King Lear AO5 Critics

who are the 3 feminist critics?

• kathleen mcluskie

• coppelia kahn

• carol rutter

what is kathleen mcluskie’s feminist criticism of king lear?

wrote ‘the patriarchal bard’ (1985)

sees shakespeare’s vision as conventional and conservative + portrayal of female characters as misogynistic

what is coppelia kahn feminist criticism of king lear?

• wrote ‘the absent mother in king lear’

• says Lear’s progress by the end of the play was “an acceptance of the woman in himself”

give some quotes from coppelia kahn to support her feminist criticism.

Lear is a “tragedy of masculinity”

Lear spells out the personal and collective price paid by a culture that is dedicated to “repressing the vulnerability, dependency, and capability for feeling which are called feminine”

what is carol rutter’s feminist criticism of king lear?

between pro-feminist and misogynistic perception → women and womanly attributes are perceived as both good and bad

‘lear unmanned himself’ when cordelia refuses to ‘mother his boyhood’ (love test)

how would a psychosexual feminist theory see lear?

• in an oedipal/freudian way → doesn’t want to give cordelia up to a virile man as that removes some of his authority over her

• wants her all to himself = doesn’t minimise his won masculinity and virility by diluting it and handing her over to another man

• giving her away would exacerbate his old age + lack of virility

who are the 3 existentialist/nihilist critics?

• w. r. elton

• jan kott

• david kastan

what is david kastan’s criticism of lear?

“directly questioning the world produces no more satifying responses”

says there are no true answers/lack of meaning for the suffering in the play

what is elton’s existentialist criticism of lear?

he refuses the popular consolation of significance in suffering

give a quote from elton describing his existentialist criticism.

argues that the tragedy was not a drama of meaningful suffering and the last act “shatters, more violently than an earlier apostasy might have done, the foundation of faith itself”

what does jan kott’s existentialist criticism say?

• draws connections to the contemporary theatre of the absurd (e.g. samuel beckett’s ‘waiting for godot’)

• “lear emerges as a ‘waiting for godot’ type drama […] where absurdist humour, violence, abjection, and grim bonding merely use up the time between the plays opening and close”

• kott’s theory is ahistorical = paints human condition and futility as universally and eternally felt

who are the 2 marxist critics of king lear?

• arnold kettle

• margot heineman

what would a marxist criticism of king lear be?

would consider it a reflection of the political and economic structures of society in which it was written

= sees lear as a feudal lord

what does the marxist critic arnold kettle say about king lear?

focuses on the evolution of the kings character and position “from king to man”

what is the marxist critic margot heineman’s argument?

shift in social order - lears abdication mirrors the instability of feudal society in decline

sees the play as having “demystifying” potential for audiences to observe the challenges to the divine-absolutist viewpoint of monarchy

give a quote where arnold kettle describes how lear’s new humanity is gained.

by “exposing himself to what wretches feel”

who are the 4 christian parable critics of king lear?

• g. wilson knight

• a.c. bradley

• susan snyder

• jessica vanden berg

what does jessica vanden berg argue in her reading?

there is a parallel between cordelia and christ - her death being necessary so lear accepts her mercy and receives salvation

use AO3 of the inverted pieta to compliment this reading

what is susan snyder’s argument?

wrote ‘king lear and the prodigal son’

unresolved narrative of the prodigal son with goneril and regan

reverse prodigal son with lear and cordelia (except lear is still punished for his greed)

what does a.c. bradley think about shakespeares ‘exposition of the effect of suffering in…’

“…reviving the greatness or eliciting the sweetness of Lear’s nature”

what does a.c. bradley chiefly argue in his essay ‘shakespearean tragedy’? give one key quote.

that shakespeare changes the traditional form of tragedies with the death’s of both good and evil

shakespeare focuses on a character of high rank who undergoes a reversal of fortune

“when he falls from the height of earthly greatness to the dust, his fall produces a sense of contrast, of the powerlessness of man, and of the omnipotence [of Fortune]”

what two books did knight say lear was like ‘rolled into one’?

dante’s ‘purgatorio’ and the ‘book of job’

what does knight describe edgar as?

a job-like figure who reminds his father, despite the pagan setting, that “men must endure” patient suffering for a higher reward → fundamental belief of the christian doctrine

who are the 2 new historicist critics?

• leonard tennenhouse

• leah marcus

what does new historicist criticism of king lear say?

rather than finding a universality in the play’s core, it seeks to find meaning of the play in its own historical period

what does orwell argue?

the fool is like a “trickle of sanity” running through the play