King Lear Act 5 Quotes

‘Enter with drum and colours’

Stage direction— gives the audience a sense of the oncoming battle and climax of the play

‘I had rather lose the battle than that sister should loosen him and me’

Goneril— paralleled speeches of G + R, expressing antagonism of her sister— internal conflict. There is a hatred developing between them and a domestic, personal clash.

‘To both these sisters I have sworn my love, each jealous of the other as the stung are of the adder’

Edmund— he is catalysing the conflict between the two sisters, and the idea of poison foreshadows the deaths of Regan and Goneril.

‘As for the mercy which he intends to Lear and Cordelia….they within our state power shall never see his pardon’

Edmund— once again reinforcing is evil nature. The word ‘our’ is almost as if he is using the royal we, and is about to take power, holding the audience in suspense and creating a climax to the tragic outcome.

‘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

‘Edmund, Lear and Cordelia as prisoners’

Stage direction— the order represents that evil has won and that chaos has ensued. There is a huge shift in fortune for the good characters

‘We two along will sing like birds i’the cage’

Lear— this demonstrates that he doesn’t care that they are imprisoned and only that they are together.

‘these sisters’

Cordelia— she is detaching Regan and Goneril from her and Lear— dysfunctional family

‘we’ll see ‘em starved first’

Lear— he is being brave and resolute

‘it’

Edmund + Captain— this is used a lot, alluding to the the murder of Lear and Cordelia in prison, heightens tragic inevitability

‘to be tender minded does not become a sword’

Edmund— not acknowledging any moral code

‘e shall find their merits in our safety’

Albany— he wants to make sure Lear and Cordelia are safe, but it is too late

‘I hold you but a subject of this war, not as a brother’

Albany— he does not see Edmund as an equal nor an ally

‘Lady, I am not well’

Regan— she is feeling unwell and has been poisoned by Goneril, ultimate show of cruelty between the sisters.

‘Mean you to enjoy him then?’

Goneril— she knows that Regan will die, so this is sarcastic

‘if you will marry, make your love to me, my lady is bespoke’

Albany— saying Regan should marry him as Goneril is already betrothed

‘Enter Edgar armed’

Stage direction— Edgar is presented as a force of good and as heroic as he enters to defeat evil (however ultimately because this is a tragedy it is too late’. Theatrical moment enhances this perception of Edgar.

‘O know my name is lost’

Edgar— reminiscent of ‘Edgar I nothing am’, 2.2, his identity is lost but is eventually restored. He won’t reveal his identity until the duel is won and he is restored as Edgar

‘In wisdom I should ask thy name’

Edmund— he needs to know that who he is fighting is of equal status, which is ironic

‘Edmund falls’

Stage direction— the battle is quick, and good has won. This provides a potential ending to the play, in which the audience is fooled into thinking everything will be alright

‘shut your mouth, dame’

Albany— absolute conflict between the married couple

‘the laws are mine, not thine, who can arraign me for’t?’

Goneril— the height of her abuse of power, saying the laws are hers and that she will never be punished (therefore justice will never be served)

‘the gods are just and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us’

Edgar— he is clinging on to the idea of divine justice, but does the audience think they are just?’

‘the wheel has come full circle’

Edmund— he was successful in his goals and now lays dying— idea of the wheel of fortune

‘O that my heart would burst!’ ‘burst smilingly’

Edgar— uncomfortable image of bursting and Gloucester’s death

‘met I my father with his bleeding rings’

Edgar— gruesome image of Gloucester’s eyeless sockets

‘his flawed heart’

Edgar— could be saying that there are cracks in it, and it will break, or he means an error

‘burst smilingly’

Edgar— he is describing Gloucester’s death, saying he felt joy because he knows it is Edgar but grief because he didn’t previously

‘the strings of life began to crack

Edgar— talking about Kent, and that the end of his life is near

‘Enter gentleman with a bloody knife’

Stage direction— death of Goneril and Regan. First possible ending to the play, and delaying telling the audience who is dead.

‘this judgement of the heavens’

Albany— still linking suffering to the divine justice of the gods. Saying they died as a consequence of their own actions

‘yet Edmund was loved’

Edmund— sense of poignancy and that he never felt loved

‘Nay, send in time’

Edmund— he tries to do something good before he dies, audience has hope for a second, however it is too late

‘O you are men of stones’

Lear— wants people to share his grief, saying they are without feelings

‘she’s dead as earth’

Lear— monosyllabic, shocking, reinforces to the audience the tragedy

‘lend me a looking glass’

Lear— hope that Cordelia has survived. another way of elongating the end of the play. Sight and perception, Lear misunderstands

‘is this the promised end?’

Kent— saying is this the end of the world— Lear wanted the world to end with his because of his suffering

‘This feather stirs, she lives'; if it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows’

Lear— he is not allowed redemption

‘I might have saved her, now she’s gone for ever’

Lear— poignant

‘I’ll see that straight’

Lear— there is no redemption for Kent, as with Lear, as he only cares about Cordelia

‘And my poor fool is hanged’

Lear— talking about Cordelia, but recalls the Fool. It shows the vulnerability and innocence of Cordelia

‘Look there’

Lear— he dies thinking his daughter is alive and is safe, paralleled with Gloucester

‘Vex not his ghost, o let him pass’

Kent— saying Lear has suffered enough. All of the Lears are now dead of stage

‘Rule in this realm and the gored state sustain’ ‘twain’

Albany— he is trying to keep things together

‘Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say’

Edgar— last lines of the play, saying we should speak truth to power, idea of good service