King Lear

King Lear

1. Hubris - excessive pride/ ego

   • Tell me my daughters, which of you shall we say doth love us most. Rhetoric, hubris (pride)
   • Now, our joy... what can you say to draw a 3rd more opulent than your sisters? Speak!
   • Nothing? Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again. Mend your speech a little"
   • The bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft.
   • But now her price has fallen. Than on a wretch whom Nature is ashamed almost t'acknowledge hers. - metaphor/ hyperbolic personification- temper/irrationality
   • "Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his Fool?" - imagery of violence/chaos, irrational
     • "every hour he flashes into one gross crime or other" - erratic, foreshadows Lear's madness
   • "strikes him (oswald)" violent stage action, pride has been hurt, volatile, unpredictable
   • Which of you shall we say doth love us most? - rhetoric
   • "Darkness and devils! Saddle my horses! Call my train together!" imperatives, alliteration, excl lang due to hurt ego

2. Hamartia - poor judgement

   • Let is be so!Here I disclaim all my paternal care, propinquity and property of blood... my sometime daughter
   • Peace Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath - animal imagery, power and hubris
   • Hence and avoid my sight!
   • Out of my sight!
   • O vassal, miscreant!
     • Hear me, recreant, on thine allegiance hear me! If on the tenth day followinf thy banished trunk be found in our dominions the moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter.
   • Better thou hadst not been born than not t'have pleased me better
     • For we have no such daughter. Therefore begone
   • He always loved our sister most; and with what poor judgement he hath now cast her off appears too grossly.
     • Tis the infirmity of his age
   • Literary critic A. C. Bradley proposed that a flaw or fault within a protagonist's personality is what sets in motion the chain of events that leads inevitably to their downfall. [Note: Although some do erroneously refer to this fatal/tragic flaw as 'hamartia', it is a distinct concept from Aristotle's hamartia, which refers to a protagonist's error. In ancient Greek society, there was no concept of personality separate from a person's actions. You 'were' what you 'did'. The concept of 'personality' came much later in the history of human thought.]
   • You were best, take my coxcomb!" - stage action + symbolic of giving away power to G+R
   • "Out went the candle" metaphor, lear is in the dark, lear's monarchy
   • "I gave you all-" 1st person pronoun- speaking as a father not king, emotive lang,

3. SUFFERING

   • "O sides, you are too tough!" physical harm from emotional distress, exclamation
   • "hysteria passio, down, thou climbing sorrow!" imperative, suffering imagery
   • "O me, my heart, my rising heart! But down!" personal suffering through personal pronoun, agony + turmoil
   • "this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws or ere i'll weep. O Fool, i shall go mad!" hyperbole
   • "the heath"

4. Tragic downfall + peripeteia

   • Enter King Lear , Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia and attendants - staging, entrance
   • Know, that we have divided in 3 our kingdowm; and tis the fast intent to shake all cares and business of our age. Divine Right Of Kings
   • Only we shall retain the name and all th'addition to a king.
     • "My lady's father" "My ladies father, my lord's knave! You whoreson dog! You slave!" derogatory, infuriated tone, excl lang
   • This coronet part between you
   • "horns within" - trappings of kingship
   • "Put on what weary negligience you please, you and your fellows" - direct address + imperative
   • Divine Right of Kings- the Elizabethan idea that natural order of the universe depended on a hierarchal order headed by the King
   • "What wouldst thou with us?" royal plural pronoun
   • Ho, I think the world's asleep - metaphor, peripeteia, lack of power, disruption to natural order
     • "So please you"
   • "Dost thou call me a fool, boy?" "All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou was born with. - direct address, ref to abdication + violation of divine right of kings
   • Thou madest thy daughters thy mothers; for when gavest them the rod and puttest down thine own breeches" - role reversal, direct address, inversion of power + subversion of natural order, comical imagery presents lear as a figure of ridicule and vulnerable
     • R: "That if they come to sojourn at my house I'll not be there. - personal pronoun, assertive/powerful tone
   • Aristotle's term for a reversal of fortune
   • "Thou art an 0 without a figure. I am better than thou art now: I am a fool; thou art nothing" - foreshadowing, metaphor for lear's position in societys, direct address
   • "The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it's had it head bit off by it young. - feeding analogy, graphic animal imagery mirrors lear's relationship with daughters
   • "A little to disquantity your train" symbol of lear's authority is being taken away
   • "Tis worse than murder to do upon respect such violent outrage" - hyperbole
   • "kneels down" " oh my knees i beg that you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed and food" juxtaposition of necessities in ACT1SCENE1, listing, rule of 3, verbal/physical degrading

5. ANAGNORISIS

   • the moment when a character makes an important discovery, usually the realisation or recognition of their hamartia. MOMENT OF CLARITY
     • "Oh most small fault, how ugly didst thou cordelia show!" superlative, realises Cordelia's fault was minimal
   • "I did her wrong." personal pronoun creates sympathy/respect
   • "So kind a father!" momentarily reflecting his fault of a bad father

6. Tragic hero - for Aristotle, the protagonist is a man or woman or high rank, power or fortune. They can be noble (of noble birth) or show wisdom (by virtue of their birth). Aristotle believed they should be neither wholly good nor bad, so that the audience could identify with them

   • unities, the (classical) Aristotle stated that the action of a tragic drama occurred according to three unities: time, place and plot. Unity of plot: one plot only, no subplot Unity of place: the action should take place in one place only Unity of time: the action should take place on a single day

7. IDENTITY/MADNESS

   • "Does any here know me. This is not Lear. Does Lear walk thus, speak thus? "
   • "Where are his eyes" blindness motif
   • "Who is it that can tell ME who I am?" "Lear's shadow." poignant question, shift of we to me and I, powerful metaphor
   • "O Lear, Lear, Lear" Beat at this gate that let thy folly in (strikes head) and thy dear judgement out" - rule of 3, distressed tone, metaphor, self critical stage action.
   • Exit, Enter Lear- lear's indecisive exit indicates his state of mind
   • "Old fond eyes, beweep this cause again, i'll pluck ye out" imagery of sight- deliberate repetition to highlight hamartia
   • "Oh let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!" - excl lang, repetition, 1st person pronoun, desperate tone- scared of going insane
   • "Winters not gone yet" seasonal imagery, sense of foreboding that Lear's suffering is not yet over
   • "storm and tempest" SFX foreshadowing total chaos/ disorder, represents fracture in the great chain of being, mirrors Lear's mental state