Lear critics

Danby - 1

“No medieval devil ever bounced on strange with a more scandalous self-announcement”

Clayman-Pye

“This speech has the potential to be a real rallying cry for justice and equality”

Heilman - 1

Lear is “wholly taken in by the meaningless abstractions and hyperboles of G+R”

Orwell - 1

“[The Fool is] like a trickle of sanity running through the play”

Heilman - 2

“He insists upon the untenable position that love can be measured”

Faber - 1

“Goneril is devoid of innocence”

Grier - 1

“In Act 3 we see the gradual emergence of Lear’s soul”

Johnson - 1

“A transformer understanding within Lear”

Heilman - 1

“The old men themselves come to insight through suffering”

Kermode - 1

“Suffering is the consequence of a human tendency to evil, as inflicted on the good by the bad”

Shapiro - 1

“The idea of nothing is central to the play … insistent and apocalyptic, negativity becoming a recurring drumbeat”

Bloom - 1

Lear “cares more for his ego than for his daughters”

Bradley - 1

“Lear causes his own tragedy in his fatal flaw - unthinking anger”

Neil - 1

Cordelia [is] … a paragon of virtue and integrity in a world of corruption and deceit”

Shupack

Cordelia’s death “denies the necessity of a just natural order”

Woods

“If madness involves a loss of self as identity becomes incoherent, Edgar’s disguise is a form of madness”

Johnson

“The wicked prosper and the virtuous miscarry”

Walton

“The young deceive the old and the old deceive themselves”

Hopkins

Cordelia is “an innocent victim who is clearly destined for Heaven”