Greetings Shakespeare Scholars:
1. Please review the essay topics and the sample essay on this blog.
2. Choose a topic and create an introduction that makes a claim and references examples from different parts of the play that you will use to support your claim.
3. Follow the model established in Dr Van's sample essay :)
4. Next Tuesday we will workshop your topics so it is very important that you post them here so we can review them in class!
Throughout the play, King Lear struggles with the acceptance of his own mortality despite stating at the beginning that he wants to give his up his kingdom in order to prepare for his death and the frailties of old age. When says , “To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths while we unburdened crawl toward death” (1.1.37-39), he is preparing to divide his kingdom into three parts that each of his daughters will be the ruler of, while he can live under their care. As he relinquishes his crown to his daughters, he continually struggles with his new position and desperately clings to the benefits and power that his position once held but no longer is capable of.
ReplyDeleteKing Lear says, “I have another daughter, Who I am sure is kind and comfortable. When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails she’ll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find that I’ll resume the shape which thou dost think I have cast off for ever. Thou shalt, I warrant thee” (1.4.294-299). When King Lear is staying with his daughter Goneril, she treats him poorly and her servants offend him, which she has told them to do intentionally. King Lear feels that he deserves better treatment, and requires one hundred knights to accompany him at all times. Goneril demands that he is only allowed fifty knights when he stays with her and this inspires a great anger in him. Despite the fact that he gave up his power so he could lessen his burden of responsibility, he still wants the same respect and power he had before. When he is not given these things by his daughter Goneril, he curses her and exclaims that his other daughter will treat him better and he will soon obtain all the power he had as king. His struggle with mortality comes in because he no longer wields the same power he had before, and cannot comprehend why he is being treated differently by his daughters.
Hi Anna--
DeleteI'm going to comment on the beginning and end of your post to help focus your mortality thesis:
1. mine the imagery/symbolism--when Lear says he wants to divide his kingdom so he can crawl towards death--is this symbolically an act of self-mutilation, suicide?
2. after seeming to accept mortality in Act I Scene 1, he then begins to battle with it--so you could focus examples around his struggle against the very think he has admitted at beginning!
talk more in class
Introduction: Come one, come all! For five and twenty nights only at the Globe, William Shakespeare’s King Lear! The truly tragic tale of filial ingratitude betwixt an old king looking for peace and quiet as he nears his end, his three daughters who each find different ways to drive him insane and those that surround them all. From that description and the fact his name is literally the name of the play itself, it would be easy to assume that our mistreated King Lear would be the tragic hero of the story; A ye olden day version of Socrates’ Oedipus the King. Yet nothing can be further from the truth. Oedipus was a well-loved King with a rational mind, whose fatal flaws and errors led to his tragic and inescapable fate. King Lear, as we see him throughout the play, is in fact, the villain. He is a man with no good qualities, whose spoiled seed and bad decision-making either directly or indirectly led to the tragic fates of almost every single character within the play. As such, it can be stated that William Shakespeare’s King Lear is a unique tragic tale where the main character is the villain and the tragic heroes are the men and women surrounding him.
ReplyDeleteNotes: I plan to look at moments throughout the play were lear appears like a villain instead of some good guy. I also plan to look at the definition of a tragic hero and try to show that the real heroes are characters like Gloucester (who loses his eyes much like oedipus) and edgar/kent.
Love your contrary reading of Gloucester/Edgar/Kent as true heroes instead of Lear--go for it--look at definitions of tragic hero to mine info you can use!
DeleteThere are few characters that attracted my attention such as The Fool, King Lear and Cordelia because each of them are so different but yet they share the action of honesty. King Lear, I feel for this man, an old man set in old patterns that has three daughters, two that are completely crazy and so are the people that are around them. King lear and his marvelous idea to ask his daughters who love him the most ( curiosity killed the cat) will posses part of his kingdom. Little did he know that by doing that a great skirmish was developing and his own home and that his action has fallen upon many people that played for their “benefits”. He finally see his daughters evils intentions and because of the pain that this truth causes, breaks his heart and he declares himself mad. Although he knows who he is and who are the persons that he encounters through his journey.
ReplyDeleteIn the next paragraphs I will talk about the other two characters as well. Jessica.
La Grilla (??)--I like your beginning comment and it seems to me for an essay you could take the connection between the Fool, Lear and Cordelia one step further and argue that, for example, Cordelia and the Fool are psychologically a part of Lear--the part he has to recognize and does ultimately when he acquires HONEST insight, awareness! Is that too complicated an idea?
DeleteWhat is interesting to me about Lear's character is that throughout the beginning, he is full of ire and impulsively brings misfortune upon himself. He then goes into a state of shock when he realizes what he did, but doesn't readily accept responsibility for his predicament. Then, we come face to face with paradox. He goes mad and only in this state does he begin to make sense. He thinks more logically and is less angry and impulsive. He begins to put a premium on the simpler things that now how greater value than any riches he once had. He becomes more humble through his necessities. His character is one huge cautionary tale that unfolds slowly and painfully.
ReplyDeleteMara--sounds to me from above that you have outlined structure for an excellent essay on Lear's Reluctant Recognition through Madness--like the Fool, he begins to "see true" at the end--sorry you missed last class--will try to show last scene today :)
ReplyDelete"Character", the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. In Shakespear's King Lear, King Lears character drastically changes throughout the play. At the beginning of the play Lear makes foolinsh decisions, he is irrational and very arrogant. King Lear decides to believe the words of his two evil daughters Goneril and Reagan, Instead of his daughter Cordelia who stayed true to herself when each were asked which one loves him the most. By the end of the play , Lear ironnicaly gains more wisdom he lost everything and grew insane.
ReplyDeleteWe make choices every day. Good choices help us make the life better, but we need to pay price for the bad decision as well. The story of King Lear begins from the choices that Lear decides to separate the kingdom to three parts and trust his two older daughter who do not truly love him. Lear says, “Tell me, my daughters, which of you shall we say doth lobe us most that we our largest bounty may extend where nature doth with merit challenge.” Lear test his daughter how they love him by word but not by action. This is his first mistake because you should not view a person by what he says about himself. People need to be valued by what they do. Therefore Lear will not know who is the daughter that love him and he makes a wrong decision.
ReplyDeleteThemes: Patriarchy/Paternalism.
ReplyDeleteLear Rules his Land the way he rules his home, He mixes politics with personal motive instead of the higher good. He impulsively divides his kingdom amongst his daughters in order to receive the verbal adoration he feels he is entitled to. When he doesn't get it from Cordelia, he DISOWNS her impulsively, in the heat of rage and only disperses his lands to Goneril and Regan. His Daughters Rule with personal motive just as he has shown them. The paternal manner in which he conducts his business ( or transactional quality he assigns to familial love) causes his downfall, and he is humiliated as a result.
The actions of “loyalty” and “betrayal” are expressed prominently in Shakespeare’s King Lear. Ironically, the characters that remained true and loyal are banished and condemned while the dishonest and conniving characters are praised and later cause betrayal. Shakespeare is clearly conveying how Ignorance and hasty decision making can lead to the downfall of characters. It also depicts how the truth is always revealed sooner or later; unfortunately, it’s not always an easy lesson to be learned. The characters that depict unconditional loyalty include Cordelia, Kent, and Edmund. In contrast, the characters that exhibit betrayal are Goneirl, Regan, and Edmund.
ReplyDelete