English 4313/5583: Shakespeare: Tragedies

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 6: King Lear

Revised 10-20-10

Background

1. In his discussion of King Lear in Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), what superlative praise does A. C. Bradley give to this tragedy? What criticism of this tragedy does Bradley make?
2. What is King Leir? What is its relationship to Shakespeare’s King Lear?
3. In what time and place is King Lear set?
4. What character in King Lear is comparable to Cinderella in the fairy tale? What similarities link the two characters?
5. As you read King Lear, look for answers to the following “ultimate questions” about the meaning of human existence:
1. Is there justice in the universe? Are the good rewarded and the evil punished?
2. What is the relationship between humans and the universe? Is the universe governed by a compassionate deity?
3. Does human life have meaning?
6. According to the editor’s introduction to the play (1300, second column), what statements do various characters in the play make in their attempt to answer the above questions?
7. Where and why is each of the following kinds of language used in the play?
1. blank verse
2. rhymed couplets
3. prose
8. As you read the play, underline or make note of every reference to eyes, eyesight, and/or blindness. What is the function of this image pattern?

Parallelism of Main Plot with Subplot

1. Ancient Greek tragedies, as described by Aristotle in The Poetics, observe “unity of action,” having one and only one plot. Shakespeare deliberately violates this classical principle in King Lear by using a subplot that parallels the main plot. Do any of the other tragedies we have studied in this class have a subplot that could be removed without substantially harming the main plot? If so, justify your answer.
2. The main plot of King Lear concerns King Lear and his three daughters; the subplot concerns the Duke of Gloucester (pronounced “Gloster”) and his two sons. In class we will discuss the following chart of the characters in the main plot and subplot. (The abbreviation “m” means “married to.”)

wronging fathers wronged (good) children wronging (evil) children

main plot: Lear Cordelia (m. France) Goneril (m. Albany)

Regan (m. Cornwall)

subplot: Gloucester Edgar Edmund

surrogates for children Kent & Fool Oswald

(in main plot)

Act 1

1. What do the opening lines of Gloucester and Kent reveal about King Lear’s plan to divide the kingdom among his three daughters (and their husbands)? Is it already known how the kingdom will be divided?
2. What information does Gloucester reveal about his two sons? Does he say anything to Kent that might help to explain Edmund’s resentfulness?
3. What is Lear’s stated reason for asking his three daughters to declare their love for him in the “trial of love”? What suggests that this is not the real reason? What might be Lear’s actual motivation?
4. Why do you suppose Cordelia refuses to play along with the “trial of love”?
5. What unwise actions does Lear take in the opening scene?
6. In 1.1.108-12, how do Lear’s words reveal the pagan (pre-Christian, polytheistic) setting of the play?
7. What are Cordelia’s parting words to her sisters (1.1.267 ff.)? What do these words reveal about her relationship with her sisters?
8. What is Goneril and Regan’s assessment of what has happened in the “trial of love” (1.1.283 ff.)? Why is their conversation in prose whereas their dialogue in the “trial of love” is in blank verse?
9. In Edmund’s first soliloquy (1.2.1-22):
1. What does he mean when he says “Nature” is his “goddess”? What definition of “nature” in the Oxford English Dictionary Online (available through the NSU library’s Web page) would apply here?
2. For what two different reasons has Edmund suffered from discrimination? What is primogeniture?
3. How does Edmund plan to right the wrongs he has suffered?
10. What truths does the Fool tell Lear (1311;1.4.149 ff.)? How can he get away with saying these things to the king?
11. What agreement does Lear have with Goneril and Regan concerning his knights? What disagreement do Lear and Goneril have about the knights? With whom do your sympathies lie in this dispute? Why?
12. Why does Lear express guilt in 1.4.266-67 (1312) and 1.5.24 (1313)?
13. What is the reason for Albany’s first disagreement with Goneril (1.4.295 ff.)? With which character do your sympathies lie? Why?
14. When does Lear first acknowledge that he is going mad (1.5.46-47)?

Act 2

1. How does Edmund trick both Edgar and Gloucester (2.1)?
2. On what does Gloucester blame the supposed treachery of his son Edgar (2.1)? What does Edmund say (to himself) about Gloucester’s laying the blame on this cause?
3. How does Kent, disguised as Lear’s servant Caius, end up being imprisoned in stocks (2.2)? Why is Lear so angry when he later finds Kent imprisoned in stocks?
4. What plan of Cordelia’s is first revealed in 2.2.163-70 (1317)?
5. Why does Edgar disguise himself? What disguise does he use (2.3)?
6. In Lear’s confrontation with Regan (and her husband Cornwall) and Goneril, what is the main topic of contention? How does Lear’s position on this issue reveal what might be called his “quantitative” concept of love (1321; 2.4.258-60)? How does Lear show a similar attitude in the “trial of love” at the beginning of the play?
7. What does Regan mean when she asks Lear, “What need one?” (2.4.263)? In what sense is Regan correct? In what sense is this remark a terrible affront to her father?
8. What argument does Lear present in his famous reply beginning, “O, reason not the need!” (1321; 2.4.264-270)?
9. At the end of act 2, how does Lear come to be shut out of Gloucester’s castle?

Act 3

1. In the choric (“chorus-like”) conversation between Kent and a Gentleman (3.1), what do we learn about each of the following?
1. the present location, actions, and companion of King Lear
2. a split between the rulers of Britain
3. an impending invasion of Britain
2. In The Poetics, Aristotle says that a tragic hero suffers more than he deserves. In his famous scene on the heath in the storm, Lear cries, “I am a man / More sinned against than sinning” (3.2.59-60). In your opinion, is Lear correct? Is he suffering more than he deserves?
3. In 3.2.68-73 (1323), how does Lear, perhaps for the first time in the play, show concern for the feelings of another human being? What does Lear mean when he says, “The art of our necessities is strange / And can make [vile] things precious” (3.2.70-71)?
4. What secret does Gloucester reveal to Edmund (3.3)? How does Edmund use this information to betray his father (3.5)? Why is Gloucester’s action considered to be treasonous?
5. How does Lear again show compassion for others in the speech beginning “Poor naked wretches” (1324; 3.4.28)?
6. What does Lear mean when he says he has a “tempest in [his] mind” (1324; 3.4.12)? On what or whom does Lear blame his troubles?
7. What provokes Lear to begin removing his clothes (1325)? How is his removal of his clothes symbolic of what has happened to Lear up to this point in the play?
8. How do Gloucester’s words to Lear in 3.4.165-70 (1325) reveal the parallelism between the main plot about Lear’s family and the subplot about Gloucester’s family?
9. In the mock trial (3.5), whom does Lear attempt to put on trial? In what sense is Lear in no condition to be a prosecuting attorney? Who are the three judges Lear appoints? What is questionable about the mental and/or physical condition of each character present for this mock trial?
10. When Lear asks, “Is there any cause in nature that make these hard hearts?” (3.6.76-77), what situation is he trying to understand?
11. The Fool disappears from the play at 3.6.101 and is never mentioned again. What could have happened to the Fool? Why might Shakespeare have chosen not to use this character in the rest of the play? (You might want to do extra-credit research on this question.)
12. Cornwall’s blinding of Gloucester on stage (3.7) is one of the most horrific scenes in all of Shakespeare.
1. What makes this scene difficult to stage realistically?
2. In any productions you have seen, how is this difficulty overcome? How is the scene staged?
3. How does each of the following elements add to the emotional impact of this scene?

i. the reason Gloucester is being blinded

ii. the source of the information that condemns Gloucester

iii. the attitude of Cornwall and Regan toward the blinding, as revealed by their words and actions

iv. the physical description of the blinding

v. the reaction of Cornwall’s own servants to the blinding

13. What leads up to Gloucester’s moment of “recognition”? What does Gloucester say at this moment? Since Gloucester experiences recognition as soon as he has been blinded, blindness becomes a symbol of insight in the play (as it is in many classical myths and in Sophocles’s tragedy Oedipus the King).

Act 4

1. How does each of the following statements by Gloucester support the assertion that blindness symbolizes insight in the play?
1. “I stumbled when I saw.” (1329; 4.1.19)
2. “A man may see how this world goes with no eyes.” (1335; 4.6.150-51)
2. Why is Edgar so horrified when he sees Gloucester in 4.1? What is the truth behind Edgar’s observation that “the worst is not / So long as we can say, ‘This is the worst’” (4.1.27-28)?
3. What view of the relationship between humans and the universe does Gloucester express when he says, “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods, / They kill us for their sport” (4.1.36-37)?
4. When Edgar is reunited with Gloucester, what pose does he use to conceal his identity? When and how does Edgar later change his assumed identity? Why does Edgar not reveal his true identity to Gloucester sooner?
5. In 4.2, what is Goneril’s attitude toward Edmund? What is her attitude toward her husband, Albany, and why does she feel this way?
6. In 4.5, why is Regan jealous of Goneril? What “love triangle” does the play present?
7. The scene in which Gloucester believes he jumps from the cliffs of Dover (4.6.1-80) strains the audience’s “willing suspension of disbelief.” This scene is very difficult to perform believably.
1. Why does Gloucester want to go to the cliffs of Dover?
2. How does Edgar convince Gloucester that they are indeed climbing toward the cliffs?
3. How does Edgar convince him that he has jumped off the cliff and survived?
4. How does Gloucester’s attitude toward life change after this event?
8. One of the most poignant scenes in the play is the reunion of Gloucester and Lear (4.6.80-187).
1. What is noteworthy about Lear’s physical appearance? What is noteworthy about his mental state?
2. What is noteworthy about Gloucester’s condition?
3. What is Lear’s point when he tells Gloucester, “Thou must be patient; we came crying hither. / Thou know’st, the first time that we smell the air / We wawl and cry” (4.6.178-80)?
9. A Gentleman remarks that Lear’s condition is “[a] sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch, / Past speaking of in a king!” (4.6.204-05). How does this comment relate to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy?
10. Another poignant scene is the reunion of Lear and Cordelia (4.7).
1. How does Lear expect Cordelia to respond to him?
2. How does Cordelia actually respond to Lear?
3. What does Cordelia mean when she tells Lear, “No cause, no cause” (1337; 4.7.74)?
11. How, if at all, has your degree of sympathy for Lear changed since the beginning of the play to the end of act 4?

Act 5

1. Why are Goneril and Regan jealous of each other (5.1)? How does Edmund feel about this situation?
2. Who wins the battle between France and Britain? Which characters are taken prisoner and condemned to death (5.3)?
3. Why and under what circumstances does Edgar fight with Edmund (5.3)?
4. Like the other “good” characters in the play, Edgar tries to find justice in the outcome of events. What justice does Edgar find in his father’s life (5.3.171-74)? How do you respond to Edgar’s analysis?
5. According to Edgar’s report, under what circumstances has Gloucester died (1341; 5.3.193-200)?
6. How and why do Goneril and Regan die?
7. Despite Edmund’s last-minute attempt to revoke Cordelia’s death warrant, how does Cordelia die? How does Lear try to prevent her execution?
8. Lear’s entrance with the body of the dead Cordelia creates a “scene of suffering” unmatched by any other in Shakespeare’s tragedies. What is a pietà? How does Lear with Cordelia resemble a pietà?
9. Lear’s last words—“Look on her! Look her lips, / Look there, look there!” (5.3.311-12)—have been interpreted in many different ways. Evaluate each of the following interpretations (and when you view films of the play, watch to see which interpretation the actor playing Lear conveys):
1. Lear believes that Cordelia’s lips show signs of life; he dies in a state of deluded joy.
2. Lear believes that the appearance of Cordelia’s lips confirms that she is dead; he dies in grief and despair.
3. Lear believes that he sees Cordelia’s spirit leave her body through her mouth, confirming that she is dead. (It was a common belief that the spirit leaves the body in this way.)
4. Lear is insane and emotionally distraught; he doesn’t know what he is saying.
10. The last speech of the play, of course, is very important.
1. In The Riverside Shakespeare, which uses the First Folio (F1) as the copy-text for King Lear, who speaks the last four lines of the play? Why does he speak last? (The First Quarto and Second Quarto [Q1-2], however, give these lines to the Duke of Albany.)
2. In your own words, what do these lines say? How optimistic or pessimistic is their tone? How does this tone compare with that created by the last speech in the other tragedies we have studied?

King Lear as an Aristotelian Tragedy

1. Does Lear have the nobility of character required of a tragic hero?
2. What is Lear’s hamartia, the imperfection that most contributes to his fall from happiness to misery?
3. Does Lear experience “recognition”?
4. Does the play cause the audience to experience a catharsis of pity and fear that uplifts rather than depresses? Note especially the last lines of the play.

Theme in King Lear

1. In what speeches throughout the play do the “good” characters optimistically attempt to find positive meaning in the events that occur? In each case, what undercuts their attempts to find meaning? What theme do these passages support?
2. Carefully read the handout sheet “The Final Scene of King Lear: Three Interpretations.” What different themes about the meaning of life do these three interpretations support?