I. 3:00-3:10
Experience of play
A. John Keats: ÒOn Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once
AgainÓ 1818 Sonnet
1.
ÒÉonce again the fierce dispute,
Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay
Must I burn throughÉÓ
2.
life in extremis
B. violence, ferocity and pain-- suffering, disorder, madness,
cruelty on mass scale, elder abuse, poverty, social disorder; allusion to vast
disturbances and sufferings; in the stars, nature, the state, the family, the
self--a tragedy, invoking woe and wonder, pity and fear
1.
The Times: Gloucester--I ,ii, 112 ff (p. 1153)
a)
Òlove
cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason;
and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father.Ó
C.
Spectacles of suffering
1.
Torture of the helpless as metaphor: Kent bound in stocks; Gloucester bound
in chair, his eyes pulled out; Lear bound on Wheel of Fire; "He hates him/
That would upon the rack of this tough world/ Stretch him out longer."
2.
"Basest and most poorest shape that ever penury, in
contempt of man, brought near to beast" --II, iii, 8-9--Poor Tom a Bedlam
in the storm; cold, crazy; poor naked wretches along with him, the King,
Gloucester
D. Endurance
1.
Nothing almost sees miracles but misery-- Kent II, ii,168
2.
The art of our necessities is strange/ that can make vile
things precious/ Come your hovel poor fool and knave. III, ii, 70--Lear on
Heath
3.
When we our betters see bearing our woes/We scarcely think
our miseries our foes./ Who alone suffers suffers most in the mind. --Edgar
III, vi, 103
4.
Thou must be patient; we came crying hither/ Thou know'st,
the first time that we smell the air/ We wawl and cry, I will preach to thee:
mark..../When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this great stage of
fools--Lear IV, vi, 180.
E. Extremes of Love and Hate; Good and Evil; Joy and despair;
Cruelty and Mercy
1.
Cordelia vs. Regan and Goneril; Edmund vs. Edgar
b)
Extremes:
the storm; the homeless; torture and betrayal vs. loyalty and love and
forgiveness
c)
Up
and down
d)
The
wheel full circle
e)
Good
guys and bad ones and in between—flowers and music and compassion
2.
Life defined at death: Gloucester and Lear; torn between despair and joy, Edmund
between good and evil
II. 3:10-3:30
Themes
A. issue of what is the human being--"the thing
itself" (115)with all the trappings stripped away--what we have in common
with both the victims and the executioners in this world; and what is human
life; living on a wheel of fire? cannon fodder? garbage? masquerade? or pearls
of redemption?
1.
Question of Suicide--life worth living? Value of
life--148-9, 153, 167
2.
Nothing
B. The Gods: pp. 88, 108,112, 154,179
1.
* characters themselves continually question and swear by
and try to make sense of their experience or rationalize it or heal themselves
by reference to tentative, confusing and sometimes absurdly pathetic concepts
of divinity
2.
* Now by Apollo--/Now by Apollo King,/ Thou swearst thy
gods in vain. I,i, 163 (45)
3.
* The gods to their dear shelter take thee maid/ That
justly thinks and hast most rightly said I, i , 1--Kent (46)
4.
* Nature art thou my goddess II, i, 1--Edmund. (51)
5.
* O heavens, if you do love old men, if your sweet sway/
Allow obedience, if you yourselves are old/ Make it your cause. Send down and
take my part. II, iv, l89 (98)
6.
* As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods,/ They kill
us for their sport--Gloster, IV, i, 36 (132)
7.
* wanton boys--youth; inbuilt cruelty of youth
8.
* This shows you are above/ You justicers, that these our
nether crimes/So speedily can venge --Albany IV,ii, 80 (139)
9.
* The stars above us govern our conditions--Kent IV, iii
,33 (141)
10.
* O you kind gods-- Cordelia IV, vii, 14 (159)
11.
* The gods defend her-- Albany V,ii, 258 (178)
C. the problem of evil, of justice or injustice of universe,
and affiliated with it, as with these horrors of our own time, the questions of
the existence of god, or gods, and more unnerving, of their benevolence,
malevolence or indifference
D. Relation to Book of Job—link on syllabus
1.
Power of poetry; indeterminacy; irresolution and
resolution—they can illumnate one another
E. Family Tragedy
1.
FAMILY AS NETWORK OF LOVE OR OF POWER OR OF HATE
a)
Parents
and children
b)
Siblings
c)
Husbands
and wives
2.
the family; deepest bond; strongest social institution;
most painful, threatening and unnatural when it breaks down.
3.
generational strife: Edgar, Edmund, Cordelia (the bond)
what is natural; vs. neglect, abuse, jealousy, rivalry, exploitation
a)
PRESSURES
CREATED BY INCOMPETENCE; LIMITS OF TREATMENT AND LOVE—PEOPLE CONDEMNING
THEMSELVES; SACRIFICING DUTY AND INTEGRITY TO HUMOR THEM? SAVING THEM WHEN
VULNERABLE. FORGIVENESS.
F. A tragedy of old age
1.
Double protagonists are two old men, Lear and Gloucester;
their age is continually alluded to.
2.
Ein Alter Mann
ist stets ein Konig Lear...
a)
an old man is always a king Lear/ Effort
and struggle have long passed him by/ And love and leadership are pledged
elsewhere/ And youth must work out its own destiny/ Come on old fellow, come
along with me.
3.
Quote
Jaques--The sixth age shifts to the lean and slippered pantaloon/ With
spectacles on nose and pouch on side/ His youthful hose, well saved, a world
too wide/ For his shrunk shakn, and his big manly voice/ turning again to
treble, pipes/ And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all/ That ends this
strange eventful history/ Is second childishness and mere oblivion,/ Sans
teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything
a)
*
I,i,40: Tis our fast intent
b)
To
shake all cares and business from our age
c)
Conferring
them on younger strengths, while we
d)
Unburthened
crawl toward death. (40)
e)
*
stripping Cordelia of her dowry (47)
f)
*
stripping Lear of his retinue--end Act II (100)
g)
*
stripping of clothes in storm (115)
h)
*
stripping superflux to naked wretches (112)
i)
*
stripping down to basic need: Lear and daughter in cage (167)
4.
Psychological state of old age
a)
*
threats to identity through change from activity to passivity (patience)=
retirement and death; virtu vs. acceptance of fate
b)
*
conflicts of that position
c)
*
Erikson--wisdom vs. despair; acceptance and affirmation vs. disgust ; I, v 44:
Fool: "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise."
(1)
* egoism vs. detachment
(2)
* petulance and anger vs. patience
(3)
central relationships--no longer of love, marriage,
collegiality, but with children; age vs. youth; ethical issues center around
fifth commandment: honor father and mother.
(4)
On the extreme verge: denial of death vs. fear of death vs.
desire for death vs. acceptance of death--NB: "Men must endure their/
Their going hence, even as their coming hither/ Ripeness is all... Come
on"--V, iii, 9
(5)
Watching LearÕs death
5.
Issues
of justice
a)
More
sinned against than sinningÉlife as suffering
III. 3:30-3:35
Historical background
A. Setting: Beowulf period—kings as warlords; no higher
authority
1.
Old King like Hrothgar or Beowulf; kingdom threatened by
aged sovereign—memory of Elizabeth; question of succession
B. Relation to Bacon and Ralegh and More
1.
Nature as opposed to human presence
2.
Superstition; theology
C. why issue of "the gods" and piety--pietas-- so
central and pressing. Pietas is obligation to parent, state, gods--all
conceived as father--pater, patria, god the father. Crisis of Authority; strong
individuals; virtue vs. virtu (54-61)
D. General scientific Scepticism and relativism (Machiavelli,
Galileo, Vespucci); Humanism (Ancients); Breakdown of Catholic Church;
Reformation-Counterreformation; Religious war; Nationalism; Intense Piety;
overall crisis of authority; Edmund vs. Gloucester : Machiavelli vs. Chaucer's
Parson--Youth particularly sensitive toward and rebellious against parental hypocrisy;
aspiring minds of younger generation
E. Situation in Elizabethan and Jacobean England; class and
religious tensions; coming civil war; crisis of aristocracy; pessimism and
devotionalism—More, Chaucer
F. Theatre of Cruelty: executions, bear bating, the liberties,
Jacobean drama, Titus Andronicus
IV. 3:35-3:40
Structure of Double plot
A. ¥ Act I : Sin and Foolishness of old age; a
"Fall"-- nothing will come of nothing.
B. ¥ Act II: Brutal punishment and beginnings of learning
process
C. ¥ Act III: touching bottom; the thing itself--madness and
blindness; wisdom through suffering; Greek tragic concept; Christian
affliction; reversal of direction; something coming of nothing; Lear's
compassion--misery loves company; servant's rebellion; decency reemerges,
contradicting Machiavelli; getting to the essence
D. ¥ Act IV: pushing off from rock bottom; Evil confounded;
Albany, Edgar, Cordelia appear with doctor, music, love, gentility; Gloucester
and Lear repent; see and become sane and patient--i.e. release grip on
events--ripeness is all; relinquish it to younger generation.
E. ¥ Act V: damnation and redemption balanced against one
another. Evil wins battle; loses single combat; destroys itself and also
destroys the good; the three old men die stretched between joy and despair; the
new generation inherits. (The king is dead; long live the king)
1.
shock of Cordelia not being saved in time
V. 3:40-3:55
Opening scene and discussion
B. love/family/duty:obey, love, honor
C. telling truth
D. rage
E. she smiles
F. rage; parents and children; rebellion and authority
G. political foolishness
H. part coronet
I. kentÕs rebellionÉpower and flatteryÉby ApolloÉabsolute
powerÉdeepening folly. Freedom
lives hence and banishment is here
J. separating good from evil sisters