AP Language and Composition Final UnitText:King Lear by William ShakespeareAssignments:Anticipation GuideVocabulary/Literary TermsStudy GuideCharacter ProfilesWriting: Tips/ Models/Drafting Personal Statements (UC Prompts) ***OptionalFinal Exam: Multiple choice Test and/or Performance or Video or Presentation (Acting out a scene or memorizing a monologue or research project)

Anticipation Guide1) You should not bite the hand that

feeds you.2) Children should be obedient to their

parents.

3) The more you give someone the more ungrateful they become.

4) It is horrible to get old.5) The elderly should be taken care of

and respected.6) People often tell you what you want to

hear to get their way. 7) Parents have favorites.8) Things can always get worse.9) Being crazy is worse than being a fool

or terribly poor.10) People that are born “bastards” are

usually immoral. 11) If someone mistreats their parents

they are not a good person. 12) It is more important to side with your sibling

than parents. 13) We should speak how we feel and not what we

ought to say.14) Everyone sins, and all are punished for their

wrongdoings.

King Lear Anticipation GuideGiven the list below, in the first column put intoorder, from least horrible to most horrible, what youpersonally feel would be the most destructive situation inyour life. Discuss with your group why you ordered thesituations the way you did. Then, in the next column, putinto order which situations you think will be the mostdestructive in King Lear.

Personal PredictionFamily Fight _____ _____(Act 1.i)Committing Murder _____ _____(Act V.iii)Being Murdered _____ _____(Act V.iii)Aging _____ _____(Act I.v)Insanity _____ _____(Act III.ii)War _____ _____(Acts IV & V)Being thrown out _____ _____(Act I.i, ActA thunderstorm _____ _____(Acts II & III)Dying _____ _____(Act V.iii)Having an affair _____ _____(Act V.i)

 

AP English Language and Composition 11B

KING LEAR STUDY QUESTIONS

1.1

1.Who are the two nobles

in the opening scene and what are they talking about?

2.How do you think that Edmund must be feeling at this moment?

3.What does Old King Lear plan to do with his kingdom? What is the test that he proposes to the daughters?

4. How do each of the first two daughters answer the old man?

5. What is Cordelia's answer and why does she answer as she does? What does her reference to "nothing" suggest about the use of this motif in the

rest of the play?

6. Do you think that Cordelia is being cruel in refusing to play her father's game? Why?

7. How does Lear react to Cordelia's response? How does Lord Kent react to Lear's response?

8. How might the references to sight and blindness become important for the rest of the play?

9. How do France and Burgandy each react to the news that Cordelia will not receive any dower and what does their reaction tell us about their

characters?

10. What does Cordelia mean when she says to her sisters, "I know you what you are." What do the sisters say about their father near the end of the scene?

1.2

11. What are the two views of nature contrasted in the action and dialogue of this scene?

12. What parallels do you see between this scene and the first one?

1.3

13. A couple of months have now passed; what is

bothering Goneril at this point and what does she instruct her servant Oswald to do about it?

1.4

14. Why does Kent wish to serve Lear? What does he discern in Lear's countenance and how is this ironic?

15. What is Kent's reaction to what Oswald's servant does to Lear?

16. Why is what the knight says about the Fool's pining away "since my young lady's going into France" important?

17. What is the Fool's function in this part of the

play and what are at least three examples of how he fulfills this function?

2.1

18. How does Edmund trick his brother Edgar into fleeing?

2.2

19. How do Kent's actions with Oswald characterize him as a "plain dealer"?

20. How might Kent's line "Nothing almost seems miracles/But misery" serve as a motto for the play?

2.3

21. How is Edgar's disguising himself as a

bedlam beggar an example of social criticism in the play? Why is Edgar's comment, "Edgar, I nothing am" important to the meaning of the play?

2.4

22. Why is Lear so angry that his servant Kent has been put in the stocks by Regan and Cornwall?

23.What is Regan's first response when Lear complains of his treatment at the hands of her sister?

24.Before this scene is over, what have the two sisters stripped Lear of?

3.1

25. How does the storm that Lear endures on the outside mirror his emotional state?

3.2

26. What is Lear's comment about people who have suffered social injustice in his kingdom and why might it signal the beginning of his transformation?

27. What does Lear say to the Fool that suggests a further step in his transformation?

3.3

28. What mistake does Gloucester make with his son Edmund, and what

significant word does he use?

3.4

29. Why are Lear's lines about the "poor naked wretches" in his kingdom important?

30. When Lear encounters Edgar, how does Edgar's condition mirror his own?

31. What does Lear mean when he calls Edgar, "unaccommodated man," and how does he now actualize the nothing motif of the play?

3.6

32. What does Lear do

now to his three daughters in the hovel that indicates how mad he has become?

3.7

33. How might this scene be asking the question: "Just exactly where are the really mad people in this play, on the inside or the outside?"

4.1

34. What does Gloucester mean when he says in

this scene: "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods/They kill us for their sport"?

4.6

35. What transformation seems to result from Gloucester's attempt at suicide? What does Edgar mean when he tells his father, "Thy life's a miracle."

36. How is the stage direction, "Enter Lear, fantastically dressed with wild flowers" related to his transformation?

4.7

37. When King Lear recovers in Cordelia's

arms, what does he mean when he says, "I am a very foolish fond old man"?

5.2

38. In the midst of the battle, when Cordelia's forces are losing, Edgar comments: "Men must endure/Their going hence, even as their coming hither: /Ripeness is all." How is this comment important to the meaning(s) of the play?

5.3

39. What does Lear say to Cordelia that might indicate that he has not experienced a complete

transformation?

40. Just before he dies, King Lear tells those gathered to "look on her, look, her lips": Does this mean that he dies in exultation, thinking that his daughter is breathing? If so, is he not still a blind, gullible old man?

Literary Terms: 

1. aphorism

a short pithy instructive saying

2. soliloquy

a dramatic speech giving the illusion of unspoken reflection

3. chiasmus

inversion in the second of two parallel phrases

4. hyperbole

extravagant exaggeration

5. tautology

useless repetition

6. paradox

a statement that contradicts itself

7. simile

a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things

8. metaphor

a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity

9. rhetorical question

a statement that is not supposed to be answered

10.allusion

passing reference or indirect mention

11.alliteration

use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word

12.personification

attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas

13.euphemism

an inoffensive expression substituted for an offensive one

14.metonymy

substituting the name of a feature for the name of the thing

15.antithesis

exact opposite

16.aposiopesis

breaking off in the middle of a sentence

17.apostrophe

an address to an absent or imaginary person

18.Machiavellianism

the political doctrine of Machiavelli: any means (however unscrupulous) can be used by a ruler in order to create and maintain his autocratic government

19.pun

a humorous play on words

20.negation

a proposition that is true if another proposition is false

21.ellipsis

omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences

22.caricature

a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect

23.allegorical

characteristic of or containing a short moral story

24.symbolic

serving as a visible sign for something abstract

25.litotes

understatement for rhetorical effect

26.analogy

drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity

27.hypozeuxis

use of a series of parallel clauses

'epizeuxis' is the repetition of a single word for emphasis.

Vocabulary:

1. constant

steadfast in purpose or devotion or affection

We have this hour a constant will to publish

As king, Lear can proclaim that his will is constant, but once he steps down, this constancy will be constantly tested.

2. opulent

rich and superior in quality

What can you say to draw A third more opulent than your sisters?

The adjectives "more" (in example sentence) and "superior" (in definition) emphasize the public competition Lear is creating among his daughters.

3. propinquity

the property of being close together

Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee from this forever.

Note how "propinquity" and "property" are included in the same breath as "paternal care".

4. wrath

intense anger, usually on an epic scale

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

5. folly

foolish or senseless behavior

To plainness honor's bound When majesty falls to folly.

6. dominion

a region marked off for administrative or other purposes

If on the tenth day following Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions, The moment is thy death.

7. infirmity

the state of being weak in health or body

'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.

8. beseech

ask for or request earnestly

Therefore beseech you T'avert your liking a more worthier way

Note the missing "I" before "beseech", which makes Lear's use of the word seem more like a command than a request.

9. benison

a spoken blessing

Therefore begone Without our grace, our love, our benison.

10.rash

marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences

The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash.

Although "rash" here doesn't mean the red eruption of the skin, picturing Lear with a physical rash could help you remember the rashness of his nature.

11.unruly

unwilling to submit to authority

then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

The prefix "un" here emphasizes what is happening to Lear's rule as well as his nature.

12.choleric

easily moved to anger

then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

13.discord

strife resulting from a lack of agreement

love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father.

Possible pun alert: "discord" could refer to Lear breaking his bond with Cordelia--a move that leads to a lot of the discord in the play.

14.malediction

the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil

as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

Although the example sentence was from Edmund repeating a general prediction of the state of the world, it can be seen as an overview of all the conflicts in the play. The word "malediction" is buried in the sentence but it is a good word to know because in this act, Lear both withholds a benison from Cordelia and gives a malediction to Goneril. Note the difference in Lear's power in the scenes.

15.dissipation

breaking up and scattering by dispersion

as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

Another definition of "dissipation" is "dissolute indulgence in sexual pleasure"--this could also fit because it could lead to "nuptial breaches" but the rest of the sentence lists other examples of breaking up and scattering.

16.breach

a failure to perform some promised act or obligation

as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

17.upbraid

express criticism towards

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us on every trifle.

18.ceremonious

characterized by pomp and stately display

My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgment, your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont;

19.wont

an established custom

My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgment, your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont;

In the example sentence, "wont" is used as an adjective to refer to how Lear is used to being treated. Don't stick an apostrophe in the word because then it becomes a matter of what Lear will or won't do.

20.abatement

an interruption in the intensity or amount of something

there's a great abatement of kindness appears as well in the general dependants as in the duke himself also and your daughter.

21.bandy

exchange blows

Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?

A look is not a physical blow, but because Lear is not used to receiving insulting looks, he feels as if he had been hit. So Lear hits Oswald in return, but as a servant, Oswald can't actually bandy with Lear.

22.gall

a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will

A pestilent gall to me!

23.kin

group of people related by blood or marriage

I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are:

How kind can the kin of a king be?

24.sovereignty

royal authority; the dominion of a monarch

I would learn that, for, by the marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded I had daughters.

25.dotage

mental infirmity as a consequence of old age