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KL Alternative interpretations (Effect on the audience (undermining the…
KL Alternative interpretations
Effect on the audience
entertain the populace ("Groundlings") with comedy
lewd jokes
Edmund's asides and wit which could be interpreted as having a overly theatrical quality (pantomine to a modern audience)
terror
insight into the human condition
optimism -- there is still love
nihilism (Theatre of the Absurd) -- mod interp
message to James I
look after the "poor naked wretches"
premiered on 26th Dec 1606 -- St. Stephen's Feast (day of generosity to the poor)
keep the kingdom united and don't divide it.
don't be swayed by lip-service from the likes of Goneril and Regan
undermining the status of the King
unfit to rule
goes mad
realizes that power is meaningless
Lear
sympathy?
insanity
signs of mental breakdown in 1.1
fear, trying to divde the kingdom as cannot rule
wrathful outbursts
wrathful outbursts 1.4: for a mod aud, signs of dementia? (Cedric Watts)
the storm -- inner turmoil
3.4: appearance of ostensibly mad "Poor Tom"; idee fixe, stripping
Lear's past: "good king" or "unconstant starts"?
loyalty of Kent, Gloucester, Cordelia
Goneril and Regan's grudge, Lear's verbal violence to them
Lear's threats of violence (drawing sword 1.1; threatening to whip Fool 1.4)
strikes Oswald 1.4
relationship with the Fool
division of the kingdom
"Thou dost
evil
" (Kent
"it's absolutely criminal" (Simon Russell Beale)
Goneril and Regan
Victims?
of Lear's favour of Cordelia
of Lear's misogynistic diatribes
G: of an unhappy marriage to Albany
of Lear's rowdy knights, whom they have to accomodate with little notice
R: of the death of her husband
Villains
dislike of Cordelia
ruthless Dutch-auctioning of knights
lock Lear out in the storm -- no empathy
persecution of Gloucester for aiding Lear
violence of 3.7 -- particularly R
sexuality: yielding to base instinct (Jac aud)
Gloucester
sympathetic because of his care for Lear
degrading treatment of Edmund
"there was good sport at his making"
Alternative readings of KL
Christian reading
sin, suffering, redemption. (GI Duthie)
Death of Cordelia: Gods "methods are inscrutable"
God redeems Lear and Gl who err
Christian imagery
Cordelia as Christ-like
crown of weeds (~thorns)
feminist reading
women polarized
subservient and angelic
villanous, sexually active
could read Go and R as victims of Lear's wrath and misogynistic diatribes
could read as women rejecting male authority & assuming power as dangerous
Marxist reading
injustices of power
L and Edgar lose all social status and rediscover their connection w/proletariat
Humanist readings
Absurdist
"the wicked prosper and the virtuous miscarry .. . no moral purpose" (Johnson, C18th)
Optimist
Kent, Edgar and Cordelia show capability and power of love (Ryan intro)
Fool "trickle of sanity" -- marker of normality (Orwell LTF)
Moral message
Orwell: Lear tries to make
himself
happy by pretending to be generous -- that only leads to suffering. See
Orwell LTF
KL as a play of "jarring discords" --raw suffering rather than bringing to order (Cedric Watts intro to our books)
i think this is the most realistic -- it encompasses all the other within itself