. Treat language like special effects2. Treat language like a voiceover in a
film .3. Characters overflow with words
Special
effects
Bad GuysGood guys
Profile of Gloucester
· representative of the old regime: weak, elderly, inert, credulous
EDMUND Thou, nature, art my goddess. To thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should IStand in the plague of custom and permitThe curiosity of nations to deprive meFor that I am some twelve or fourteen
moonshinesLag of a brother? Why “bastard”? Wherefore
“base”?When my dimensions are as well compact,My mind as generous, and my shape as trueAs honest madam’s issue? Why brand they usWith “base,” with “baseness,” “bastardy,” “base,”
“base”—Who in the lusty stealth of nature takeMore composition and fierce qualityThan doth within a dull, stale, tirèd bedGo to th' creating a whole tribe of fopsGot ’tween a sleep and wake? Well then,Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.Our father’s love is to the bastard EdmundAs to the legitimate.—Fine word, “legitimate”!—Well, my legitimate, if this letter speedAnd my invention thrive, Edmund the baseShall top th' legitimate. I grow, I prosper.Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
TRAGIC HEROQualities of a Tragic Hero:Possesses high importance or rankExhibits extraordinary talentsDisplays a tragic flaw—an error in
judgment or defect in character—that leads to downfall
Faces downfall with courage and dignity
Profile of Gloucester Represents the old
regime: weak, elderly, inert, credulous
Dramatic role · to head up the minor plot · his fate mirrors Lear's
Historically · represents mindless continuity, · end of an era inertia,
Who are his sons?
What do you know about them?
TRAGIC HERO Qualities of a Tragic
Hero: Possesses high
importance or rank Displays a tragic
flaw, an error in judgment or defect in character—that leads to downfall
HE DOESN’T SEE THE TRUE NATURE OF HIS DAUGHTERS
TRAGIC HERO Knowledge Check question
What is Lear’s tragic flaw or error in judgment?
Do people know of his plan?
How does he go about it?
Points- Good GuysProfiles of Lear 'bad' characters:
Category Edgar Kent Cordelia Albany
Appearance
not flash, younger, not as confident as might be, sensitive
shabby, older, gaunt
plain, slight, maidish, low of voice, alert
avuncular, poised,
Characteristics, temperament
gentle, easily led,
to get things right, to teach restraint, aware of the error of excess
not boastful, careful of exaggeration, few words, a natural goodness, not wimpy.
calm, patient, slow to anger, not devious, knowledgeable
Motivations caring, loyal, honest
loyalty, devotion, honesty
love, justice, tragic
justice, balance, pity
Appraisal
misunderstands Edmund, weak?, untested, driven by care and pity, endures hardship for his father
unable to be diplomatic, free of anything underhand, predictable to a fault
hides her goodness = (expects it to be enough?), accepts fate, strong devotion to the truth as only guide to life
respected by Lear, strong in himself, puzzle what he saw in Goneril to marry her
Points -Bad GuysCategory Edmund Goneril Oswald Cornwall
Appearance lusty, young, dark,
'wolfish visage', late 30s
foppish, weasel, oleaginous
sly, like Regan
Characteristics, temperament
ambitious, hungry, self- important, cagey, manipulative
aggressive, manipulative,
sycophantic, unscrupulous, ambitious
ambitious, untrustworthy
Motivationspower-hungry, cruel, deceitful
gain, greed, self-seeking, hard, pitiless
gain, opportunist, opportunist
Appraisal unscrupulous to be feared repugnant conspirator
Profiles of Lear 'bad' characters:
The FOOL Knowledge notes Act 1 scene 4+5
Q- What is the fools role in the play?
He is used to show Lear’s true feelings and highlight Lear’s foolishness
The fool acts as a commentator speking the truth
Fool Kent tries to point out that the fool is telling the
truth
All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with.
KENT
This is not altogether fool, my lord.
thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown, when thou gavest thy golden one away.
Refers to his royal crown
LEAR DIVIDED HIS KINGDOM BETWEEN GONERIL AND REGAN
Fool
I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: they'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any kind o' thing than a fool: and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides, and left nothing i' the middle:
The Fool -Act 1 Scene 5He is critical of Lear but also kind and
humorous pointing to Lear’s foolishness
ExamplesDaughters are as sour as crab applesHe remarks Lear should have been
‘wise before being old’Lear should be like a snail with a
house to put his bald head intoHe uses animal imagery and
metaphors
King Lear Act 2. scene 1 – Manipulative Edmund
Edmund begins this scene with deceit and treachery He tricks his father into believing Edgar is hungry for power
and land and is willing to murder GlouscesterHe is a consummate liarHe is manipulativeHe cuts his own arm to add credence to his lies saying Edgar
injured himHis father believes him and calls him loyal and natural
HOW HE LIES His language reflects the theme of Natural order.
He use pregnant imagry and refersto the natural orderHis language is duplicitous and ironic and he is a skilled in his speechesHe is the real villain, not Edgar
King Lear Act 2 Scene 4 Overview
Kent is in the stocksRegan and Cornwall refuse to meets
himRegan demands that he return to ask
forgiveness form GonerilSisters greet each other as friendsThey sadistically reduce his retinue
to noneLear is reduced to level of animalLear gave all, his daughters gave
nothing
Lears’s heroic struggle to endure
1. Disbelief They durst not , they could not I gave you all
2. Overwhelmed Down thou climbing sorrow ! Thy
elements below3. Angry
I would rather wage against the enmity of the air
4. Powerless + isolated Man’s life is as cheap as beasts
TRAGIC HEROLear’s tragic plight
Kingship/ Power destroyed
Seeing the error of his ways
Displays new humanity in character
Lear’s Turmoil KING LEAR
O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous: Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady; If only to go warm were gorgeous, Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,-- You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need! You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both! If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, And let not women's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall--I will do such things,-- What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep No, I'll not weep: I have full cause of weeping; but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
Humanity
Impotent rage
Madness
Knowledge Act 3 Scene 1Lear against the elements
Lear is Contending with the fretful element:Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea,Or swell the curled water 'bove the main,That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;Catch in their fury, and make nothing of;Strives in his little world of man to out-scornThe to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain.This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,The lion and the belly-pinched wolfKeep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs,And bids what will take all.
Madness
Natural order is disturbed
Division between Albany and Conwall
Close reading
Storm Scene This political chaos is mirrored in the
natural world. We find Lear and his courtiers plodding
across a deserted heath with winds howling around them and rain drenching them.
Lear soon finds himself symbolically stripped bare.
He has already discovered that his cruel daughters can victimize him; now he learns that a king caught in a storm is as much subject to the power of nature as any man.
A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.
The Storm As Lear wanders about a desolate heath in Act III, 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.