Feminism/ women

• ‘Cordelia’s saving love… works in the action less as a redemption for womankind than as an example of patriarchy restored.‘ - McLuskie.

• ‘The only source of love, power, and authority is the father‘ - Kahn describing Gloucester and Lear.

• ‘the failure of a father’s power to command love in a patriarchal world‘ - Kahn.

• ‘opening scene is a variant of the wedding ceremony‘ - Kahn.

• ‘surender of Cordelia as a daughter-wife … awakens a deeper emotional need in Lear: the need for Cordelia as a daughter-mother.‘ - Kahn.

• ‘Lear’s madness is essentially his rage at being deprived of the maternal presence‘ - Kahn.

• ‘women are tainted, rather then empowered as men as, by their sexual capacities.‘ - Kahn.

• ‘Shakespeare as well as his hero must dredge up everything horrible that might be imagined of women and denounce it before he can confront the good woman‘ - Kahn.

• ‘have to abandon the fantasy that one good woman like Cordelia can triumph over or negate her evil counterparts,‘ - Kahn.

• ‘Those characters which have little or nothing to do with women… survive‘ - Whittier.

• ‘Two elder sisters justifiably embittered‘ - Linley.

Tragedy

• ‘it is the central figure’s own weakness that precipitate his fall.‘ - Linley.

• ‘is the story of his progress from being king to being a man‘ - Kettle.

Division

• Kettle argues that those who accept the old order represent feudal ideas, and the new people represent a bourgeoisie outlook.

  • This can be shown through their descriptions of nature:

    • Lear’s associates describing it as similar to Natural Law, with patriarchy and monarchy being natural.

    • Edmund sees it as the opposite of custom, tradition and order, representing humans without rule.

• ‘Edgar is not really changed by being Tom, though the play is‘. - Kettle. Lear and Gloucester change to recognise the plight of the poor, while Edgar does nothing of the sort.

• ‘In King Lear, the crown is merely property‘ - Tennenhouse. The crown does not represent anything of royalty, but of property.

• Tennenhouse argues that Lear divides his powers and therefore pits them against one another:

  • He renounces his role as pater familias (head of the family) by abandoning Cordelia with no dowry.

  • Overturns fealty by banishing Kent.

  • He denies the metaphysics of the body politic and the king’s blood by determining the inheritance himself, ignoring primogeniture.

  • This is shown by the unruliness of his retinue - their expected roles have been overturned.

    • This then threatens Goneril as it threatens this retinue may support Lear over her - the real monarch.

  • This also allows disruption of the natural state of things, bastards dispossessing legitimates, women ruling men, daughters rule their fathers.

• ‘as soon as Lear cancels out primogeniture, Gloucester finds Edgar’s malevolence plausible‘ - Tennenhouse.

  • This is because patriarchal beliefs, which includes legitimacy, have been overturned.

Nature of the play

• Ryan argues that most critics believe pain to be natural and unavoidable - which is incorrect.

  • ‘denying their depiction of reality as a changing social process made …. by men and women‘

  • He argues the true upset of tragedies is the contrast between what men and women want to be, and what society forces them to be.

  • ‘indefensible subjection of men and women to the injustices of a stratified society.‘

• Bradley argued the play would be aptly renamed ‘The Redemption of King Lear‘.

• ‘text ultimately urges us to reject both the waning and the waxing views it explores‘ - Ryan.

  • Instead, argues the text supports equality.

• ‘to identify physically and emotionally with the ‘houseless poverty‘‘ - Ryan, referring to Lear.

  • ‘aligning itself instead with the mad, the blind, the beggarded‘ - Ryan.

• ‘making fools and madmen the vehicle of unpopular truths‘ - Muir.

Productions

Doran 2016

• In 1.1, Lear is seated up high, linking to the divine right of Kings.

• It has a strong Pagan setting, using costumes, chanting and drums.

  • There is a giant copper disc below Lear’s throne, indicating the sun God.

  • Lear physically reaches to the Gods for power, prayers and curses.

• Cordelia is wearing white, and has a passive tone showing her innocence.

  • In 1.1 she wears a veil, perhaps linking to Kahn’s idea that 1.1 can be seen as a variant of the wedding ceremony.

• Sisters are shown as together until the love test is initiated, perhaps suggesting Lear’s love test is what split them about.

  • They are portrayed as genuinely caring for Cordelia.

• Gloucester is presented as angrier, and carries a staff with a sun, showing his religious beliefs.

• Edgar is presented as unserious.

• Knights are presented as extremely loud, noisy and riotous, as Goneril claims.

Nunn 2007

• Lear sits low, and seems old already.

• Flattery test is shown to shock the court.

• The fool is hanged on stage.

• Cordelia is shown as more rebellious and challenging, but still wears white.

• Set in Ruritania, which is 1700-1800s fictional Europe.

• Edgar’s asking for forgiveness is portrayed as comedic.

Noble 1993

• A giant map covers the stage floor in 1.1.

Original productions

• Original performances showed King Lear sitting in a chair in 4.7, but more modern performances show him on a couch or a bed.

  • The sitting in a chair could be said to mirror Lear sitting on his throne in act one, showing his transformation.

Assorted productions

• One play showed the Fool and Cordelia head’s linked by a hangman’s noose.

  • This linkage between them is important - as when one appears the other disappears, suggesting they serve the same purpose to Lear - his child and advisor.

Blindness

• Haque argues that moral blindness is the key theme of the play, and the cause of Lear’s madness.