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King Lear: Folly and Madness - Coggle Diagram
King Lear: Folly and Madness
Quotes
'Tis the times plague when madmen lead the blind'
Act 4 Scene 1 Gloucester
Pestilential imagery
Jacobean zeitgiest
Social critiique of 17th century?
'This moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter this shall not be revoked'
Act 1 Scene 1 Lear
Pagan imagery
Exclamatory
'Old fools are babes again.'
Act 1 Scene 3 Goneril
Reversing of the natural order
'
This country gives me proof and precedent of Bedlam Beggars'
Act 2 Scene 2 Edgar
Plosives
' I abjure all roofs ... and to be comrade with the wolf and owl'
Act 2 Scene 2 Lear
Marxist critics
Context
Shakespeare himself turned 42 in 1606 in a time where the life expectancy for a man was his mid-40's
Bedlam treated the mentally ill. When a person was released, they were allowed to beg.
Harsnett 'A Declaration' 1606 -> 'The physically or psychologically ill are abused.'
Critics
Rebecca Warren
'Lear is lost in a mad world of his own.'
Foakes
'An old pensioner with nothing royal about him, white haired, rather senile.'
'Lear's gross misogyny [is down to] his mad condition.'
Theatricality
Use of contuming Gregory Doran: 'Enter LEAR mad [crowned with wild flowers]' demonstrates his loss of status
Use of Haptics Gregory Doran: Cordelia gives Lear a kiss on the cheek after 'Foolish, fond old man'