King Lear

King Lear

1. Family/old order vs new order

   • Disorder in Gloucester's family
     • audience sympathises with Edmund at first- Gloucester appears to disregard him. Audiences can also understand Edmund's frustrations of being a bastard in his soliloquy
       • 'the whoreson must be acknowledged'
       • 'there was good sport at his making'
       • 'wherefore base?'
       • 'Blushed to acknowledge him'
   • Disorder in Lear's family
     • Suggestions of potentially incestuous relationship with his daughters- Almeida thatre production by Michael Attenborough makes this interpretation quite clear
       • sense of sexual violence/violation in the way he curses them for disobeying him
         • 'nature, hear... into her womb convey sterility'
     • Also sees his daughters as somewhat parental figures
       • ''crawl unburdened towards death'- expects them to look after him. Sense of inversion created by the image of him being infantile
     • supposed to be father to his daughters and his kingdom- body politic and body natural- fails in both when dividing the Kingdom
       • 'In discovering what he is father to, he must confront the implications of his own flawed paternity'- Janet Adelman
   • old vs new
     • The children who have been repressed in some way end up forming this new order- not all the blame can be put on them for the carnage at the end
       • makes sense that Goneril and Regan want to 'do something... i'th'heat' after seeing Lear curse out Cordelia
         • The two are 'inadequetly characterised if seen merely as wicked'- Foakes
           • contrast to O'Mahoney: 'Goneril and Regan are the two most notorious villains of the renaissance stage'
       • Edmund's position purely because is his birth also gives him an incetive to wreak havoc- he's not just evil for the sake of it but has a purpose
         • 'Edmund's challlenge of Edgar's wealth and pursual of inheritance and status brings out the obsession of power, property and inheritance'- Foakes

2. Power and Leadership

   • Lear is unjust, morally blind and unfair however the play still insists on his kingliness throughout. All the good characters continue to call him King despite his abdication
     • Cordelia does this in particular, referring to him as 'My Lord' after she launches her attack- still recognises him as sovereign
     • 'Lear proves himself a bad king even before he proves himself as a bad father'- Barish
   • As she gains more power her sadistic disposition comes to the fore- proposing Kent's punishment in the stocks be extended and Blinding Gloucester in his own home
     • ''I am your host'- Gloucester
     • 'Give me thy sword'- Regan, before stabbing the servant who attempts to intervene

3. Blindness

   • Metaphorical and physical blindness- Blindness of Gloucester metaphorically of how Edmund has managed to drive out Edgar and begin his rise as part of the new order- as well as physical blindness at the hands of Cornwall and Regan
     • 'Out, vile jelly!'- Cornwall
     • Blindness of Lear too- his sight is only regained when he loses everything and is forced to confront his wrongs
       • 'see better, Lear'- Kent
       • 'dearer than eyesight'- Goneril
       • 'old fond eyes... i'll pluck ye out'- Lear
       • 'blind cupid'- Lear
       • Gloucester’s blinding is the physical manifestation of the mental torture Lear endured on the heath.
         • 'Shakespeare develops the theme that self-knowledge derives from inner reflection'- Peter Sinclair
         • 'we cannot see the blinding as simply the representation of a horrible world in which the machinery of power is vested in the hands of the ruthless'- Edward Pechter
         • 'The pride of both Lear and Gloucester lead them to make “blind” decisions, banishing their good children without seeing clearly'- Peter Sinclair
     • 'because I would not see thy cruel nails pluck out his poor old eyes'- Gloucester
     • 'Tis the times' plague when the madmen lead the blind'- Gloucester
     • 'that will not see because he does not feel'- Gloucester
     • 'The dark and vicious place where thee he got cost him his eyes'- Edgar
     • 'Pluck out his eyes!'- Goneril

4. Madness

5. Fate/the gods

6. Nature

   • Nature as malign-