King Lear A02 - Language Analysis

King Lear A02 - Language Analysis

1. Context of language

   • Even some of Shakespeare's contemporraies would have found it difficult to understand some of his language because he often used rare words or invented new ones and experimented with unfamiliar syntactical contructions
   • Ben Jonson famously remarked that Shakespeare 'wanted art' (lacked technical skill) but this view, along with the one about Sh being a 'natural, spontaneous writer' is mistaken as he actually possessed a detailed knowledge of language techniques of his own and previous times - despite it seeming effortless

2. In crucial moments his language is plain and direct, expressing profound feelings in simple words

   • Lear and Cordelia's reconciliation: 'You must not kneel,' 'Do not laugh at me,' 'Pray you, undo this button,' etc.

3. Imperatives:

   • Lear's imperative style is suited to a monarch utterly convinced that he has a right to rule and be obeyed: His first words are an abrupt order to Gloucester, 'Attend the lords of France and Burgundy.' and even in madness he still tries to cling to his power over the elements, dictating that the storm,'Blow winds, and crack your cheeks!'
   • But by the end of the play his requests are polite, 'Pray you undo this button/thank you sir.'

4. Religion

   • It is a pagan setting, but it is permeated by Christian terminology and the aspect of characters learning through suffering
   • Examples of pagan imagery
     • 'O you mighty Gods'
     • Hear, nature, hear, dear goddess, hear/thou nature art my Goddess.'
   • Examples of Christian imagery
     • Cordelia's language possesses Christian qualitiesas tolerance and understanding: 'Goodness,' 'restore,' 'pity,' 'repair,' 'benediction.'
     • Cordelia's words in Act 4 sc 3 and 6 echo Jesus' 'O dear father/ it is thy business I go about.'

5. Imagery

   • Vivid phrases that conjure emotionally charged pictures and add to the atmosphere of the play
   • Early critics such as John Dryden felt that many images obscured meaning but more recently modern critics have appreciated Sh's imagery, recognising that it stirs the reader's imagination and deepens dramatic impact
   • Metaphor - a comparison, suggesting two dissimilar things are actually the same 'Thou art a boil/a plague-sore'
   • Simile - compares one thing to another 'They flattered me like a dog.'
   • Personification gives many objects feelings or attributes 'Thou, Nature, art my goddess.' - makes it seem more powerful too
   • Recurring imagery
     • Sight and Blindness - 'Out of my sight!(L),' 'See better Lear(K),' 'Pluck out his eyes(Corn),' 'I stumbled when I saw(Gl).'
     • Animal imagery - Likens daughter's cruelty and ingratitude to beasts 'How sharper than a serpent's tooth,' and 'pelican daughters' feeding on flesh and blood.' Oswald is a 'whoreson dog,' Gloucester's description of people 'as flies /they (Gods) kill us for sport,' reduces humans to insignificance
     • Disease and pain
       • Political and moral disruptions are reflected in images of suffering
       • Lear's madness and Gloucester's blinding are parallel examples of mental and physical suffering
       • Language studded with sickness ,'pestilent gall to me,' thou art a boil...' - yet this is contrasted with language of healing from Cordelia 'restoration hang/thy medicine on my lips.'

6. Antithesis

   • Setting of word/phrase against word/phrase e.g. 'So young and so untender?'
   • One of Sh's fave language devices
     • As it powerfully expresses conflict through use of opposites - 'conflict is the essence of all drama' Gibson
   • Examples: Father against daughter(s), son against father, brother against brother, sister against sister, good vs evil, sight vs blindess, natural against unnatural and division of kingdom
     • Gloucester 1.2 'This villain of mine comes under the prediction: there's son against father. The king falls from bias of nature, there's father against child.'

7. Verse and prose

   • 3/4 of play in verse (High status characters) and 1/4 Prose (Low status and comic)
   • Shakespeare often contradicts this rule: even though King Lear is King when talking with fool, Poor Tom and Gl he uses prose
     • Could suggest Lear realises his common humanity with those who are most wretched 'Is ma no more than this? Consider him well. Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.'
   • Iambic pentameter is more experimental in his later work of Lear than in Richard III - less end stopping and more enjambment and five-beat metre less rigid. This may be to express more fractured emotions or increase dramatic intensity