HLHlearclass

E N G L I S H 2100H
honors literature & humanities

some of our observations
on King Lear
(September 2002)

Selected Observations on King Lear

-- There are many similarities between Othello and King Lear. The similarities between Edmund and Iago are interesting. Shakespeare creates a fantastic evil character whom no reader can like. I think the "greatness" that comes out of the tragedy is that Lear realizes the truth about his daughters and himself. I would like to discuss the second response given by Oates. I think Shakespeare depicts women as having always to rely on men. I don't even know if Cordelia possesses any strengths, as Knights states, because she follows her father's wishes by marrying France. (Megan)

-- In Lear, there are several deceptions. Edgar deceives the characters into believing he is a man named Tom. Kent also deceives Lear and everyone else into believing he is Caius. This seems to be a common theme. Also, the daughters, excluding Cordelia, give Lear the deception that they truly love him. This seems to be a prominent deception, it being one of the first in the play.
     Edmund also deceives his father into believing Edgar has a plot out against Gloucester's life. Then Edmund turns around and deceives Edgar. Another deception is that of Gonoril's to Albany. She deceives Albany into believing she loves him, while she tells Edmund to kill him. This play is almost entirely centered around deceptions. (Sara)

-- I found the character of Albany interesting. He wasn't one of the heroes of the play, yet Shakespeare must have seen something in Albany since he is alive at the end and speaks the closing lines. Albany is associated with the villains in the story, Lear's two eldest daughters. This association makes us assume Albany is a bad guy, but really Albany never does anything that would make him a villain. Albany is fairly active throughout the play, and by the end he is seen in a new light. Yet we never quite understand the character of Albany. (Tim)

-- Albany is a peculiar character. He is always one step behind the action of the play. When presented with a situation that tests his character, he responds boldly with personal conviction. But as the story unfolds, Albany's morality seems to waver. He is neither good nor bad, black or white, but rather gray.
    Tragedy evokes in the audience a state of catharsis. The audience purges their emotions by having pity on the character with the tragic flaw. In this play it may be easier to feel for Lear's parallel character, Gloucester, who is much more kind and humble when he experiences his fall. Lear acts like a child throwing a temper tantrum. (Sarah Beth)

-- When Edmund declares that we are all responsible for our own actions and the events that occur to us, what is he saying about himself? Since he is illegitimate and also an evil character in the play, why is he not turning to "the stars" to excuse his actions? Couldn't he have a better argument by saying that fate put him in his situation and left him no other option but to pursue Edgar's place? (Matt)

-- The most contradictory character is Edmund. He is the bad one already from the beginning and after what he does to everyone I thought he would be the mean person up to the end. But then at the end he suddenly starts to regret his deeds and even sends a servant to save Cordelia from hanging. Actually, this situation seems a bit cheesy and inappropriate for the whole atmosphere. Another striking character is Albany. He is always like a shadow, but still his thoughts seem to be the most reasonable, as if knowing from the beginning that everything will end the way that it does. He is watching others from the distance. (Katlin)

-- It seems to me that a great symbolism can be found in comparing the relationship of Kent and King Lear to that of Christ and Christians. In mine and many others' Christian faiths, Christ promises never to leave our side once we decide to believe in him. Christ's promise of loyalty stands through all our rebellion and struggles toward self-discovery, and even outlasts death. In King Lear, even when Lear banishes Kent, and even though Lear does not realize this or believe in Kent's loyalty anymore, Kent still stands by Lear's side--even beyond Lear's death. This, to me, is one of the greatest themes and parallels of the entire story.
    I really enjoy the way the Fool is depicted in King Lear. I find it funny how in the real world sometimes a person who is repeatedly overlooked because he/she appears outwardly much less than he/she is turns out to be the one who has got everything figured out. Kent, Cordelia, and the Fool know who they are all along. Lear learns who he is to die happy in that knowledge. Albany doesn't know who he is, but doesn't go along with the crowd. Cornwall doesn't know who he is but goes along with the crowd: no self-discovery in death.
(Beth)

-- I think the idea of Cordelia's love was misconstrued. She lets herself believe that she can only love her father so much probably to protect herself from being hurt. Indeed, a person can love their parents with their all, siblings and significant others, too. Love is not something that has to be divided. It is an emotion to be shared. (Sophia)

-- How was Cordelia raised that she follows such different morals from her sisters? She seems to have an awareness of the truth in society that we all have sometimes in our lives. We tend to like the character because we see in her someone we want to be. (Juan)

-- Cordelia's love, though rejected repeatedly by Lear and put to the test throughout the entirety of the play, is shown to be the deepest rooted as Lear returns to her.
    Unlike Goneril and Regan, whose professed love means much more to Lear than Cordelia's version of love.   Cordelia's love holds no conditions.
    It seems that Lear does, in fact, die during the storm. He is unconscious, wakes up with Cordelia, and appears to have left his former opinions and attitudes behind completely. . . . (Robert)

-- Although King Lear is treated with contempt by his daughters Goneril and Regan after he has given them his kingdom, Lear completely overreacts. He turns over his powers to his daughters, and when they begin to exercise it he acts as if they are not entitled to do so. Granted, his daughters ought to have made allowances for Lear and could have resolved the whole thing if everyone's anger (and perhaps greed and pride) had been neutralized. However, the play seems to be about the consequences of blind pride and greed, so perhaps there would be no King Lear if Lear hadn't overreacted and the daughters had been grateful rather than tyrants.
Thoughts on Cordelia: Cordelia could have avoided offending her father possibly. It seems everyone has a hard time getting to the point and dances around it with fancy language. But Cordelia was also in trouble because King Lear was bound to overreact (it's in his nature throughout, as noted above). (Emily)

-- Cordelia is the most authentic of the three daughters: she sees what others don't. She has seen how her father has been blinded by hypocritical words of love, thus making her the most truthful to the bond, the love that a father and daughter have. In the end it is this bond that Cordelia dies for.
    Cordelia, unlike her father, shows unconditional love and love that cannot be expressed or measured. It is not tangible. Yet Lear insists on measuring love with words and facts. Therefore, Lear, perhaps, has the wrong idea of what love should be. (Ale)

-- I find Cordelia to be a fairly dull character. She's hardly in the play at all, and she doesn't do much in the scenes she is in. She doesn't really try to plead her case against her father, and when she comes back she is just as sweet and forgiving as she can be. She's the epitome of the good girl. (Rebecca)

-- In King Lear, Goneril and Regan take to being phony to please their father. Everyone is taught the same lesson: always be yourself. Cordelia keeps true to this by not saying a lot of fluff like her sisters. Deception always leads to a downfall. Goneril and Regan both lose their lives. Even though Cordelia tries to escape it, she still loses her life, but she does have the love of her father. Your actions always affect the people around you. Everyone in this play ends up getting screwed over because of the greed of a few people. (Rena)

-- In King Lear, as well as in other works by Shakespeare, a jester is used to enforce plot and the general message of the plays.* As Charles Boyce mentions, the jester comments on the play's action. The jester also, however, brings up serious matters about the morals of the characters and gives advice, but it is disguised in words and rhymes. Even in King Lear, the Fool hints to Lear that something bad is going to happen, and then he also gives pieces of wisdom to [help Lear] cope. As it happens in Shakespeare's plays, though, nobody listens to the "Fool" and it all turns out worse. It's easier because the Fool is detached and objective.
*It's ironic that this character is called the "Fool" because he has more insight than many of the other characters. (Amanda)

-- One overall impression is that a current state, whatever it is, is only definable when put in contrast against other states. I.e., Lear knew of his highest position, which he had come to take for granted, only when he had degenerated enough to reveal it. He needed to become 100% dis-organized to see the value, worth, and state of organization itself. Many people have this problem.
     I disagree with Oates's opinion of a misogynistic aspect and do again with L.C. Knights, as well as Oates's favorable impression of Cordelia.
     . . . Life is imperfect, indeed. Time itself can be interpreted as the absence of perfection, just as once an equation is solved, it becomes static, timeless. Conflict, suffering, and strife are as necessary to existence as are pleasure, harmony, and peace. Each is the way of existence in a conscious mind.
     The use of the Fool in Lear, like Tiresius in Oedipus, provides a character with a god's eye view--someone sentient, observant, but not with anything directly at stake in the action . . . to provide a constant, a guide of sorts, against the variations swirling both above and below the plane of reality. (Steve)

-- In the beginning of this play, Lear's disposition is much like that of Regan and Goneril: they will do whatever it takes for their will to succeed. Lear is as willing to listen to lies as his oldest daughters are to tell them. After the storm and his fall from grace, Lear's disposition is much more like that of Cordelia: honest and humble. I think the daughters parallel the journey from the old to the new Lear. (Bretlan)

-- In King Lear, France gains Cordelia's hand when Lear disowns her. France speaks of noble things such that the audience gains a great respect for him. For instance, he accepts Cordelia even though now she is a nobody. Personally I believe this to be an act. France lets Cordelia go the first chance he gets, knowing darn well that he likely won't see her again. I believe that France's plan all along is to aggravate Lear and this kingdom (i.e., Lear's daughters' kingdom). France cares nothing for Cordelia really but is using her as a pawn in the France and England rivalry. After his first attempt fails to upset England, he sends Cordelia in with the hopes she will incite aggression. (James)

-- On anti-feminist attitude: any correlation with the absence of a maternal figure?
    On Cordelia, declaring herself as a self: she is being a human being in the truest sense, using her rationality and will to act against , rather than in accordance with, the "human nature" as represented here in her sisters' greed and hedonism.
     On Lear feeling the "continuity of humanity" (Greer): this does not agree with the concept of the Great Chain of Being. Here , his actions suggest that breaking down of the hierarchy--equality in men--will lead to a peaceful resolution.
     Shakespeare's numerous elements:
-reaching every corner of the human mind--emotions/experience;
-he tries to evoke a reaction from every part of us; therefore I am not at all surprised by the next example--Bear Gardens--for people to release the overwhelming emotional state he has induced in them. . . . (Amber)

English 2100H is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
University Hall 297D
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912-921-5991
e-mail: nordquist@mail.com

17 September 2002

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