“when we are born, we cry that we are come to this great ... · yet, after regan and goneril...

by William Shakespeare

“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools” (IV vi 174-81)

King Lear Outline for Study “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods; they kill us for their sport” (IVi)

Pre-Reading Notes Discuss aging, betrayal, forgiveness, parent child relations, the nature of man,

fate vs. self-control Read, explicate, and write a one-page reaction to the following quote:

“Literary character before Shakespeare is relatively unchanging; women and men represent aging and dying, but not as changing because their relationship to themselves, rather than to the gods or god, has changed. In Shakespeare, characters develop rather than unfold, and they develop because they reconceive themselves . . . The plays remain the outward limit of human achievement; aesthetically, cognitively, in certain ways morally, even spiritually. They abide beyond the end of the mind’s reach; we cannot catch up to them. Shakespeare will go on explaining us, in part because he invented us . . . he went beyond all precedents (even Chaucer) and invented the human as we continue to know it . . . He has become the first universal author, replacing the Bible in the secularized consciousness . . . Nietzsche, like Montaigne a psychologist almost of Shakespeare’s power, taught that pain is the authentic origin of human memory.” (Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. Riverhead Books. 1998) During Reading

We will read aloud in class, read at home, complete study questions, analyze pieces of the play, analyze important attributes, and have a great deal of in-class discussion. We may even have a quiz or five.

King Lear Intro Discussion Questions:

1. What do parents owe their children?

2. What do children owe their parents?

3. What do parents expect from their children?

4. What should parents expect from their children?

5. What do children expect from their parents?

6. What should children expect from their parents?

7. Can love be defined? Defend.

8. Can love be measured? Defend.

9. Should it be defined? Defend.

10. Should it be measured? Defend.

11. What are the consequences of demanding more from someone than that person can give?

12. What are the consequences of demanding less?

From Jonathan Bate: “Shakespearean tragedy pulls in two different directions. There is a movement towards acceptance of the moment, which means acceptance of death. In King Lear, Edgar says,

Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither. Ripeness is all. This is a kind of tragic knowledge that derives from the classical philosophy of Stoicism. Stoicism meant resignation, fortitude, suppression of emotion.” The play is full of paradoxes and ironies:

• Those who can see physically are emotionally blind.

• Those who are physically blind are able to see clearly emotionally.

• Lear finds rest in the storm.

• The spurned daughter is really the true one.

• The spurned son is really the true one.

Final Questions 1.) How must honest people act in Lear’s world? Consider who gets what, how it is gotten, and

what the end result is.

2.) What does “all” finally come to? Consider how Lear first measures things (love, his knights,

etc.) What does “nothing” finally come to?

3.) Why might Lear’s madness be necessary?

4.) What is it to be a fool in Lear’s world? Consider how and when the fool disappears in the

play. Also, look how Lear refers to Cordelia after she has been killed.

5.) What is Lear’s fatal flaw?

6.) How is Lear “everyman”?

Imagery in Lear

Use your browser's find facility (eg. "Find on this page" under the "Edit" menu in Internet Explorer) or the search facility on your word processor to search for references to these words in the text of the play. (You may use the text of Lear on the teacher web, if you don’t have an electronic version.)

Nothing (search for references to "nothing")

1. Identify the important events in the play that have the word "nothing" connected to them.

2. What kinds of "nothing" are referred to? (How many different ways can you have "nothing"?)

3. Which characters are most often connected with the idea and what is the result of this?

4. What is the purpose of "nothing" in the play?

Justice (search for references to "justice" and perhaps "sin")

1. What injustices exist in the play?

2. Can you find any evolution in Lear's ideas about justice?

3. Does he come to a conclusion about the nature of justice?

4. Why do you think that there are an unusually large number of references to justice at the end of the play?

Sight (search for references to "see" and to "sight")

1. What different ways are there to "see" in the play?

2. Summarize how the idea of sight develops or changes in relation to Lear.

3. Summarize how the idea of sight develops or changes in relation to Gloucester.

Animal Imagery

All of the animals listed below are connected to Goneril or Regan at some stage during the play. Identify who uses the imagery and what attributes it emphasizes in the daughters. How well do these skills and attributes reflect the daughters' characters?

Animal Attribute Spoken by

detested kite sharp claws, predatory nature, smooth plumage, calculating killer, preys on those smaller than itself

ass

cuckoo

crab

wild geese

mongrel/cur

eels

vulture

serpent (...like, gilded...)

lion

belly pinched wolf

pelican

boar

dog (obeyed in office)

adder

tiger

Significant Image Paper Select an image from the act which seems integral to a theme from the act/play, and carefully analyze it.

Example Significant Image Paper: Act 5

“No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage. … So we’ll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news... …and we’ll wear out, In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones That ebb and flow by th’ moon” (V.iii.8-19).

The imagery that Lear creates when visualizing the life that he and Cordelia will share during their imminent imprisonment reveals a singular change in the king’s character. Lear’s happiness in light of what Cordelia considers a deplorable situation is most clearly conveyed by his metaphor comparing their captivity to that of caged birds, saying that “We two alone will sing like birds i' th’ cage.” This conflates the connotations of entrapment and impotency with the cheer implied by singing birds – an effervescent joy that is naturally simple – to emphasize Lear’s unorthodox reaction to the turn of events. Lear parallels this metaphor with the literal examples of what they will do happily while in prison; he imagines that they will “pray, and sing, and tell old tales.” Unlike their earlier existence in the court, which ended so tragically in part because of the pretenses that are integral to the glamour of royalty, their imprisonment will be minimalistic in the pleasures which it affords, but authentic.

Lear contrasts these two types of lifestyles through other images in the same speech. The “gilded butterflies” which he suggests they will “laugh at” are symbolic of this dichotomy. Something that is gilded is covered in gold – a human artistic touch connoting luxury – while butterflies are natural creatures that are beautiful without artificial adornment. The result is an image representing the contemptible affectation that humans put on in order to elevate themselves or make things appear more pleasing, not unlike the elder daughters’ flattery. Cordelia and Lear’s anticipated laughter reflect their disdain for such facades and reiterate the authenticity of their relationship.

This speech marks a significant departure from Lear’s original admonishment of Cordelia for saying “nothing.” Early in act one, Lear warns his daughter that “nothing will come of nothing,” and expects that she will participate in the same flattery as her sisters (1.1.90). His mindset at that point is such that he believes even the artificial to have more value than the minimalistic and genuine. Yet, after Regan and Goneril betray Lear, the king understands that simplicity can be preferable to the duplicity of the superficial, as he symbolizes in his sudden desire to disrobe after meeting the disguised Tom. Having witnessed the downfall of the powerful due to court intrigue, Lear comments that he and Cordelia will “wear out… packs and sects of great ones / That ebb and flow by th’ moon” – that is, whereas scheming factions are intransient and doomed to self-destruction, the truthful live more satisfying lives. Thus, confronted with the ultimate life of minimalism which he could possibly enjoy with Cordelia, Lear embraces it and the daughter who represents that genuine nature, emphasizing a fundamental change in the king that comes too late to save the pair from their tragic fates.

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Answer the following questions about the poem “Lear” by William Carlos Williams.

“Lear” by William Carlos Williams

When the world takes over for us and the storm in the trees replaces our brittle consciences (like ships, female to all seas)

(5) when the last few yellow leaves stand out like flags on tossed ships at anchor—our minds are rested Yesterday we sweated and dreamed or sweated in our dreams walking,

(10) at a loss through the bulk of figures that appeared solid, men or women, but as we approached down, the paved corridor melted—Was it I?—like smoke from bonfires blowing away

(15) Today the storm, inescapable, has taken the scene and we return our hearts to it, however made, made wives by it and though we secure ourselves for a dry skin from the drench

(20) of its passionate approaches we yield and are made quiet by its fury Pitiful Lear, not even you could outshout the storm—to make a fool cry! Wife to its power might you not

(25) better have yielded earlier? as on ships facing the seas were carried once the figures of women at repose to signify the strength of the waves’ lash.

1. How is the point of view different in stanza 4 than in stanzas 1-3? What is the significance of the shift of point of view in stanza 4? Stanzas 1, 3, and 4 concern some kind of storm. 2. What is the storm that “in the trees” that “replaces [Lear’s] brittle conscience” (stanza 1)?

3. What is the “inescapable” storm which has “taken the scene,” even though Lear has “secure[d] himself from the “drench/of its passionate approaches” (stanza 3)?

4. What is the storm that could “make a fool/cry” (stanza 4)? 5. Which two of the stanzas seem to concern the same “storm” for Lear? 6. Highlight all the images of women in the poem with a pink highlighter. Discuss the meaning of these particular images in the poem. Has Lear’s life been ruled by women, in some sense? How? 7. The poem refers three times to Lear paradoxically making peace with himself in the midst of the storm. Highlight these references in another color. In the play, at what point does Lear finally make peace with himself and realize that Goneril was right in saying that “he hath ever but slenderly known himself”? How is it ironic that Lear finds peace in this particular cimcumstance?

Answer the following questions about the last stanza. 8. Who might the “fool” be (line 23)?

9. Explain the final image of the poem in lines 25-28. 10. What do lines 24-25 mean: “Wife to its power might you not/better have yielded earlier?”

Act IV.vi

Read up to “King Lear, mad.”

1. Explain in detail how Edgar uses imagery and figurative language to create the height of the cliff in Gloucester’s mind.

2. Why does Edgar deceive his father?

3. Critics have said that Edgar claims to help his father, but actually he treats him very cruelly. What is your opinion of Edgar’s behavior in this scene? Support your position with evidence from the text.

4. Which of Gloucester’s words might indicate that Edgar’s scheme has been successful?

5. Speaking in blank verse rather than in prose, Lear says the following: Through tattered clothes small vices do appear. Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks. Arm it in rags, a pygmy’s straw does pierce it. Paraphrase Lear’s words.

6. Paraphrase: Gentleman responding to Lear’s madness: A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch— Past speaking of in a king. Thou hast a daughter Who redeems nature from the general curse Which twain have brought her to.

7. Paraphrase Gloucester’s words:

The King is mad. How stiff is my vile sense That I stand up and have ingenious feeling Of my huge sorrows? Better I were distract.* *insane So should my thoughts be severed from my griefs, And woes, by wrong imaginations, lose The knowledge of themselves.

Act IV.vii 1. Reread Lear’s first words upon awakening. What do they tell us of his frame of mind?

2. Why does Lear kneel to Cordelia? Which scene does this action echo?

3. If the last ten lines of scene vii were omitted, why might this be a logical place to end the play?

4. What is the audience reminded of in the last ten lines?

Act IV, iii

Close Reading of a Passage

Gentleman, speaking of Cordelia’s reaction upon receiving the letter telling of her father’s madness:

(1) Not to a rage. Patience and sorrow strove (2) Who should express her goodliest. You have seen (3) Sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears

(4) Were like a better way. Those happy smilets (5) That played on her ripe lips seemed not to know (6) What guests were in her eyes, which parted thence (7) As pearls from diamonds dropped. In brief, (8) Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved (9) If all could so become it. 1. What do “sunshine and rain” (line 3) correspond to?

2. “Those happy smilets/That played on her ripe lips seemed not to know….” What type of figurative language is used?

3. Who or what are the “guests” (line 6)?

4. What is the antecedent of “which” (line 6)?

5. The “pearls” (line 7) correspond to what?

6. The “diamonds” (line 7) correspond to what?

7. Sum up the meaning of lines 8-9.

Act IV, i and ii

Paraphrase

1. Edgar’s first speech: Yet better thus, and known to be contemned,

Than still contemned and flattered. To be worst,

The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,

Stands still in esperance* lives not in fear. *hope

The lamentable change is from the best;

The worst returns to laughter. [Welcome, then,

Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace.

The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst

Owes nothing to thy blasts.]

2. Gloucester:

I have no way and therefore want no eyes.

I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ‘tis seen

Our means secure us, and our mere defects

Prove our commodities.*O dear son Edgar, *advantages

The food of thy abused father’s wrath,

Might I but live to see thee in my touch,

I’d say I had eyes again.

3. Goneril:

It is the cowish terror of his [Albany’s] spirit,

That dares not undertake. He’ll not feel wrongs

Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way

May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother.

Hasten his musters and conduct his powers.

I must change names at home and give the distaff

Into my husband’s hands.

4. Goneril:

Mild-livered man,

That bear’st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;

Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning

Thine honor from thy suffering; (that not know’st

Fools do those villains pity who are punished

Ere they have done their mischief. Where’s thy

drum?

France spreads his banners in our noiseless land.

With plumed helm thy state begins to threat

Whilst thou, a moral fool, sits still and cries

“Alack, why does he so?”)

The Fool

The Fool first appears in Act I scene iv.

1. How many times does Lear have to call for him before he comes?

2. How long has the Fool been absent?

3. What reason is given for his absence and what does this reveal about his character?

4. A lot of the Fool's intelligence is conveyed through his jokes and riddles. Find an example of a joke or riddle related to the following topics:

o Brains

o Crowns

o Houses

o Animals

5. What is the Fool trying to show Lear in each of these situations?

6. Why do you think the Fool does not appear again after Act III?

Questions II.iv

Plot summary: At Gloucester’s castle, Lear is angered that his messenger has been stocked and further angered that Regan and Cornwall refuse to see him. When Goneril arrives, Lear quarrels bitterly with her and with Regan, who claim that he needs no attendants of his own. When each daughter says that he may stay with her only if he dismisses all his knights, he rushes, enraged, out into a storm. Cornwall, Regan, and Goneril shut Gloucester’s castle against Lear. Remember to note the eye/sight imagery in the play.

1. Paraphrase Lear’s words in lines 15-16: “What’s he that hath so much thy place mistook/To set thee here?”

2. Describe Lear’s reaction to seeing Kent in stocks.

3. Kent’s speech in lines 32+ explains why he has been put in the stocks. “My lord when at their home…” Paraphrase Kent’s offense.

4. Line 62: “O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!” “The mother” was the name given to hysteria, one symptom of which is the suffocation that Lear is represented as feeling in his rage and grief. Its medical name is hysterica passio. The disease was thought to be caused by a wandering womb (hystera), which belonged below, not up near the heart. What figure of speech is Lear using in the line above? 5. In the Fool’s speech lines 74-83 (“We’ll set thee to school to an ant…The fool no knave

perdie.”), he explains the desertion of Lear’s knights three ways, all of them emphasizing Lear’s decline into adversity. Name all three ways.

a. b. c. 6. What excuses (“fetches”) do the daughters give for not seeing Lear?

7. What is Lear’s tone in lines 112-117? “Death on my state…Till it cry sleep to death.”

8. In lines 121+, Lear rationalizes why the duke won’t see him. Paraphrase these words: “We are not ourselves/When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind/To suffer with the body.”

9. Does Lear say “Beloved Regan” (line 150) in an ironic tone? Why or why not?

10. Note the metaphor in line 151 (right after previous quote) and explain what two things are being compared.

11. Paraphrase Regan’s words in lines 167+: “O sir, you are old,…You should be ruled and led/By some discretion that discerns your state/Better than you yourself.”

12. Characterize Lear’s tone as he kneels to Regan and says, “Dear daughter, I confess that I am old./Age is unnecessary. On my knees I beg/That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.”

13. Find and write the lines which contain two apostrophes to Nature, uttered by Lear (187). “Who stock’d my servant…”

14. Write the lines that reveal that at this point, Lear still trusts Regan.

15. Paraphrase Goneril’s words in lines 226-227: “All’s not offense that indiscretion finds/And dotage terms so.”

16. In Lear’s speech lines 240+ (“Return to her? and fifty men dismissed…”), Shakespeare uses repetition to express Lear’s disbelief and rage. Explain.

17. What rhetorical device is Shakespeare using? “We’ll no more meet, no more see one another” and “But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter”

18. In Lear’s speech lines 252+ (“But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter…”), what kind of imagery does he use to convey his disgust with Goneril?

19. Regan and Goneril discuss the terms of Lear’s staying with them. On what does it depend?

20. Emotionally, what error is Lear making in his words to Regan, “Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty,/And thou art twice her love” (298-299)?

21. Where in the play has Lear made the same mistake before?

22. Paraphrase Lear’s words in lines 305+:

“O, reason not the need! Our barest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous. [If you] Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man’s life is cheap as beast’s. “ 23. Find the apostrophe in the above speech of Lear’s.

24. What are “women’s weapons, water drops” (line 319)?

25. What do Regan and Goneril finally decide about taking in Lear and his knights?

26. Write the words uttered by Regan that show the extent of the daughters’ cruelty to their father in the midst of a storm.

Questions I.iv

1. How will Kent disguise himself? (lines 1-2)

2. What is his purpose in disguising himself?

3. Kent says that Lear could be called his master because Lear possesses_____________________.

4. What is the Knight’s complaint to Lear in lines 54-59? “My lord, I know not what the matter is…”

5. Why is the Fool sad?

6. How does Kent obtain favor with Lear?

7. The Fool is the only character who is allowed to tell Lear the truth. What unpleasant truth does he tell him in lines 94-100? “Why? for taking one’s part that’s out of favor…Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters.”

8. In the Fool’s poem/song in lines 133+: “That lord that counsell’d thee…The other found out there.”, what is he saying to Lear?

9. Write the lines uttered by the Fool which shows that Lear is inferior to the Fool.

10. How does the Fool use “crowns” as a pun in lines 151+: “No, faith, lords and great men…Their manners are so apish.”

11. The Fool tells Lear another truth in lines 163-165. “I have us’d it, nuncle, e’er since thou mad’st/thy daughters thy mothers, for when thou gav’st them/the rod, and put’st down thine own breeches,” Paraphrase.

12. The Fool again proclaims his superiority to Lear in lines 181+: “I marvel what kin thou and thy

daughters are…” Paraphrase.

Look at Goneril’s speech lines 190+: “Not only sir, this your all-licensed fool…” Answer questions 13-14. 13. What complaint does she bring of the Fool and the knights?

14. Goneril “grow[s] fearful” of what?

15. What does the Fool mean in line 215? “May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?”

Answer questions 16 and 17 over Goneril’s speech lines 228+: “This admiration sir is much o’ th’ savor…”

16. Because of Lear’s knights and squires, Goneril says that her court has become more like

a_________________________than a ______________________,

17. Her plan to quell the knights’ riots is to

18. What is Lear’s response to this plan?

19. Write the apostrophe and metaphor in Lear’s speech 250+: “Woe that too late repents…”

In the metaphor, explain what is being compared to what.

20. Find and write another apostrophe in Lear’s speech lines 257+: “Detested kite, thou liest…”

21. Lear’s whole speech in lines 270+ (“Hear, Nature, hear…”) is an apostrophe. To whom is he speaking, and what is his request?

22. Write the simile in this same speech.

23. Lear’s words in lines 300-301 are an example of foreshadowing. Paraphrase what Lear says. “Th’ unlented woundings of a father’s curse / Pierce every sense about thee!”

24. In lines 304+ (“Ha? let it be so:…”), Lear has an alternate plan. Why will this plan not turn out as he wants it to? (See lines 335-337: “Safer than trust too far…”)

25. In these same lines, Lear refers to Goneril in a metaphor. Write it. Why compare Goneril to this creature?

26. Write the lines that show that Albany may not be completely supportive of his wife’s actions.

27. Paraphrase Goneril’s words to her husband. Don’t leave out any important ideas. Lines 346+: “No, no, my lord…”

Language Assignment: I.i

1. Discuss the humor in the pun in the line “I cannot conceive you.”

2. Why does Gloucester speak in prose in lines 18+? (“But I have a son…” Look at what he’s saying about his illegitimate son.)

3. Lines 93-94: “The vines of France and milk of Burgundy/Strive to be interessed.” Explain the figurative language in these lines.

4. Explain the clothing imagery in lines 249-251:

“The best, the dearest, should in this trice of time Commit a thing so monstrous to dismantle So many folds of favor.”

5. Identify and explain the figure of speech used in line 278: “She is herself a dowry.”

6. Explain the two main paradoxes contained in lines 290-296: “Fairest Cordelia….” First quote the paradoxes (one is several lumped together) and then explain them.

7. Identify and explain the figurative language used in line 301: “Can buy this unprized precious

maid of me.”

8. Shakespeare uses rhyming couplets to both add variety to his blank verse (unrhymed iambic

pentameter) and to express a truism. Paraphrase the couplet in lines 325-326:

“Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides,

Who covers faults at last with shame derides.”

The following essay on Shakespeare's King Lear was originally published in Characters of Shakespeare's Plays. William Hazlitt. London: C.H. Reynell, 1817. We wish that we could pass this play over, and say nothing about it. All that we can say must fall far short of the subject; or even of what we ourselves conceive of it. To attempt to give a description of the play itself or of its effect upon the mind, is mere impertinence: yet we must say something.--It is then the best of all Shakespeare's plays, for it is the one in which he was the most in earnest. He was here fairly caught in the (5)web of his own imagination. The passion which he has taken as his subject is that which strikes its root deepest into the human heart; of which the bond is the hardest to be unloosed; and the cancelling and tearing to pieces of which gives the greatest revulsion to the frame. This depth of nature, this force of passion, this tug and war of the elements of our being, this firm faith in filial piety, and the giddy anarchy and whirling tumult of the thoughts at finding this prop failing it, the contrast between the fixed, (10)immoveable basis of natural affection, and the rapid, irregular starts of imagination, suddenly wrenched from all its accustomed holds and resting-places in the soul, this is what Shakespeare has given, and what nobody else but he could give. So we believe.--The mind of Lear staggering between the weight of attachment and the hurried movements of passion is like a tall ship driven about by the winds, buffeted by the furious waves, but that still rides above the storm, having its anchor fixed in the bottom of the sea; or it (15)is like the sharp rock circled by the eddying whirlpool that foams and beats against it, or like the solid promontory pushed from its basis by the force of an earthquake. The character of Lear itself is very finely conceived for the purpose. It is the only ground on which such a story could be built with the greatest truth and effect. It is his rash haste, his violent impetuosity, his blindness to everything but the dictates of his passions or affections, that produces all his misfortunes, that (20)aggravates his impatience of them, that enforces our pity for him. The part which Cordelia bears in the scene is extremely beautiful: the story is almost told in the first words she utters. We see at once the precipice on which the poor old king stands from his own extravagant and credulous importunity, the indiscreet simplicity of her love (which, to be sure, has a little of her father's obstinacy in it) and the hollowness of her sisters' pretensions… Their deliberate hypocrisy adds the last finishing to the odiousness (25)of their characters. It is the absence of this detestable quality that is the only relief in the character of Edmund the Bastard, and that at times reconciles us to him. We are not tempted to exaggerate the guilt of his conduct, when he himself gives it up as a bad business, and writes himself down 'plain villain'. Nothing more can be said about it. His religious honesty in this respect is admirable. One speech of his is worth a million. (30)It has been said, and we think justly, that the third act of OTHELLO, and the three first acts of LEAR, are Shakespeare's great masterpieces in the logic of passion: that they containthe highest examples not only of the force of individual passion, but of its dramatic vicissitudes and striking effects arising from the different circumstances and characters of the persons speaking. We see the ebb and flow of the feeling, its pauses and feverish starts, its impatience of opposition, its accumulating force when it has time to recollect (35)itself, the manner in which it avails itself of every passing word or gesture, its haste to repel insinuation, the alternate contraction and dilatation of the soul, and all 'the dazzling fence of controversy' in this mortal combat with poisoned weapons, aimed at the heart, where each wound is fatal. We have seen in OTHELLO, how the unsuspecting frankness and impetuous passions of the Moor are played upon and exasperated by the artful dexterity of Iago. In the present play, that which aggravates the sense of sympathy in the reader, (40)and of uncontrollable anguish in the swollen heart of Lear, is the petrifying indifference, the cold, calculating, obdurate selfishness of his daughters. His keen passions seem whetted on their stony hearts. The contrast would be too painful, the shock too great, but for the intervention of the Fool, whose well-timed levity comes in to break the continuity of feeling when it can no longer be borne, and to bring into play again the fibres of the heart just as they are growing rigid from over-strained excitement. The (45)imagination is glad to take refuge in the half-comic, half-serious comments of the Fool, just as the mind under the extreme anguish of a surgical operation vents itself in sallies of wit… Shakespeare's mastery over his subject, if it was not art, was owing to a knowledge of the connecting links of the passions, and their effect upon the mind, still more wonderful than any systematic adherence to rules, and that anticipated and outdid all the efforts of the most refined art, not inspired and rendered instinctive by genius.

Look up the definition of these words: revulsion (7) filial (8) promontory (16) precipice (22) credulous (22) importunity (22) pretension (24) odiousness (24) vicissitude (32) obdurate (41) levity (43) Analyze the following questions about the Hazlett passage

1. Characterize Hazlitt’s attitude toward the play as he expresses it in lines 1-3.

2. Why is King Lear the best of Shakespeare’s plays, according to Hazlitt?

3. Hazlitt mentions “the passion which [Shakespeare] has taken as his subject” (line 5) and the

“bond” which is the “hardest to be unloosed” (line 6). Find and write the words which explain exactly what that “bond” is.

4. What happens when that “bond” is “unloosed” (line 6) and torn to “pieces” (line 7)?

5. What is “this prop” (line 9)?

6. Lear’s mind is described in three analogies using similes. (An analogy is a similarity between

like features of two things.) Write each one, quoting exactly from the passage. a. b. c.

7. Each of these analogies concerns two contrasting elements. What do all three analogies have in

common? In other words, in each, a _____________________is being compared to

a_____________________.

8. In Aristotle’s original definition of tragedy, hamartia is the tragic hero’s false step which leads

to his downfall. What is Lear’s hamartia?

9. What quality does Edmund lack?

10. What two elements in both King Lear and Othello cause certain acts in those works to be

“great masterpieces in the logic of passion”? Paraphrase.

11. In King Lear, what most “aggravates the sense of sympathy in the reader”?

12. According to Hazlitt, what is the purpose of the fool?

What is Tragedy?

Tragedies are based on profound emotions that, in their universal appeal, transcend time and place. Strong emotions, such as love, hate, ambition, jealousy, and revenge move the audience to empathize with tragic figures. Since emotions are the true expressions of humanness, it is neither necessary nor desirable to intellectualize tragedy. Instead, you should be struck by an emotional bolt of lightning that leaps through the storm of conflict.

The most important basis for judgment of tragedy is found in a critical essay, the Poetics, by the Greek critic philosopher Aristotle. According to Aristotle, the tragic protagonist is a “better than average person” guilty of hamartia. Hamartia is an error in judgment or a shortcoming. The most common form of hamartia is hubris, an act of excessive pride. However, it is quite wrong to look for a “flaw” in every tragic hero, for the greatest tragic characters do not possess a real flaw. They more frequently fail because of costly errors in judgment, or even because of their own almost too-virtuous nature. Through suffering, the tragic protagonist usually acquires a sense of awareness—of truth, of self, or of others. During this time of struggle, the protagonist becomes alienated and isolated from society. Human beings seem capable of seeing clearly only when under great stress.

When a person of stature, struggling mightily against dynamic forces, finally falls, the audience experiences what Aristotle termed catharsis, a purging or cleaning that comes as a result of emotional release. The most forceful catharsis is experienced when an audience realizes that the doomed protagonist has seen life more perceptively than most humans could ever hope to. Aristotle said that the catharsis comes through pity and terror—pity for the protagonist that such a great person should fall, and terror, aroused by the fear that we could easily have made the same error in judgment and paid the same price.

The student of drama will observe certain other characteristics in tragedy apart from Aristotle’s theories. The essential quality of a tragic character is suffering. This suffering occurs in most instances because of a rebellion against some divine or human authority or against society. Most tragedies have a ritualistic nature, and the protagonist assumes the role of a sacrifice or scapegoat.

Another characteristic of tragedy is inevitability. What is going to happen will happen. There is no way to prevent the protagonist’s tragic fall. For example, in Romeo and Juliet the chorus informs us that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed lovers.” From this point, their fate is sealed. Pathos is another characteristic of tragedy. Pathos is the power to arouse feelings of pity and compassion in an audience. It is through these feelings that the tragic impact of events is intensified. Still, by the time the tragedy is over, the pathos has been purged.

Tragedies are sober, thoughtful examinations of life dealing quite often with laws of the gods and laws of humanity, social conflict, or the identity and sanctity of self. In all cases, a struggle exists—a struggle of dignity and value. The higher the goals toward which the protagonist reaches, the greater may be the fall and the greater the catharsis for the audience. If the character is not noble in rank or stature, there must be something that elevates that character above the average.

One of the most interesting descriptions of tragedy since Aristotle’s is found in the following speech by the Chorus in Jean Anouilh’s Antigone:

Tragedy is clean, it is firm, it is flawless. It has nothing to do with melodrama—with wicked villains, persecuted maidens, avengers, gleams of hope, and eleventh-hour repentances. Death, in a melodrama, is really horrible because it is never inevitable. The dear old father might so easily have been saved; the honest young man might so easily have brought in the police five minutes earlier.

In a tragedy, nothing is in doubt and everyone’s destiny is known. That makes for tranquility. Tragedy is restful; and the reason is that hope, that foul, deceitful thing, has no part in it. There isn’t any hope. You’re trapped. The whole sky has fallen on you, and all you can do about it is to shout. Now don’t mistake me: I said “shout”: I did not say groan, whimper, complain. That, you cannot do.

But you can shout aloud; you can get all those things said that you never thought you’d be able to say—or never even knew you had it in you to say. And you don’t say these things because it will do any good to say them: you know better than that. You say them for their own sake; you say them because you learn a lot from them.

In melodrama, you argue and struggle in the hope of escape. That is vulgar; it’s practical. But in tragedy, where there is no temptation to try to escape, argument is gratuitous; it’s kingly.

1. The tragic protagonist is a “better than average person” guilty of hamartia. What is Lear’s hamartia? Or does he even have a flaw? Is his hamartia merely an error in judgment? Does he “fail” because of costly errors in judgment, or a too-virtuous nature?

2. The audience experiences catharsis when the tragic protagonist falls. How does the audience feel pity and terror for Lear?

3. An essential quality of tragedy is suffering. How does Lear suffer? Does he bear any responsibility for his suffering?

4. Explain how Lear’s suffering parallels Jean Anouilh’s description of tragedy.

“when we are born, we cry that we are come to this great ... · yet, after regan and goneril...

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