King Lear 5.2 Quotes

‘Alarum from within’

Stage direction— encroaching sense of danger and conflict

‘Alarum and retreat within’

Stage direction— the audience may have thought at this point that there is hope in the play, however here we see that evil has won the battle (a brutally sharp shift, which is Shakespeare highlighting the fact this is a tragedy)

‘King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta’en’

Edgar— filling the audience in on what has happened to Lear and Cordelia, and creating a sense of imminent doom.

‘a man may rot even here’, ‘ripeness is all’

Gloucester then Edgar— he is almost compared to a rotting fruit, and then Edgar uses imagery of health and life to try to convince Gloucester again that his life is worthwhile