Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The King key quotes KING LEAR 6…
The King key quotes
Madness
Sight/Eyes
"Does Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes?"- Lear cannot believe what he is seeing, foreshadowing blindness/exposing his metaphorical blindness as he realises he was blind to Goneril's true colours, asking how did I believe this?
"O Lear, Lear, Lear!"- third person and repetition, exclamatory too
"I'll resume the shape which thou dost think I have cast off forever"- Lear is delusional and thinks he will be king again
"O how this mother swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio!"- an affliction of choking/suffocation rising to the throat, thought to begin in the womb
"hysteria" originates from the Greek word for uterus, hystera
a symbol of the systematic oppression of women- a feminist theory is that this was a kind of pre-feminist rebellion against the oppressive defined social roles placed upon women
Beliefs
Gods
"Away! By Jupiter"- Aka Zeus, king of gods who did so by taking over his father who tried to eat him. He then made him throw up all his siblings and they joined together to overthrow his rule- much like Edmund/Goneril and Reagen
"Now, by Apollo" "Thou swear'st thy gods in vain"- son of jupiter, god of justice and healing (in vain as Lear swears by a God of justice- ironic!)
Kent - "By Juno, I swear ay"- the queen of gods and protectress, shown in armour. Represents youthful energy- especially true as used in response of Kent to Lear
"Where's my knave? my fool?"- describes these people as posessions much like his daughters, yet nobody posesses him
CA- "under his clothes, the king is equal to the beggar"- Sun
Lear verbally abuses his servants/men, and then is surprised when he is not respected.
"Call the clotpoll back"- means stupid fellow, removal of identity
-
-
"Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? (Striking him)"- Lear even physically abuses servants
Nature
"Hear, Nature, hear! dear goddess, hear!"
Age
"while we unburthen'd crawl toward death"- Lear accepts his retirement and age, wanting to have limited worries/struggles in his last few years. This may possibly be as he does not want to aggravate "imperfections of long-engraffed condition"
Lear asks Kent immediately (when disguised) "How old art thou?", so he can assess the level of respect and social standing he has
-
Nothing
"Nothing will come of nothing: speak again"- possibly reflects a view of meritocracy, however King Lear is more elitist nepotism. Also means you'll get nothing from me if you give me nothing in terms of love, however she does- just not in this false test
"now thou art an O / without a figure. I am better than thou art now. I / am a Fool, thou art nothing"- Fool tells Lear he is nothing without his crown, displaying a possibly marxist criticism
The Fool also calls the retired king "Lear's shadow," which suggests that Lear, without his crown, is merely a shadow of his former self. The idea is that Lear, (whose status has changed since retirement) is nothing without his former power and title.
Animals
"Come not between the dragon and his wrath"- at first Lear describes himself as mighty and powerful (even unstoppable- which he is due to the role of the King in society) animals as he has his power