| Who are King Lear’s daughters? | 1. Goneril (Machiavellian)2. Regan (Machiavellian)3. Cordelia (Virgilian) |
| Who are the Duke of GLoucester’s sons? | 1. Edgar (Virgilian)2. Edmund (Machiavellian) |
| What is the purpose of this play? | 1. To examine if virgilian piety is real; to examine what values count2. These are examined through themes of sight v. blindness and what is natural v. what is unnatural |
| Who are the Machiavellian characters and who are the Viriglian characters? | M – Goneril, Edmund, Regan, Oswald, Duke of CornwallV – Cordelia, Kent, Fool, Edgar, and Duke of Albany |
| Late Middle Ages | 1. 14th Century – very bad time in history2. plagues (ex: Bubonic Plague), famines, 100 years war –> 1/2 to 2/3 of the population of the world died during these centuries |
| Great Schism | 1. 1378 – 14172. 2 men claim to be the pope based on divine right –> basically split the church3. People are very fearful of their fate because if they pick the wrong pope they will go to hell; therefore, many people take pilgrimages and turn to self-flagellation to appease God |
| Renaissance | 1. “Rebirth” – starts in Italy because the city life setting allows them to bounce back quickly2. There is a shift to the glorification of nature; people work on practicing all of their skills3. There is an emphasis on ethics (ex: Machiavelli) –> Lear shows a conflict between old and new ideas on ethics. |
Background Information on King Lear
July 13, 2019