Things to Consider:

• Rulers
• Comparison to Earlier Figures:
• Gilgamesh
• Agamemnon
• Fathers and Children
• Comparison to Earlier Figures:
• Priam
• Sundiata
• Sexuality
• Poetic Justice
• Madness & Blindness
• Compare to Oedipus
• Literary Terms:
• tragedy: a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror.
• hamartia:  tragic flaw; a flaw in character that brings about the downfall of the hero of a tragedy.
• hubris:  exaggerated pride or self-confidence.
• anagnorisis:  the point in the plot especially of a tragedy at which the protagonist recognizes his or her or some other character's true identity or discovers the true nature of his or her own situation.
• peripeteia: a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work.

• Connections can be drawn to Cinderella
• 1681 adaptation of Lear set standard until 1838
• removed Fool
• allowed Lear to reassume throne
• had Edgar marry Cordelia
• Like Iago in Othello, Edmund is "malignantly evil simply because the evil that is in the universe must find a human form through which to express itself" (Bevington 1168).
• Re: Fool: "Beneath his seemingly innocent jibes . . . are plain warnings of the looming disaster Lear blindly refuses to acknowledge" (1170).
• Christian belief: "One [i.e. Lear, Cordelia] must lose the world to win a better world" (1170).
• "Enlightenment comes only through suffering" (1171).

Homework Questions: (See Q's for Part Two )

• According to the text, how did the invention of the printing press and the discovery of gunpowder make class distinctions "less noticeable" (412)?

• According to European dramatists, what is a tragic hero?

Act One (See interesting essay on this Act ):

• Why is Lear dividing up his kingdom?
• How do the daughters' professions of love in Act One, Scene One compare to the sentiments expressed in Shakespeare's sonnets 18 and 130?

• Why does the King of France agree to marry Cordelia?

• Explain Edmund's discussion of fortune (1.2.106-18).

• Why does Edgar adopt the persona of Poor Tom O' Bedlam?

• Explain:  "To willful men /The injuries that they themselves procure / Must be their schoolmasters" (2.4.329-31).

• Explain: "I am a man / More sinned against than sinning" (3.2.58-59).

• Why does Lear tear off his clothes?  What might this act symbolize?

• What is a "heliocentric theory of the cosmos"(412)?
• What two inventions dominated this period?
• Who were the two major figures of the Protestant Reformation?

• What is ascetism?

• Why does Lear refer to himself as "we"?

• Is Cordelia's speech (1.1.92-101) disrespectful? Explain.

• Why does Lear banish Kent?

• Explain:  "Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides, / Who cover faults, at last shame them derides" (1.1.301-2).

• What is the message found in Edgar's "letter" to Edmund?

• How does Goneril's speech (1.3.14-22) compare to the sentiments found in Edmund's letter?

• Why does Lear strike Oswald?
• Why does Kent strike Oswald?

• For what does the Fool criticize Lear (1.4.118-25)?

• Why does Lear curse Goneril?

• Why does Edmund wound himself?

• Why does Kent attack Oswald again?

• Why do Goneril and Regan reduce the number of Lear's knights to whom they will offer lodgings during his visit?

• What news is Kent telling the gentleman about France?

• Why does Lear incite the storm to blow harder?

• Explain:  "My wits begin to turn" (3.2.68).

• Of what does Edmund accuse his brother in Act Three, Scene Five?

• What news does Gloucester bring to Kent?

• Explain:  "He childed while I fathered"(3.5.105).

• Why do Regan and Cornwall suspect Gloucester of treason?

• Why does Goneril kill her servant?

• Explain: "I stumbled when I saw" (4.1.21).

• Explain: "As flies to wanton boys, are we to th' gods" (4.1.41).  Also, what literary technique is being used here?

• Explain:  "Proper deformity seems not in the fiend / So horrid as in woman" (4.2.67-8).

• Explain:  "This shows you are above, / You justicers, that these our nether crimes / So speedily can venge" (4.2.88-90).

• Explain:  "The stars above us, govern our conditions" (4.3.36).  Does Kent's claim contradict Albany's belief in 4.2.88-90?

• Explain:  "No blown ambition doth our arms incite, / But love, dear love, and our aged father's right"(4.4.29-30).

• Explain:  "But to the girdle do the gods inherit, / Beneath is all the fiend's" (4.6.137-38).

• Explain: "Plate sin with gold, / And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks"(4.6.172-73).

• Explain: "Men / Are as the time is" (5.1.33-34).

• Is Cordelia in fact dead?  Explain Lear's final speech.

• Why is Albany so upset?

• Explain:  "It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out, / To let him live" 4.5.11-12).
• What does Regan suggest about Goneril and Edmund?

• Why does Edgar begin to speak more clearly?

• With which sister does Edmund want to be?  Explain.

• What happens to Goneril and Regan?

• What happens to Cordelia?

• Is Lear a tragic hero?
• Is Justice served in this play?
• What is the relationship between god(s) and humans in this play?  Many different perspectives are presented by different characters. Which view seems most accurate? See 433 (1.2.106-18), 460 (2.4.329-31), 477 (4.1.41), 480 (4.2.88-90), and 481 (4.3.36).
• Why does Edmund behave the way he does?  Are his actions justified?
• Why do Regan and Goneril act the way they do? Are their actions justified?
• Is Cordelia justified in waging war against England?
• What function does the Fool serve in this play?