lear as christian play

7/31/2019 Lear as Christian Play

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Christian Salvation vs.Nihilism

The Lasting Impact of Lear


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Today...

- I want to meet the suggestion that this is an overly

bleak play to be written at a high point in Christian belief

- Ill examine the depth of Christian reference as a means

of arguing thatKing Lear reinforces a Christian world

view, rather than undermines it

- Ill end the lesson by asking you to make an

appropriately strong counter-argument to suggest that

the very Christian world view I suggest is in fact

undermined by the play


3/15

Robert Hunter

By the light of nature [alone]King Lear is either

incomprehensible or meaningless, or both. In fact, I

suspect, what the [play] tells us is different from andrather worse than even that. It tells us nothing. It

shows us that in a state of nature, without the

knowledge or the grace of God, we are nothing.

-Shakespeare and the Mystery of Gods Judgments


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As a Christian Play

It is particularly popular in more modern times to see

King Lear as a nihilistic tragedy - or a tragedy that

reinforces the idea of a life is without meaning orpurpose.

However, there is plenty of room to argue that the

play seeks to reinforce the importance of the place ofGod.


5/15

Setting

Shakespeare consciously sets his play in a pre-Christian, pagan

society. They had pagan gods, but no Christian god, no Christian

theology or belief system.

In keeping with the initial quote, the choice of setting means that the

characters exist in a state of nature, without the knowledge or the

grace of God.

What this allows for is Shakespeare to explore what we are withoutGod. And the fact that there is so little salvation in the play and so

much room to argue for a meaningless existence, there is definite

place to argue that Shakespeare is illuminating the nothingness that

exists in a world without God.


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7/15

Lear as the Prodigal Son

...[in] King Lear Shakespeare found ... a story resembling in itsbroad outlines that of the Prodigal Son: the Protagonist starts byrejecting the one who loves him most, embarks on a recklesscourse which brings him eventually to suffering and want-and,paradoxically, to the self-knowledge he lacked before-and finally isreceived and forgiven by the rejected one. Two features ... wereconnected ... with the Prodigal Son: family relationships and ... thepremature granting of portions. The Prodigal Son parallelsreinforce...Lear as a child. His Prodigal is an old man who has lived

to a great age without ever reaching maturity.

- Susan Snyder, King Lear and the Prodigal Son


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Lear as the Prodigal Son

We have to remember that Shakespeare is presentingto an audience who is very well versed in Christianscripture. The story of the Prodigal Son would have

been very recognisable to them.

And there is direct evidence in the play we well:

and wast thou fain, poor father,

To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,

In short and must straw?


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Cordelia as Christ figure

Cordelia can be read as Lears Christ figure throughout theplay.

If we think of the opening of the play, for all of Cordeliasgoodness, she is condemned.

Her attitude of love and be silent is very similar to Christsattitude when tried - he refused to deny who he was, just asCordelia refuses to deny her nature.


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Reference to a higherpower

Gloucester relies on astrology - as Edmund tells us inAct One

Edmund worships nature

Lear, upon revival, assumes an after-life and a state ofbeing stuck in purgatory


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Lear and God

Symbolically, Lear can be seen as the God of the play. Essentiallyhe is the King-God - the all powerful ruler of the world in which thecharacters inhabit.

For the play to get to the point where the Fool suggests that Thoumadest thy daughters they mother, would have suggested a fairlyclear blasphemy for the Elizabethan audience - Lear should be

master of all, and when that is usurped or undermined, the divineorder itself is undermined.

After this moment, the play can be seen as a representation of a -


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But also...Lear and God

Mans greatest sin is in wanting to be God.

Lear demands to be treated in a God-like fashion, even when he givesaway his power

In terms of Christian theory and imagery, Lear acts in a way thatworks as both representations of God. He is God the Spirit in termsof the way he allows for the existence of all else. And he is God asSon in the way that falls into child-like behaviour as the play goes on.


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The opposite...

So, Ive given what I think is a fairly clearrepresentation of how Christian belief and ideas arereinforced across the play.

I think there is a strong case for the emptiness ofKing

Lear to be seen as a warning against a God-less world.

However, modern critics argue again and again that

the play is much more a representation of how


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Task...

Looking across the play, how could you argue that:

the play represents the loneliness andisolation of humanity in a God-less world

In order to do this successfully, you will need to comeup with points that stand up on their own, as well ascoming up with some evidence that would argue

against what I offered earlier.

lear as christian play

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