King Lear FRQ3 Flashcards

This is Lear's ending sentence of the curse he is laying on Goneril and her fertility after their fight. Lear is saying very similar things as above: it is more painful to deal with negative personality traits-like ingratitude-from his own child than a serpent's tooth. This is essentially the same as the one above which is that parents facing hurt from their children is harder than from something like a serpent. Snakes are notoriously 'bad' or 'backstabbing,' often used as symbols of betrayal and disloyalty, evilness, and venomous behavior. It is to be expected and even though deadly is less painful than a parent's child being ungrateful.
"Shows the emotional pain he feels towards his daughters. He realizes how greedy his daughters truly are and how everything they said to him about loving him was just a lie to get land and a title."

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it isTo have a thankless child!
Lear, 1.4.302-03

Kent is begging Lear to come in from the storm that not even wild animals face by offering a shed nearby that has shelter and protection. Lear, formerly King Lear, is used to the comforts and protection of castles and guards. However, without these things he is seeing how needing something in dire situations such as shelter in a storm can make something like a dingy shed he would once see as 'vile' and worthless now seem precious. Even the most common and low-level objects have true authentic value depending on the eye of the beholder. When circumstances shift from wants to needs, objects' values change based on their necessity. Ex. shoes, something everyone takes for granted, have a new invaluable property to someone walking through hot roads during the summer or something like this. Everything has value that humans are blind to, and their true value is revealed through the nature of necessity.

The art of our necessities is strange,And can make vile things precious.
Lear, 3.2.76-7

Gloucester had recently been blinded by Cornwall after staying loyal to the king and not revealing his location. He now feels as though he never had a 'way,' meaning he was living life with no direction and or proper sight. He does not want eyes anymore because when he had them they did not do him any good. When he had eyes he fumbled and messed up things because he was more blind then than he is now. Eyesight can be blinding to the truth. Being able to see is often a hindrance to the actual truths of the world. Physical blindness eliminates the blindness caused by being able to see and therefore gives a new sense of sight and clarity.

I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;I stumbled when I saw:
Gloucester, 4.1.19-20

Edmund is responding to Albany and says that he has sent Cordelia and Lear to a retention center until further notice when they can decide what to do. For right now, they are dealing with their own pain as in battle they have lost friends. Even in victories, the victors have injuries and must endure the pain of the battle. Nothing is completely good. Everything has flaws. With victory comes battle scars. Friends are lost in trials. Even in the highest of moments in life come downsides and scars that formed in the process of the climb. This is a juxtaposition with the previous scene where even in hopeless times, there is hope.

The friend hath lost his friend,
And the best quarrels in the heat are cursed
By those that feel their sharpness.
Edmund, 5.3.63-65

Lear's advisor, the Earl of Kent, tries to do his job and tell Lear he's being stupid in punishing Cordelia, but Lear, in his anger, tries to warn him to back off. (Loyalty, injustice, kingship)
The king's inability to take feedback from his advisors cripples his judgment. He is deluded into seeing himself as way more powerful than he is.

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
Lear, 1.1.136

-identity
"Misery is what eventually strips Lear from his comfort of illusions making him see the real world. This is foreshadows Lear's descent to madness but achieves his insights on human nature."
Kent, disguised as Caius, after getting into a fight with Oswald and put into wooden stockings as punishment by Cornwall and Regan, reflects on his situation and the overall circumstances in which they are engulfed by. Kent, feeling somewhat hopeless and defeated, is saying that no one sees and experiences miracles but the miserable. No one other than people truly miserable can see, hope for, and have miracles. This appears in two senses: 1) The only people who experience miracles are the ones who need them because of their dire situations; 2) Only miserable people can recognize the miracles that appear to them. Either way, misery and suffering are keys to having/seeing miracles.

Nothing almost sees miracles
But misery.
Kent, 2.2.180-81

Same as above, Regan and Goneril just essentially took away all of his knights and are curious why he needs them. He says that they are what keeps him human, having possesions or power, that even though useless is above what is needed. He know questions the powers above why this is happening to him.
Gods and Men
Despite fate and the gods' will, a strong man refuses to go down without a fight.

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,As full of grief as age; wretched in both!If it be you that stir these daughters' heartsAgainst their father, fool me not so muchTo bear it tamely;
Lear, 2.4.314-18

Lear's fool, who is able to mock and tease the king freely as he sees him as familial-hence being called nuncle. Here he is mocking and reprimanding Lear for giving up his crown, saying he made his daughters his mothers and gave them a rod for them to spank him with. The Fool is saying that Lear is giving his daughters all his authority over him and now they have the power to chastise him. Life is a kill or be killed environment, so when you have power do not give it away to others, especially in the position to reverse that power back onto you. Lear has given away everything that makes himself important and now is left vulnerable to fortune and others mercy/behavior.

I have used it, nuncle, e'er since thou mad'st thy daughters thy mothers. For when thou gav'st them the rod and put'st down thine own breeches...
Fool, 1.4.176-78

The Fool is criticizing Lear for getting old, aging, and losing his abilities and youthful strength, in mind, body, and position, before becoming wise. The Fool is really saying that Lear is acting foolishly and lacks the strength to fix it or reestablish himself as king, as well as being affected by old age, and this would not be the case if he got wise before this. Wisdom leads to making better, more conscious decisions, whereas age brings the weakening of mind, body, and power. Wisdom is an intelligence acquired throughout life experience and cannot be battled (Lear could protect himself and not make decisions that put himself in vulnerable positions). Aging without wisdom leads to unconscious and jeopardizing foolishness.

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
Fool, 1.5.44

After Regan says that he does not need any companions or guards attending to him he responds saying even beggars have more than they need, something they do not need. Without such things a man's life is no better than a beasts, his life is unfulfilling and cheap. There is always more than what is needed to get by, that is human nature. Even the poorest of people are rich in something, have something they do not need-it is what gives humans lives and separation from animals. Humans are defined by their ability to have more than they need.

O, reason not the need! Our basest beggarsAre in the poorest thing superfluous:Allow not nature more than nature needs,Man's life is cheap as beast's.
Lear, 2.4.305-08

Lear is saying that he has had more wrong done against him than he has done to others. He is more sinned against than he has sinned towards other people, in other words meaning he has faced more hurt and wrongness from others than he has put out into the world. There is an imbalance between his actions and his treatment. Lear admits wrongdoings and flaws in himself, but contradicts this by saying he however has not wronged badly enough to warrant how he is being treated. There is a karmic balance that should be upheld. This questions the universal theme of balance, consequence of actions, and fairness. Life is unfair; the universe is unfair; people are unfair. There is a disjointed system in life between action and consequence. People face more hurt than they cause.

I am a man,More sinn'd against than sinning.
Lear, 3.2.62-3

Lear has officially become mad and sees Poor Tom (Edgar) as a sophisticated man who has shed the rules of society to embrace what man is: bare and naked as animals are; self-reliant and independent from the world. Humans in their natural 'God given' form without having accommodations or comforts civilization as brought are animals. Humans' truest form is naked and untouched or aided by invention and comfort.

unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
Lear, 3.4.113-15

Poor Tom (Edgar) is seeing his dad (Gloucester) and feeling despondent and hopeless about the world and his situation feels that things may still get worse. It was not the worst, or the lowest, if he could still say that this is the worst. He can still say this is the worst so it is not the worst yet. If one can still recognize that this could be the worst, it is not the worst yet. Everything will work out in the end and if it's not working out it's not the end. The true worst would not be recognized for that is how bad the worst is.

And worse I may be yet: the worst is not,So long as we can say, "This is the worst."
Edgar, 4.1.30-31

After being captured by the British, Cordelia and Lear are being guarded/imprisoned. Lear desperately imagines a fictional world where he and Cordelia can be happy and experience the outside world from within a cage and never be observed. They will 'sing like birds' in their prison. Lear also feels in debt to Cordelia and when she asks him for something he will ask her for her forgiveness; he owes her. Even within the darkest of times there is always hope for a better outcome. Humans are inclined to be optimistic and hopeful by nature even when looking into the eyes of disparity and hopelessness (Pandora's box, all that humans have is hope). Hope is what keeps people looking forward and not giving up in the most dismal of times.

Come, let's away to prison;We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,And ask of thee forgiveness:
Lear, 5.3.9-12