king lear critics

'Goneril and Regan are like hyenas in lipstick'

Janette Winterton

'Cordelia refuses to quantify her love for Lear in purpose to irritate her father'

Leo Tolstoy

Lear 'cares more for his ego than for his daughters'

Harold Bloom 2

'Under the fine clothes there is nothing but greed and lust'

Frank Kermode 1

'There is no supernatural justice - only human natural justice'

Goldberg

'The world came out of nothing'

Genesis

'For those who believe that divine justice somehow prevails in this world, King Lear ought to be offensive'

Harold Bloom

'Under his clothes, the King is equal to the beggar'

Sun

'The play 'King Lear' is monstrously unjust'

A. C. Bradley

'Of course, is the great secret of a successful fool - that he is no fool at all.'

Issac Asamov

'King Lear is representative of 'not ancient Britain, but humanity, not England, but the World'

G. Knight

'human beings are entirely responsible for their own actions... the tragedy is absolute'

Kenneth Muir

'the gods are at best callously just... at worst sadistically vindictive'

Dollimore

'Cordelia is 'defined as a Christ-like figure, therefore her downfall is a direct representation of a God-less society'

Elton

Goneril and Regan are 'personifications of ingratitude'

Hudson

'One must be poor to be rich, a fool to be wise and blind to see'

Hare

'The love [the king] seeks is not the sort that can be offered in formal or subservient expressions, and he therefore rejects the love of Cordelia and Kent.'

Frank Kermode 2

'the uncertainty is the point'

David Scott Kastan

'no play at the end of which the hero remains alive is, in the full Shakespearean sense, a tragedy'

A. C. Bradley 2

'Both Lear and Hamlet can be privileged in madness to say things- Hamlet about the corruption of human nature, and Lear about the corruption of the Jacobean social system'

Maynard Mack

'Lear-as-Mary staggering onto the stage, arms full of Cordelia-as-Christ'

Carol Rutter

'Having learned his language to survive his love test, [Goneril and Regan] now assume the male voice, the male space that Lear abandons'

Carol Rutter

'there is no convincing re-assertion of the moral and social order at the end'

Fintan O'Toole

Gloucester's blindness 'restores the mood of despair and horror'

Frank Kermode 3

Marxist Criticism

• King Lear critiques class struggle, with Lear’s descent into madness reflecting the fragility of monarchy and feudal power.

• The suffering of the lower classes, particularly through characters like the Fool and Edgar (disguised as Poor Tom), highlights the exploitation and neglect of the poor.

• The redistribution of power at the end (with Edmund, a self-made villain, briefly rising) could be seen as a critique of inherited power structures.

Feminist Criticism

• Goneril and Regan’s villainization stems from their rejection of traditional feminine passivity, suggesting that powerful women are demonized.

• Cordelia’s silence at the start could reflect the societal expectation for women to be compliant, while her later defiance and loyalty present an alternative model of femininity.

• The play's treatment of women reinforces patriarchal structures—Goneril and Regan are punished for their ambition, and Cordelia, despite being morally superior, still dies.

Psychoanalytic Criticism

• Lear’s descent into madness represents a psychological breakdown linked to his inability to accept aging and the loss of power.

• The storm can be seen as an externalization of Lear’s inner turmoil—his mind breaking down as the natural world reflects his chaos.

• Edmund, as an illegitimate son, could be analyzed through Freud’s Oedipus complex—his resentment toward his father Gloucester manifests in his desire to rise above his legitimate brother.

New Historicist Criticism

• King Lear reflects anxieties about monarchy and succession, particularly relevant to Shakespeare’s time under James I, who faced concerns over the future of England’s leadership.

• The chaos of the play may mirror fears about the breakdown of social order following the death of a monarch.

• The portrayal of madness, suffering, and divine justice reflects Renaissance-era beliefs about the natural order and divine right.

Existentialist Criticism

• The play presents a bleak, nihilistic view of human existence, especially in its depiction of suffering and injustice.

• Gloucester’s line "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport" suggests a world without divine justice.

• Lear’s realization of his own folly could align with existentialist ideas of self-awareness and the absurdity of human suffering.

Woods

'The actor's naked flesh confronts the audience with the frailty of the human body. Through Lear's madness, and through Edgar's pretence of madness, the tragedy insists on a common humanity.'

Stephen Greenblatt

King Lear is "part of an intense and sustained struggle in late sixteenth- and early seven- teenth-century england to redefine the central values of society"

McLaughlin

"It is this loss of worth… and being able to do nothing about it that drives lear to the brink of madness"

Heilman

Lear's downfall due to "his failure to believe that king cannot be king without a crown"
The problem with Lear retaining "The name, and all the additions to a king" only and not having any responsibility

Sean McEvoy

Lear's anagnorisis - 'Lear has to be stripped of all his office and power before he can see through the ideology of kingship'

Tennenhouse
'King Lear' is about the dangers of not following the 'old ways'

Although critics point how Lear's abuse of power is a direct commentary on the vagaries of James I and his monarchy, who believed K.L shows the dangers of not following tradition?

Dollimore a New Historicist critic

King Lear is about 'power, property and inheritance' and Shakespeare is focussing on the effects of a 'catastrophic redistribution of power'.
Society is 'torn apart' bc of 'faulty ideological structure'.
For … K.L is a subversive, radical tragedy which questions the social injustices of the Jacobean status quo.

Stephen Greenblatt

"Edmund's rise is the inevitable triumph of cunning over legitimacy in a world where traditional values have crumbled."

Dunn

"The storm acts as a symbol of the last judgement…connotations of doomsday that would have reached a christian audience"

McCluskie, Feminist critic

We are forced to sympathise with Lear, the symbol for patriarchy, as victim of his cruel daughters' actions

Coppelia Kahn, Feminist

The play is about 'male anxiety' and Lear's inability to accept dependence on his daughters drives him mad.

W. B Yeats about the subplot and main plot

"Lear's shadow is in Gloucester"

A C Bradley

"Cordelia's silence is not a lack of expression but the most profound articulation of her love."

Heilman

"Wholly taken in by the meaningless hyperboles of G and R"

McLaughlin

"His misdirected life plans result from a neglected childhood and produce the same neurotic drive for personal power"

Stephen Greenblatt

"Lear's abdication sets the stage for the chaos that follows, showing the fragility of authority."

LaGreca

Kent may have been based on Peregrine Bertie, a Lord extremely loyal and patriotic to Elizabeth I, who also honoured good people who fell from power, like the Earl of Essex

Northrop Frye

"The natural world reflects the chaos within the kingdom and the human soul"

McLaughlin

G + R behaviour is a "masculine protest" and "refusal to accept the weakness of their feminine role", "determined to master the men in their lives and reduce them to inferior"

C. Halvorson

"The profound wisdom of Lear's fool enables him to expose the foolish deeds of those who inhabit the higher ranks of society."

Elton

Cordelia is "defined as a Christ-like figure, therefore her downfall is a direct representation of a God-less society"

Paul Delany - marxist comment on play

Paul Delany offers a Marxist interpetation, that the play is about a traditional feudal society, represented by Lear and his subjects, challenged by a more modern outlook, represented by Edmund, Goneril and Regan. This social change represents both progress and destruction.

Danby

G+R+Ed = greedy self-seeking capitalism
Lear + Cord are "representatives of an ideal community"

S. L. Goldberg

'There is no supernatural justice- only human natural justice'

Heilman

"He insists upon the untenable proposition that love can be measured"

Goldsmith

"The Fool is Lear's alter ego, his externalised conscience"

Muir

"Cordelia's love, like a silent prayer, is genuine and self-sacrificing."

Savvas

"By the end of the play, we have realized that there are no longer any frontiers between the wise and the ridiculous and between the sane and the insane”

Shapiro

"The idea of nothing is central to the play…. it becomes a recurring drum beat"

Heilman

"The old men themselves come to insight through suffering"

Hotson

Shakespeare's Fool is a "World Wisely Fool"