King Lear Reduction
Title: The Tragedy of King Lear. Author: William Shakespeare. Globe theater burnt down 1613 Date of Publication: 1608. Writing Style: Blank verse, prose, unrhymed iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets. Conventions: Asides, soliloquies, puns, subject/verb inversions. Genre: Drama, tragedy. Includes- tragic hero, tragic flaw, irony. Foil- contrasting person or thing, sets off, enhances another. Stock characters: faithful servant Kent, buffoon or fool, imposter, languishing heroine. Setting: Wearing Elizabethan attire but set in pre-Christian Britain. Castles (Lear’s, Goneril’s, Regan’s, Gloucester’s). Cliff’s of Dover (acts iv-v). Atmosphere: Stormy scenes foreshadow tragedy, stress, high intensity. Characters: King Lear: King of Great Britain, aging so gives his kingdom to his daughters but still wants to be respected as king. Blind to truth about his daughters and Kent. Dies of stress and old age over Cordelia’s body. Cordelia: Lear’s youngest daughter. Disowns her after she doesn’t flatter him. Married to France. Heavenly good. Contrasted by Goneril and Regan. Reunites with Lear, all forgiveness. Is killed, hung, in prison under Edmond’s orders. Regan: evil middle sister, married to Cornwall. Poisoned by sister.
Act II main: Kent hates Oswald, tries to get letter from him. Kent=Stocked. Cornwall sided with Oswald. Insult to Lear. Gloucester- “Cornwall is to blame”. Regan wanted him stocked. Lear Expects R and husband to help right away with this crisis. R comes to his aid, bosses him around, makes him promise never to hate her, manipulates him. Lear mad by this. Fool uses metaphors to point out Lear’s misfortune. Lear starts going nuts, sees what’s going on. Storm scene because Lear is angry and hurt. Sub: Cornwall makes Edgar the earl when he gives him letter. Edmond betrays father with 5th letter from someone loyal to king. 6th letter: Cornwall gives it to Goneril to give to Albany, says kill Gloucester. Regan kills Gloucester’s servant. R & G say hang him. Cornwall plucks out Gloucester’s eyes. Gloucester figures out Edgar is good, Edmond is bad. Edmond goes off with Goneril. Cornwall gets stabbed. Albany glad. Act IV main: G kisses Edmond, doesn’t like Albany. Albany sees cruelness of R & G, wants to kill G but wont. Cornwall’s servant kills Cornwall, servant dies too. R is a widow now, she might want Edgar, G’s man. Cordelia is coming. Messenger tells Albany Edmond had a part in Gloucester’s eyes. R & G 8th letter, “we should have killed Gloucester b/c everyone is against us now”. Sisters fight over Edmond. 9th letter, R tells Oswald kill Gloucester. Letter from Goneril tells Edmond to kill Albany. Cordelia comes, kisses delirious Lear. Act I Main- Lear decides to divide kingdom into 3 parts. He’s too old to have responsibility. Uses love test on daughters. Cordelia says nothing, banishes her. France chooses her even without a dowry. Gives her no blessing. They move to France. Kent tells Lear he’s wrong for banishing his favorite daughter, the only o
Some topics in this essay:
Strips Lear,
Edgar Edmond,
Lear Expects,
Sub Edgar,
Genre Drama,
Act III,
Lear Lear,
Banished Lear,
Edgar Gloucester’s,
Tells Lear,
poor tom,
kill gloucester,
king lear,
blind truth,
cordelia lear,
loyal king,
lear starts,
cordelia coming,
gloucester’s eyes,
edgar edmond,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 1209
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
Example Essays Home
