King Lear and Oedipus Rex

King Lear and Oedipus Rex

1. Sight/Blindness

   • Gloucester Blinding - Physical and Mental
   • Lear's Mental Blinding
   • Oedipus Blinding - Physical and Mental

2. Father/Son Relationship

   • Goneril and Regan are themslves compared to men on one occassion
   • Oedipus kills Laius as part of the myth

3. Ingratitude?

4. Tragic Protagonists

5. Young vs Old

   • Edmund the youth will rise

6. The Insignificant/Significant

   • Chorus in Oedipus
     • Greek Device
   • Edmund as illegitimate becomes the most dangerous
   • Creon by the end it seems will become most significant
   • Prophecies/Oracles in Oedipus
   • The superflouous, what you dont need, Lear learns this
   • Albany dominated by Regan, can change sides without anyone noticing?

7. Locations

   • Lear in the storm on the heath Act 3 Scene 2

8. Truth vs. Lie

   • Act 1 Scene 1, False Love

9. Fate vs Free Will

   • Governed by Fate, Lear and Cordelia will die

10. Divine Intervention

    • Divine Right of Kings, King is only answerable to God alone
    • The Great Chain of Being, power invested in King by God, if exploited leads to chaos
    • Act 1 Scene 2, Edmund '...all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on'. We blame the Gods so easily if anything goes wrong

11. Service/Duty

    • Service to the state, Lear fails
    • Kent service to Lear as Caius mainly

12. Violence

    • King Lear is fundamentally a play, critics have sometimes deemed it unplayabe because of the extent to the violence

13. Good vs. Evil

    • Evil nonexistent in the Ancient World

14. Control, Lack of Control

    • Lear Act 3 Scene 2
    • Oedipus once understands

15. Healing?

    • The world is not healed at the end of the play 'we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long' Edgar
    • The Chorus at the end see it as a lesson to be learnt, seperate Oedipus from everyone else, hope for future?

16. Sympathy and Support for Characters

    • Pathos in Ancient World. The Chrous in Oedipus, Lear's lament, pathos evoked with everyones sorrow
    • Act 5 Scene 3 Albany: 'That is but a trifle here'

17. Justice, Lack of Justice

    • Fate governs Justice?

18. Dramatic Irony?

    • Act 1 Scene 2 Edgar: Some villain hath done me wrong
      • Act 1 Scene 2 Edmund: I am no honest man
    • The effect of Dramatic Irony is that it encompasses the audience into the story, for they know the truth of the situation, whereas the characters do not. In Oedipus especially, the audience are fundamentally well aware of the myth regarding Oedipus

19. Innocence

    • Albany; white, innocent state of Albany, especially contrasting against Goneril

20. Animal Imagery

21. Disguise

22. Madness vs Insight

    • Have to be mad/ go through madness to have the insight?

23. Naivety

24. Nature and the Natural World

25. Social Constructs

    • What defines the person, rank, clothing, birthright
    • The Great Chain of Being, The Divine Right of Kings

26. Rhetoric Ability

27. Oppostion

    • Edmund concludes his opposition at the finale
    • Edmund: Machiavellian Principles

28. Birthright

29. Wheel of Fortune

30. Indebtedness

31. Secrecy/Conveying

    • Naturally fits into truth
    • Oedipus shows trying to withhold information can be for the best
    • Tiresias: How terrible is it to know Where no good comes of knowing

32. Abandonment

33. Family

34. Leadership

35. Rage

36. Voice of Widsom

    • Oedipus - The voice is suppressed as much as possible

37. Hubris

38. Role of Kings