Intro to King Lear Notes

Historical Context - Elizabethan England

  • Queen Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

  • Queen of England for 45 years - the Elizabethan Age

  • A time of great achievement:

    • English sailors went around the world and discovered many things

    • The country became rich. Famous for writers and musicians.

    • Elizabeth supported the arts and helped Shakespeare’s career

  • Queen Elizabeth was Shakespeare’s patron

    • playwright = poor, they needed sponsors to donate funds to produce plays

    • In order to gain the queen’s favor, Shakespeare wrote plays that reflected her interests and family history

  • Queen Elizabeth dies in 1603 without a husband or any legitimate heir

  • Elizabeth’s death has likely caused Shakespeare grief, but he also used the political climate as an inspiration for Lear

  • After hear death, England was divided and confused on who would take the throne.

  • James VI from Scotland became king (James I) and attempted to fill the very large shoes by the Queen (James’ mother was Mary Queen of Scots).

  • While James was a competent king (ruled for 22 years), his son, Charles, led Britain into a civil war only 30 years after the composition of Lear (first printed in 1608).

  • Shakespeare may have been predicting the political difficulties Britain would be facing in the near future.

What was the political situation in England Like at the Time Shakespeare Lived?

  • The nature of power is a central theme in many of Shakespeare’s plays, and the times in which he lived were full of political intrigue.

  • At the time that King Lear was written circa 1605, King James I had come from Scotland to take the throne and he believed in the “divine right of kings”

    • the king’s word on earth = God’s voice from heaven

    • therefore his decisions could not be questioned.

  • There was much argument whether Scotland should be taken under England’s government or remain a separate state.

  • Shakespeare named two of the character in King Lear after King James’ sons: the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cornwall.

  • The play is set in pre-Christian times, but we can see that Shakespeare was reflecting the concerns of his time

Elizabethan World View of Order and Disorder

  • Elizabethans believed in an absolutely ordered universe in which all things could be clearly ranked in order of superiority.

  • Corresponded with their beliefs, political system, and limited scientific understanding

  • The Chain of Being:

    • God - the most superior; no order; chaos - the least

    • God

    • Angel

    • Man

    • Animals

    • Plants

    • Inorganic Matter

    • Chaos

  • Man was also subdivided and ranked:

    • King/Queen

    • Nobility

    • Gentleman

    • Poor

How was “Family” Thought of in Shakespeare’s Time?

  • the family was seen as the bedrock of society

  • The husband and father was seen as the unopposed head of the family; like how the king was the absolute ruler of the country

  • Wives and children were to give unquestioning and absolute obedience to the male head of the family, and the many limits on their legal and social rights were published in popular guides to behaviour

  • history is full of recorded instances where wives and daughters rebelled against the roles of obedient householder and childcare giver

  • Goneril and Regan are remarkable in their ability to change from obedience to absolute denial of Lear’s authority; and even Cordelia defies Lear’s initial order to speak her love for him

  • Shakespeare sets up the extreme situations of this play by giving some of the major betrayals to female family members

What makes King Lear so great?

  • Shakespeare also wrote Lear near the end of his career, when he was finding his stride and writing his best works

  • Lear is considered by many to be his greatest work.

Introduction to Shakespeare

  • Very little is actually known about Shakespeare. A lot of the records have been destroyed or lost in the last 400 years. What we do know is based on official documents including baptismal, marriage, and stories passed on.

  • Shakespeare was thought to be born on April 23, 1564. He was baptized on April 26th

  • His family was considered well off

  • His education: King’s New School in Stratford grammar school until 14

  • Married Anne Hathaway, 26, at the age of 18, who was already pregnant

  • They had 3 children: Susanna and his twins Hamnet, and Judith. Hamnet died at 11

  • Little is known about Shakespeare between then and his first poems being published. These are known as the “Lost Years”

  • Shakespeare arrived in London of 1588 and began to establish himself as a playwright and actor

  • A great actor and writer by 1592—Was a member of an acting group called the Chamberlain’s Men (King’s Men)

    • This group was popular with the theater going public and being supported by royalty

    • Most successful company in London

  • The first official mention of his writing was in April of 1593 when his poem Venus and Adonis was registered

  • In 1599, his fame and success was at its peak. His plays were such a success that the Globe Theatre was built in London for his performances

  • Many of his plays were also published

  • He wrote at least 38 and 154 sonnets

  • Scholars think he died on April 23, 1616 (52nd birthday) and was buried on Thursday, April 25, 1616

Shakespeare’s Works

  • First performed - Name - first printed

  • 1594-95 — Romeo and Juliet — 1597

  • 1595-96 — A Midsummer Night’s Dream — 1600

  • 1596-97 — The Merchant of Venice — 1600

  • 1598-99 — Much Ado About Nothing — 1600

  • 1599-1600 — Twelfth Night — 1623

  • 1600-01 — Hamlet — 1603

  • 1604-05 — Othello — 1622

  • 1605-06 — King Lear — 1608

  • 1605-06 — Macbeth — 1623

Bard’s Bites (Tidbits)

  • The historical time of King Lear is roughly 800 BC, making it the second-earliest setting of any of Shakespeare’s plays (the first being Troilus and Cressida)

The Historical Settings of Shakespeare’s Plays by Date

  • King Lear — 800 BC

  • Hamlet — roughly 9th century (800 AD)

  • Macbeth — AD 1039-1057

  • Romeo and Juliet — AD 1303 (lasting a few days)

The Globe Theatre

  • Built 1599

  • Destroyed by a fire in June of 1613

  • A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642

  • A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe”, opened in 1997

  • Could hold up to 300 spectators

  • Burned down during a production of Henry VIII in 1613

Sources of the Play

  • King Lear was written in England in 1605-1606

  • In 1603, an old gentleman, Brian Annesley, was declared unfit to manage his own affairs. His two elder daughters tried to have him certified as insane to get control of his estate — but his youngest (whose name was Cordell) protected her father and cared for him until he died

The Story of Lear was familiar to English playgoers

  • Shakespeare wrote King Lear between 1604 to 1605

  • The story of Lear also appears in Holinshed’s Chronicles first printed in 1577, though the story differs substantially from Shakespeare’s Lear

  • In 1605 a play by an unknown author was published and its title was The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his Three Daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella

    • Certain parallels between this play and Shakespeare’s play indicate that Shakespeare was aware of it though the plots are very different

  • Lear’s madness was also not a part of the chronicle story, nor was the tragic subplot of Gloucester and his sons, a story Shakespeare adapted from Philip Sidney’s “The Tale of the Blind King of Paphlagonia”

  • In Signey’s Arcadia, Shakespeare found the fictional history of two sons and their behaviour towards their father, which became the secondary plot concerning Gloucester and his sons.

    • It is more of a sub-plot, being very closely intertwined with the play’s main action, which it imitates (in the rejection of the loving child) and resolves

  • One of the most poetic and profound books of the Old Testament is the Book of Job. Its theme is close to that of King Lear, and there are verbal parallels between the book and the play

Setting of the Play

  • The world of King Lear, as Shakespeare wrote it, is set in 800 BC England

  • Shakespeare is not much concerned with historical accuracy, so the play contains dukes and earls and all the trapping of medieval chivalry

  • The play seems to be pre-Christian, pre-historic, and outside any construction of laws

  • King Lear ultimately takes place in a fantasy world and it is important to suspend reality and just accept the events of the play as they occur

What is a Tragedy?

  • A tragedy refers to a particular kind of play where it recounts the fall of persons of high degree

  • concerns the effort to exemplify the sense that human beings are inevitably doomed, through their own failures or through the nature of fate

  • The measure of a person’s life is in how they face that inevitable failure

  • To qualify as a tragic hero, they must be a person of high character and must face their destiny with courage and nobility of spirit

Elements of a Shakespearean Tragedy

  • The fall of a man with a high station or class. Usually noble, and even when evil has compassionate traits

  • Almost always dies at the end

  • Their decline arises from circumstances of their own creation, stemming from a tragic flaw (hamartia) and fate

  • Good always triumphs in the end

  • The use of the supernatural, abnormal psychological states, coincidence and luck

  • The tragic hero must face their destiny with courage

Structure of the Tragic Play

  • Every Shakespearean tragedy is divided into 5 acts

  • Each act is divided into scenes

  • There is usually a main plot and a sub-plot

The Elements of Tragedy combined with the Five Acts

  • Act I: Exposition — Introduction of Characters and Setting

    • The first act introduces the characters in a state of happiness, or at the height of their power, influence, or fame

    • Exposition: establishes setting, characters, conflict, and background

    • The nobility of the tragic hero is established, usually through indirect characterization

  • Act II: Rising Action

    • Typically introduces a problem or dilemma

    • Inciting incident: An incident that introduces the conflict and sets in motion the rising action of the play

    • Rising Action: a series of complications after the inciting incident

    • Hamartia — the tragic hero suffers from hamartia and as a result makes errors of judgement that are later directly responsible for their downfall. At this point, the hero still seems in control of their fate

  • Act III: Climax (Turning Point)

    • The turning point in the tragic hero’s fortunes

    • The tragic figure seems more controlled by events than in control of them

    • It can still be successfully averted

  • Act IV: Falling Action

    • The tragic hero fails to avoid the impending catastrophe, and disaster occurs

    • Peripeteia: the reversal of fortune

    • In Shakespearean tragedy, the audience usually starts off by connecting with the tragic hero, and then slowly starts to disconnect as they see their inevitable doom. Here is where the audience starts to disconnect

  • Act V: Resolution or Denouement

    • Anagnorisis: Following the reversal of fortune, the tragic hero will undergo anagnorisis, or recognition, about human fates and destinies. Anagnorisis + hamartia = pathos

    • The hero recognizes their or some other character’s true identity and discovers the true nature of their own situation

    • A tragic hero is defined by how they face their failure

    • Resolution/Denouement: the final resolution, which unravels the intrigue and brings the piece to a close. May be the death of one or main characters

    • The introduction of a new social order — good triumphs evil

Characters

  • King Lear — King of Britain

  • Goneril — eldest daughter

  • Duke of Albany — Goneril’s husband

  • Regan — middle daughter

  • Duke of Cornwall — Regan’s husband

  • Cordelia — youngest

  • Earl of Gloucester — nobleman in Lear’s court

  • Earl of Kent/Caius — nobleman in Lear’s court

  • Edgar — son of Gloucester

  • Edmund — illegitimate son of Gloucester

  • Fool — Lear’s jester

  • Oswald — Goneril’s steward

The Tragedy of King Lear

  • Several plotlines

  • Lear vs Cordelia

  • Lear vs Goneril & Regan

  • Lear vs Kent

  • Edmund vs Edgar & Gloucester

  • Edmund & Goneril vs Edmund & Regan

Four Central Themes

  • These topics can be developed into themes

  • Look for these topics as you read — they will be important for quizzes and tests

    • Desire for Power

    • Corruption of Authority

    • Justice

    • Aging/Legacy/Mortality

Desire for Power

  • Shakespeare would have witnessed a disturbing lust for power shortly before this play was composed, especially in the months leading up to Queen Elizabeth’s death

  • While some acted in the best interest of England, many of her advisors suggested their own candidates who would provide them safety, money, etc.

  • Even James I demonstrated a desire for power, although not until after Lear’s composition

  • Lear shows several plotlines surrounding a corrupt or distorted desire for power

    • King Lear desires to keep his power, but gives away his responsibility

    • Lear’s daughters, Goneril and Regan, plot to reduce Lear’s power and steal it for themselves

    • Edmund plots against his father and steals his brother’s birthright

Corruption of Authority

  • King Lear’s main plot line concerns the extent of the authority of a king

    • King James I believed that a king had divine right

    • While he was controlled by a system of checks and balances, his son and successor was not, leading to the English Civil War

  • Lear rules Britain with a belief that he should get his way because of his kingship, but does little to govern the state of his own, let alone the kingdom

  • His daughters corrupt his authority, leading to Lear’s self-reflection on his own legacy

Justice

  • King Lear depicts a classic power struggle between the forces of good against the forces of evil

  • Justice as a theme will be prominent especially in the final scene of the play

Aging/Legacy/Mortality

  • The premise of King Lear is that Lear is growing old and wishes to name his heirs and divide his kingdom

  • However, the English audience would have recognized that his old age is affecting his judgement

    • A king in sound mind would never divide his power amongst multiple people

  • Lear seems aware of his own mortality and is acting in order to secure his legacy, but his irrational actions in Act I should make reader’s criticize Lear’s judgement from the start

Other Topics that can be Developed into Themes in King Lear

  • Ingratitude

  • Blindness and Sight

  • The nature of kingship

  • Sibling rivalry

  • Insanity

  • The duty of daughters

  • Deception (things are not as they appear)

Timeline

  • 1564 — April 23; Shakespeare is born. 3 days later, he is baptized

  • 1577 — Holinshed’s Chronicles are created

  • 1588 — Shakespeare arrives in London and begins to establish himself as a playwright and actor

  • 1592 — Shakespeare, by now, is a member of the acting group Chamberlain’s Men

  • 1593 — April; First official mention of his writing when Venus and Adonis was registered

  • 1599 — Shakespeare’s fame and success are at its peak; the Globe Theatre is built

  • 1603 — Queen Elizabeth dies; Annesley’s story is published

  • 1605 — King Lear is written

    • King James had come from Scotland to succeed Elizabeth

  • 1613 — The Globe Theatre burns down

  • 1614 — The second Globe Theatre is built

  • 1616 — 52nd birthday; he died. Buried two days later.

  • 1642 — The Globe Theatre closes

  • 1997 — A modern reconstruction of The Globe Theatre is made