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A3 Scene 1 - Coggle Diagram
A3 Scene 1
key quotes
Contending with the fretful elements: Bids the winds blow the earth into the sea, or swell the curled water 'bove the main, that things might change or cease.
'twixt Albany and Cornwall, Who have - as who have not, that their great stars throned and set high?
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A01
Kent is wise to the division and disorder already mounting among the British. He hopes that the invading French force can take advantage of this division in order to restore a more legitimate authority in the British kingdom. He also alludes to the superior insight and recognition that exists between Cordelia and himself with the ring in his purse.
The Gentleman's language reminds us that the mad Lear's daughters have driven him to the animal state of being subject to nature's forces.
In the Fool's earlier appearances, he functioned much as a Greek Chorus would, commenting upon the action and pointing out to Lear when he has erred. But in this scene, there is a new reason for the Fool's existence. As he attempts to ease his king's plight, it becomes clear that the Fool's new purpose is to protect Lear until Cordelia can arrive to help her father.
Kent mentions a potential alliance crack between Albany and Cornwall, despite keeping it private. While Albany might not be as ruthless as Cornwall, it's unlikely they would spare Lear. If they're working together, it could make Albany untrustworthy. POTENTIAL FORESHADOWING
To what extent is Lear's madness a punishment? He has been given the responsibility of the crown by God and then gives it away, but was it his to give away? Lear goes against the great chain of being and abdicates the throne, perhaps, insulting Zeus/God. The setting of act 3 being a storm uses Pathetic fallacy to reflect this notion. The lightning storm (Zeus/Poseidon) and their divine power and insistence on punishment. Additionally, because Lear abdicates the throne with the intension of mocking the position and the royal court - a position that was bestowed upon him by god - the punishment might be justified.
A02
The scene explores Cordelia's quick learning of her father's tragedy, involving Kent's story of spies from France observing the king's treatment. The improbable timeframe suggests a manipulation of time in Shakespeare's tragedies, with the anticipation of an invasion and Cordelia's arrival providing hope for Lear's situation to improve.
Act III occurs in short scenes to allow us to see Lear’s swift
and dramatic descent from rationality. We also learn what
happens to Lear’s mirror image, Gloucester. There is a
spiralling downwards for both characters, culminating in a
scene of appalling violence against Gloucester. Lear and
Gloucester become heroic, tragic figures in Act III, their two
stories developing side by side to reinforce our sense of a
world torn apart by suffering.
The Gentleman’s descriptions of Lear on the heath prepare us for the sight of the king in the next scene. He is hatless (‘unbonneted’), showing a loss of royal dignity, and is behaving irrationally, shouting at the storm and tearing his hair. The description also establishes theviolence of the storm, which symbolises the destructive power Lear has unleashed across his family and nation, as well as on himself.
The idea of a correspondence between nature and the heavens is used in Macbeth and Shakespeare's plays, where events in the microcosm are mirrored in the macrocosm. Shakespeare draws upon this idea when Lear’s division of his kingdom is mirrored in an immense breakdown of the weather. We see it also in the simultaneous breakdown of his family, Gloucester’s family and his own mind.
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summary
Kent, searching for Lear, meets a Gentleman and learns that Lear and the Fool are alone in the storm. Kent tells the Gentleman that French forces are on their way to England.
In a raging storm, Kent learns that Lear and his Fool are out in the storm, and Albany and Cornwall are pretending amicability. The king of France is moving with an invasion force to offer assistance. Kent instructs the gentleman to go to Dover and inform Cordelia about Lear's treatment. Kent gives the messenger a signet jewelry to reveal his identity. Kent leaves to search for Lear.
symbols
storms
The king's appearance, reflecting the turmoil of a familial tragedy, is as ravaged as the natural landscape under the assault of the storm. It is clear from the description that the storm is fierce, but so too is Lear's grief.
relevant context
With the available stage facilities, Shakespeare could not show his audience a raging storm, any more than he could
show them fortified castles or clashing armies. Instead
he uses description to create appropriate pictures in their imaginations. Here, the Gentleman’s account of Lear in the storm prepares our minds for the events of Act III Scene 2.
A05
For Polish theatre director Jan Kott, King Lear represented a bleakness that foreshadows the modern theatre of the absurd: ‘of the twelve major characters one half are just and good, the other – unjust and bad. It is a division just as consistent and abstract as in a morality play. But this is a morality play in which everyone will be destroyed: noble characters along with base ones, the persecutors with the persecuted, the torturers with the tortured. Vivisection will go on until the stage is empty.’ (Shakespeare our Contemporary, 1967)
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