King Lear Themes

King Lear Themes

1. Division and Disorder

   • Gloucester making fun of his sons conception 1:1
     • Play opens with a sense of unease and confusion
       • All Shakespeare's plays open like this
     • Due to Edmund being a bastard
       • Seen as an unnatural birth
   • "And now in the division of the kingdom" 1:1:4
   • Division of the country
     • "This coronet part between you" 1:1:138
       • He's broken the crown
       • In some versions the actor throws the crown on the floor
         • He's throwing his title away

2. A good man vs. A good King

   • His loss of control
     • Not signs of a good King, but necessary for his transition into a good man
     • "O reason no the need" speech is a key turning point; signifies his loss of control
       • "a poor old man" 2:4:271
         • First time he refers to himself as "man"
           • Starts speech in royal plural, ends in "I"
             • Loss of status
       • Doesn't stick to one point at a time
         • Indecisiveness
       • Break in iambic pentameter
       • Repetition shows signs of madness
       • Feminine traits
         • Crying
         • Unnatural for a man to show feminine characteristics
         • Weakness
       • Could be argued here he's neither a good man or a good king
   • Starts showing compassion for others, the more authority slips from his fingers
     • "How dost my boy, art cold?" 3:2:68
       • Humanitarian qualities
         • He's no longer just the "Dragon" or symbol of England
     • I have ta'en Too little care of this" 3:4:32-3
       • Monosyllabic
       • Realizes his poor duties as King

3. Nature

   • Use as insults/descriptions
   • Goddess of Nature
     • "Thou, Nature, art my goddess"
       • Possessive
     • "Now, gods, stand up for bastards"
       • Imperative, commanding
         • Against natural order
     • "Hear, Nature, hear!" 1:4:274
       • Curse to Goddess of Nature
         • It's unnatural what she has done
   • Unnatural
     • Relationship between Father and daughters
       • "thou mad'st thy daughters thy mothers"
       • "I love you According to my bond; no more nor less." 1:1:92
         • Natural love
           • Her natural confession of love lead to her banishment
             • Shows how King Lear's fatal flow of pride stopped him from seeing clearly
           • Frances love for her
             • He'll have her without the dowry
         • Bit blunt
           • Audience can't fully sympathise with her
           • Everything stems from her saying "Nothing"
           • Her banishment is her own doing
             • By not playing the game
               • "to sow the seeds of destruction in her own foolish refusal to play the game" - Fintan O'Toole
             • "deals with the tragic effects of ingratitude" - A C Bradley
         • Sparks the debate questioning what her duty and bond is
           • "A struggle between traditional bonds and duties" - Fintan O'Toole
           • "Scant her duty" 2:4:138
     • Edmund's birth
       • 1600's audience would see this as justification for his ridicule (1:1)
     • For a King to give away his land
       • Against Divine Right of King's
       • Lead to anarchy in the Kingdom + unnatural weather
         • [Storm heard at a distance]
           • Reflects KL's unnatural actions
             • And the chaos in his head
   • Natural order
     • The Great Chain of Being
       • Plato + Aristotole, Ancient Greece
       • Visual image of a complex idea
         • Like the Wheel of Fortune

4. Greed

   • "Love and be silent"
     • Refuses to love for her own gain
   • "Nothing will come of nothing"
   • "Which of you shall say doth love us most?"
   • "Our basest beggars are in the poorest thing superfluous"
   • "Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit"

5. Love

   • Artificial
     • Burgundy
       • "Since that respect and fortunes are his love, I shall not be his wife" 1:1:47-8
     • G + R's love for their father
       • Unnatural profession of love
         • "I love you more than word can wield the matter"
   • Family
   • Reconciliation
   • Of money/power
   • Natural Love
     • Shown through loyalty + true self-sacrificing love

6. Justice

7. Power/Authority

   • "Under two commands, Hold amity? Tis hard; almost impossible."
   • Gods/Stars
     • "The stars above us govern our conditions"
       • Do the stars and Gods hold the most power?
   • Divine Right of Kings
     • "He believed that King could not cease to be King, just like the sun could not cease to shine" - Jan Kott
       • "I am the King himself"
         • Legally he isn't, but according to the Gods he is
         • To some he is, to some he isn't
           • "My Lady's Father"
           • "The King, my old master"
             • old = elderly or previous?
       • "Every inch a King"
         • Short, confident, clear phrase
     • "That still he would manage those authorities That he hath given away"